Les Chateaux de Loire

Sunday was the day of castles. First we visited Clos Luce, a small castle most known for being the home of Leonardo Da Vinci during his last 3 years. Althought we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, we got to see his bedroom, study, and various models and prints of his inventions. The Da Vinci Gardens were really something though. The winding paths lead from a rose garden, to a small pond, to stables, and included some life size replicas of his inventions, including a water pump, and the 2 strange looking things pictured. 

Next we went to Chenonceau, a castle built over a river. While the castle is on the "smaller side", the grounds are the amazing part. The road up to the castle is surrounded by woods and paths, leading to different farms, caves, mazes, alcoves, etc. And let's not forget the gardens. The castle is flanked on either side by the most amazing and well kept gardens I've ever seen. The castle itself is really only held in the front part, and the part that stretches across the river, which was built years after the original part, is just a long corridor. I'm not really sure what its purpose is, but it looked cool!

We keep seeing these beds everywhere and I am officially obsessed and want one of my own. Unfortunately it looks like you have to be very rich and royalty to own one, so it looks like I'm out of luck. :/

The corridor across the river. Like I said, really cool, but not very useful.

And last but certainly not least is Chambord. What a monster this was!! The day we were there, there was a fair in progress on the grounds. We got to see a dog show, horse jumping, and eat lots of yummy food. And all before we went inside the castle! You can tell from the picture just how huge it is. It has 3 normal stories and then lots of little towers and roof spaces. Each of the 3 main floors has 4 apartments, one in each corner, except one which is the chapel. All of this is centered around the grand staircase in the middle. The staircase is especially unique in that it is a double helix. This means that there are actually 2 staircases wound around one another. You can see each other the whole way up, but if you start from different places at the bottom, your paths won't cross until you reach the top. The roof itself is really neat too. I think every inch of this place is covered in ornate carvings and little details. 

View from the front of the castle.

The roof

Challain la Potherie

Thursday we visited Le Chateau de Challain la Potherie.  While the story of the castle itself isn't all that interesting, the story of the family who now lives there is: 7 years ago a family from New Jersey was visiting the town and castle, and 2 days later had bought the place. Over the past seven years the family has transformed the castle from a shabby and decrepit empty castle, to a bed and breakfast fit for royalty. We were lucky enough to meet the parents, and I think they were just as excited to speak to someone american as we were. They took us on a personal tour of the house, allowed us to eat our picnics in the basement kitchen, and served us coffee and cheese. And the castle was magnificent. Every room is decorated exquisitely, each one complete with intricate cloth wallpaper, 4-post beds, lavish showers and bathrooms, and mostly original tubs. Suffice to say I was in heaven and didn't want to leave. And best of all they had a dog! Yes, Zeus the german shepard and I became good buddies that day, and I got my dog fix :). 

After the castle we attempted to make our way to Domaine Bellerive, a vineyard in Rochefort dur Loire. However about an hour into the drive, the chartered bus was lost and in an attempt to turn around, the driver managed to wedge the back of the bus over a ditch so that the rear tires were hanging in the air. 1 hour, alot of loud french talking, hammers, planks, lots of pushing and talk of a tractor later, we were on the road, and only 2 hours behind schedule! We made in to the vineyard with just enough time to see the fields, fermentation tanks, barrells of wine, and more importantly, to do some tasting. We sampled 3 white wines, one a bit sour, and the other 2 very sweet. The third one, which was so delectable I had to buy a bottle to bring home and share, was deemed "M.O. "(multi-orgasmic) by John, our witty and awkward tour leader. So after sampling and buying, we said "au revoir" to Domaine Bellrive and made it safely back to Angers in time for dinner. 

