Loire Valley

Dear friends
The beautiful thing about Europe is that there is always somewhere new to explore. After my dad left, my weekend get-away’s exploring new corners of the world became a weekly thing. First on the list was the Loire Valley with David, then Noyers with Michel and Michele, next Juan les Pins—near Nice—with a dear friend Ailys and her family.

First up: Loire Valley. After a night out with some friends, David and I left Paris for Tours. There we caught a bus tour and hit les chateaux.
Here we are looking mighty cool in the club
Mix which is at the base of the Tour de Montparnasse

We and eight other fellow explorers, if you will, visited the beautiful castle of Amboise. We were very lucky to have perfect weather… not too cold, lots of sun, and a bit of breeze. Marvelous. We hiked up the stairs to a grand castle complete with flags and breathtaking view of the city.

This castle, as grand as it appeared to little ol’ me, was just a skeleton of the original size and grandeur… during one of the many territory wars back in the day, the king who lived there decided to use his castle as material: steel and stone became armory and the what we see now is a fourth of the size of it’s original size. Nevertheless, it was still incredible: full of history and artifacts, stories and art. The best part about the Amboise castle is that it has its very own chapel, not so uncommon, but what makes this simple chapel so special is that inside is the tomb of Da Vinci! I know I have seen a lot of great dead guys after spending a year in Europe—Sartre, De Beauvoir, Madame Currie, Napoleon… well you get the idea—but for some reason this simple homage was the most inspiring, the most real. The chapel was not ornate: no jewels, no gold, not big, nor particularly beautiful. However, it was far more incredible that the tomb of Napoleon which is larger than life in so many ways. It felt so peaceful to be up on a hill and unknowingly run into Davinci’s grave. What fate…

More views of the castle....

From there, we visited Chateau Cheanonceau. I saw a picture of this castle a year ago with Melissa: we were sitting in a friend’s cluttered house and she had a giant book of European castles and this one was on the cover and the centerfold, castle porn, if you will. Melissa and I both drooled over it as it is very special. This photo I borrowed does it better justice than my photos because one, there were doing construction (story of my life), and two, I was not in a helicopter.

Photo from: http://www.tourismevert-amboise.com/mediac/400_0/media/Chenonceau.jpg

It is fanfreakinfabulamatastic—a word I invented with Melissa and David last year sometime. It suits the amazingness of this humble abode, I feel. The interior was very well arranged and every room had the most, and I am not exaggerating here, incredible floral arrangements I have ever seen. Here is one of my favorites:

So David and I walked around, wearing our respective imaginary crowns, and took it all in. Then we walked around the gardens, like any king and queen would, weaving in and out of the labyrinth hedges and taking the time to smell the roses…
Here is the kitchen:

And a nice view of the river.

Here is the long party room that goes over the river:

Now, I love Versailles. I think it is incredible and beautiful, however, the two castles we saw totally kicked Versailles ass. They were much more real—they had real fires in the fireplaces—we could see the kitchen full of its butchering equipment and pots and pans. SO this is me highly recommending that you visit them if you haven’t already. Very much worth the trip around the world… not to mention the Loire is right smack in the middle of wine country: David and I completed our castle tour with a stop at a local winery and tasted great wine in the mold covered cave. (A quick side note here: I think it is hilarious that anywhere in the world, mold is seen as gross and unsightly, however, put it next to wine and especially cheese and all of a sudden it is a great thing that enriches your experience and the taste.)

Here is a photo of the winery in the hillside taken hastily as we drove away:

The following day we took a quick train trip to Blois, a very nice city. We wandered around found a market and started buying. Bread, wine, ham, strawberries, and of course, moldy chevre to top it off; we took our little picnic next to the river and enjoyed our delicious and fresh lunch. The picnic culture is something I will dearly miss…

David and I found we had a few hours to kill before our train left for Paris, so being well fed, sufficiently hydrated and sight-seeing-ed out, we decided to see Angles and Demons… in French! My French is good enough to get most of what goes on in a film, so that was a relief…sarcasm and humor are another story, but I am proud to report that I got one joke. Hooray!

And that concludes the first of my many weekend adventures.