A Cinderella Castle Weekend

On Saturday morning, at 7:05am, I left the train station for my second French weekend adventure. The destination was Tours, a city 2 hours East of Nantes, in the heart of the Loire Valley. This time, I wasn't braving out the French countryside on my own, but managed to recruit Daniel (or rather, he recruited me. Credit should be given where it's due!) and we set out for a castle, wine, and sunshine-filled two days. Before we left, there was some commotion in the train station, as a group of 3 guys got into a bit of a fight with one of the guards and some other dude. We didn't know what the fight was all about, because they were screaming and talking really fast, but they kept saying "c'est fou! c'est fou!", which means "it's crazy, it's crazy!" It sure was! I was a little scared, but things seemed to get under control, and we made it to the platform without having to give any testimony to the police.

The train ride was uneventful, spent with Daniel sleeping (from this point on, you will see that phrase very often. He's a bit of a chronic napper... no offense Dan). At St. Pierre de Corps, we transferred to another train. At first, I thought there was a misprint on the train ticket, because it said the second train ride was 5 minutes long... but no, it was true. We got onto this ghetto-looking train, which I'm sure used to be part of the New York subway fleet, and rode 5 minutes into the Gare de Tours. Since it was too early for our check-in, we thought we would ask the hotel owner to let us put our bags away at the front desk so that we could wonder around the city without carrying our luggage. However, our room was ready when we got there, and we were lucky to be able to put our things in the room.

The hotel was a charming place, an ancient house, re-made into a budget hotel. It had a winding staircase, vintage wall paper, and creaky wooden floors. Our room was at the very top, on the third floor, and so cute. After lounging around for a little while ( we did get up at 5:30am), we went to the Tourism Office to book our afternoon Chateau tour. The one that we had initially scoped out, with 3 castles and a wine tour was booked up, so we had to settle for 2 of the most famous castles, with the possibility of wine tasting at Chambord. After paying for that, we went searching for a place to eat, since we were both ravenous. We found a delicious restaurant that served plentiful portions of Mussels cooked in white wine and herbs. En suite, we paid a visit to the market, which is always a pleasure. We loaded up on snacks for the afternoon, and off we went.

Our guide was a really nice French guy named David. He was supposed to be speaking English because we had a Brazilian couple with us who spoke no French, but because I kept pestering him with questions in French, he spoke to me in French too. The van ride was about an hour, in which we passed a few chateaus from the outside, and I brushed up on my history with the driver's help while Dan slept. I was informed that the Loire Valley is host to a little over THREE THOUSAND CASTLES, about half of them fortresses from the Middle Ages, and the other half from the Renaissance and 19th century. 30% of these chateaux are public, which means they're owned by the French government, and used as historical patrimony sites, as well as a comfy source of income from the thousands of tourists. The other 70% are privately owned, passed down from bloodlines of the past, or owned by extravagant millionaires. Most of these private ones are either homes to the world-famous Loire Valley wineries, or they're hunting chateaus, a very popular past time even in present-day France.

We arrived at Chambord first. This was King Francois' I second abode, when he wasn't gallavanting with his mistress at Chaunecy, another castle nearby. It is the largest and most luxurious chateau of the Loire Valley, and by default, the largest and most luxurious after Versailles in Paris. Francois I was a young king, who died at 25, caught up in a 5-way bloodline feud for the throne of France. True to French king fashion, his ego was barely contained by the humongous castle, and he sought to make the architecture a homage to his greatness. The castle has 365 chimneys, a futile attempt to keep the place warm. When you have a castle that can host a court of 10,000 people, made in limestone and marble, there are no chimneys that will save you from the winter's cold. As a result, no king could ever spend more than 4 months in a row in the castle. Another important landmark of the castle is its double-helix staircase, designed by Leonardo DaVinci himself. The staircase is a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. Dan went up one side, while I went the other, and we never met, unless we got off at the same landing... even so, by the time we circled around to meet the other, we could've easily run away. Rumour has it, the staircase was built so that Francois could bring his mistresses whenever he pleased, and they could never accidentally run into the queen while going up or down.

Chambord is also host to France's largest natural reserve, a huge forest spanning for 2000 acres. It is a hunter's paradise, and the fall is prime hunting season. David told us it used to be an exclusive hunting club, where the likes of Jacques Chirac used to hunt. Now, it's open to anyone with a hunting licence. Dan's of the opinion that to make it a fair game, hunters should only be allowed to use bow and arrows....

After awing in the extravagance of the castle, we purchased some wine ( and tasted some too.. obviously!) and moved on to the next chateau, Chauverny. This one is an example of a private chateau. It hosted many generations of officials who worked for the French royalty, and nowadays, a wing of the castle is closed to the public because the Marquis still lives there with his family. Chauverny is much smaller compared to Chambord, but still exquisite in its decor. The walls were draped in Spanish leather and Italian Silk, and there are portraits from important French painters, as well as from Italian Renaissance master Raphael.

We were tired from a lot of walking, and we BOTH slept on the way back to Tours. Back in the city, we had aperitifs in our room (Loire Valley wine, of course), got snazzed up in our fancy clothes, and went out to have dinner. Dan, in true adventurous fashion, ordered frog legs for his appetizer, and I tried some. They were really really delicious... "the best chicken I've ever had".

Sunday was a more relaxed day, where we explored the city with our cameras, strolling leisurely. The day was gorgeous, and we got all the vitamin D that we needed. Mid-morning, we felt like having a coffee, so we walked into the most peculiar place. We thought it was a regular cafe, but we realized by the dog under the table, and the friendly crowd ( who shook our hands when we walked in) that this was no ordinary coffee house. It was called a "communitary" cafe, which I'm sure is slang for hippy. There were board games though, so we sat down, and Dan took onto the patient task of teaching me to play Chess (anyone who's ever taught me anything knows I ask a lot of questions... and anyone who survives that gets a golden medal for patience!). After a few more handshakes from the people in the cafe, a proposal to help me win by another patron, and an unfinished chess game, we left hippy-land to explore the rest of the city. Lunch was at the Place Plummerau, in the old side of town. The rest of the town was spent snapping pics of the city, and relaxing.

Back in Nantes, after such a fun weekend, it's dawned on me, that I leave for Nice in 4 days. YIKES. I've been so excited thinking about all the perks that I'm going to have, that I've barely had time to reflect on what LIFE is going to be like. I'm sure that after 2 months of taking it easy here in Nantes, and enjoying life, the shock of working 25 hours a week, and going to class will be something to get used to. Also, I've built some good friendships here in this city, and I'm sad to leave them behind. I'll be back to spending time by myself for the first little while. But I think now that I've done it once, I can prepare myself mentally for the change, and be a little more relaxed about it. I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited! Packing will commence on Thursday of this week, and my evenings are all taken up with social engagements... i.e. goodbye soirees with drinking, French, and good times.

Okay, I'm finishing this essay, it's way too long. Thank you for sticking with me until the end!
My next blog post will be from Nice, stay tuned :)