Mont St. Michel

Lastly on monday we started off the day at Mont-Saint-Michel, an old church/city which is an "island" and surrounded by quick sand (everyone kept saying "don't walk on the sand, which of course only made me want to walk on the sand even more... however I managed to obey and stayed off the sand). How do I explain Mont St. Michel? Basically take any idea you have about a small circular city built on a hill and you're most likely right. The streets are tiny and cobbled. Walking to the top was quite the workout-no there aren't any elevators. The crepes are tres bonnes. And the church is HUGE. What you see from the picture is only about 3/4 of the church. The rest of the rooms lie underground, containing massive pillars that support the upper floors (we're talking 10 ft in diameter!). We didn't get to go to the steeple, but we did go onto a terrace that you can see just to the left of the steeple in the picture below, and from there you can see forever. (Of course at that time the tide was out so all we could really see was misty horizons and a lot of muck!). Overall though it was a neat experience and I would highly recommend coming, if nothing more than to sample the crepes and caramel!

Pieta

After Mont St. Michel we went to St. Malo, a delightful little castle city that has a history of pirating and being a popular trade port. Our tour guide was a born and raised Malouin, and almost right away it was obvious how proud she is of her city. We learned all about St. Malo and it's history of standing up to the King of England when it came to paying taxes on their various booty and trading and fishing profits. It seems that St. Malo has become a French Hamptons. Property values and taxes have shot up recently and as a result the charm of the city coupled with the adorable homes has attracted various rich French folk (mainly Parisiens) to buy their summer homes in St. Malo. And with all of the adorable sidewalk restaurants, chiq clothing stores, and yummy ice cream, I don't blame them! 

And so after a long weekend of beaches, memorials, museums, churches and castles, we finally returned home to Angers. We were met at the bus stop by our respective host families- all mothers except for Romu who came to get me! It's hard to believe I've barely been here a week and I've already been so many places and seen so many things! Even better though is the fact that after being away for the three days I was really looking forward to coming "home" to my "family". Even after 8 days it already feels so comfortable and welcoming, and I feel very lucky to have such great host parents. 

This week starts the splitting into 2 groups, one agbusiness and the other (mine) viticulture and horticulture. We'll be visiting a vineyard, a castle and a bakery! It can't get much better than this!

Avec amour,

Sarah

Normandie

Sunday began with a visit to the American War Cemetery in Normandy. This place was eerily quiet, especially when the soldiers were raising the flag. The rows of graves seem to go on forever, and with bagpipes playing and soldiers saluting all around me I had the worst bought of goosebumps I've ever gotten. The Cemetery overlooks the ocean and is surrounded by gardens, pools, statues and plaques, all commemorating those who served or died at war. It's a very powerful and emotional place. The memorial museum, which I saw on the way out, is a smaller museum featuring photos of young soldiers and videos telling their story. 

9, 238 American soldiers buried here

Some soldiers raising the flag (this was accompanied by bagpipes)
 

"The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves"

"Here rest in honored glory, a comrade in arms, known but to God"

Next we went to Omaha and Utah beaches, "Les PLages de Debarquement". It's hard to imagine any sort of war on these beaches now, but the pictures we saw showed what seemed like an entirely different place. The beach was covered in soldiers, tanks, canons, equipment and bunkers. Now everything is serene and seemingly untouched, but for the few bunkers that remain intact, a single rock memorial, and the bomb holes that cover the ground. 

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memorial

one of the many bomb indents

german bunker

They were pretty far away from home...

After this we went to see the Bayeux Tapestry. This Tapestry, made as early as 1077, stretches 230 ft long. We had an audio tour of it, which told us the story of the tapestry. I won't bore you with it, but basically it tells of the Norman conquest of England. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it looks something like this:

Caen

This saturday we took a bus to Caen to see the war museum and Pointe du Hoc. The museum was great, on the outside it looks like a big hunk of concrete that says "La douleur m'a brisee, la fraternite m'a relevee, de ma blessure a jailli un fleuve de liberte" (The pain broke me, the fraternity lifted me up, from my injury a river of liberty flows.) Inside it's broken up by war, starting with WWI, then WWII, then a brief September 11th memorial, then Vietnam and the Cold War together. Each section had videos, lots of artifacts and propaganda and plaques explaining everything. I posted a few of the pictures I took, the ones that I thought were the most interesting. 

A Flag from the site of 9/11

A wedding dress from the WWII era made from a parachute

WWII artwork....haunting

After the museum we went to Pointe du Hoc, a beach used for receiving good shipped in from the US or England. You can still see the remains of the man-made harbor that ran in an arc along the coast.