Castles in the Sky

Sorry it took so long to get another post loaded folks. Lots of things going on in this city! Lets see, sooo much to talk about, and it's been such a long time since the last post I can't remember everything I did each day. I think I'm going to start from the most recent and work my way back.

Noah and the Whale

On friday, I met up with a stranger and we went to a concert. Story: So I was informed by a good friend back in the states that her friend, Maddie was coming to Paris to clear up some visa issues and she had been a little home sick and wanted to hang out with an American. I had no problem with this because I had planned on going to a concert friday night, but no one in my program had heard of the band I was going to see, so I was just going to go alone. Turned out Maddie had heard of the band and (I think it's safe to say liked them) so we ended up going. Fun story: We had planned to meet before the show infront of the building where they sell the tickets. So I get there, don't see anyone on one side of the entrace, go to the other side and see a couple people and a girl leaning against the wall, face buried in a book, hair covering the face, listening to an ipod. (Keep in mind I had never met Maddie and was just going off her facebook picture) I didn't think much of it, until it was about 10 past the time we had planned to meet. I check again, and she is still there so with some distance between us, I belt out and audible MADDIE and sure enough she looks up. I'm a pretty big fan of Noah and the Whale's music so I thought the show was grand. The concert cost 16 euro, which is on the high end of what I would pay in the U.S., but this has been one of the cheaper concerts prices I've seen for over here. A lot of them range from 20-30 euros even for some low key bands. I've got my eyes open for other concerts though!

Les Chateaux

Saturday morning (19th) I left with my program to the Loire Valley to see five castles, but I almost didn't make it!!! Story: I wake up plenty early, a little before 7:30, train leaves at 8:40. Do my morning hygiene routine and get downstairs a little after 8. My host mom is like when does your train leave, and I tell her, and she said you have to leave right now. I guess I under estimated how many stops I had to go on the metro, which was 16 (and that is a lot) and it didn't help the first train had a 7 minute wait. About half way there I was like I am not going to make this. And then I got all sad because I thought I would be the only person missing the train, because our director said 'you have to be on time, the train won't wait for us'. So, by the time I get to this massive station, it's one of the biggest ones in Paris, it was around 8:45. I'm running through the station to the meeting spot, got there, look, they are still there! OFTA. I guess quite a few people didn't show up on time so they were kind of forced to miss the first train, but got on another one that left before 10, so it wasn't too bad, but I still felt terrible. We took the TGV, which is the fastest train in Europe I believe. It can reach speeds up to 200 mph. It was quite the ride. Saturday and Sunday were packed with events. I took tons of pictures but will only add the one's that best describe each place.

First, Le Chateau de Villandry. Wasn't a super amazing castle and we didn't even go inside. It's more known for the gardens that surround the castle, so we spent and hour roaming the gardens. There were about 8 different massive squares that made up the garden. This is the main garden and you can see the castle in the background. There was of course bajillions of all color flowers, hedges turning this way and that way as you can see in the picture, and they even had some fruit growing such as grapes, that I think were wine grapes and pears If I remember correctly.

Second, Le Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau. We are moving on up to what a castle should look like. Surrounded by a moat and much bigger. The inside wasn't anything too majestic but I liked that there was a dragon over the fire place, as you can see in the second picture. The castle didn't have the gardens like the first one, but there was plenty of nature.

The third and final castle for Saturday was Le Chateau de la Roche. Um, I don't think I'm going to post a picture of the "castle" because it pretty much looks like a house. You can look it up if you'd like. So why did we go here? It's more known for the wine this place makes. There are fields upon fields of grapes. So we got a lecture on how wine is made by the man in the picture. He had a strong strong french accent, it was funny. I took a nice close-up of the grapes so you could see how magical they look. We went down into one of the wine cellars which had walls covered in moss and cobwebs all over the place...but we got to test some scrumshish wine. The man gave us a lesson on how to properly test wine, which consists of analyzing the color, then holding it up to light to see how clear it is, then smelling the wine but with one nostril at a time, and then eventually stick the whole nose in and take a nice full whiff, now the taste, take a little sip, don't swallow yet, but swish it around to get the taste throughout the mouth, then down the hatch. VOILA!

Sunday, the fourth castle, setting the bar once again. BIGGEST YET, MOAT, GARDENS, DRAGONS OVER FIREPLACE...no wine though = Le Chateau de Chenonceau. I guess I dont have much to say about this castle. It was the biggest yet, but the rooms inside were quite average. Nothing mesmerizing. And I mean how can I talk about this castle when all I can think about is the last one...

The final, the king, the castle that makes all others (that I have listed...not in the world) look like garages. Le Chateau de Chambord. It was massive. I could've just stared at this thing all day. We had about an hr and a half and I barely made a scratch on the inside, there was soo much to see. Unfortunately, on this castle and likewise on the previous they had scaffolding set up. It really takes away the beauty of the structure. And I think thus, ends my adventures with castles.

I'm blogged out. I've been working on this thing for 4 hours now. I will leave you all with some pictures of my house.