Loire Valley

As promised, I've been traveling the French countryside and have a few adventures to report.  My friend Maggie and I were off from school January 11th and 12th and didn't have class on the 13th until 6:30pm so we took the opportunity to visit some of the castles of the Loire Valley.  Since we wanted to explore an entire region of France we decided to rent a car, drive to a city called Tours about two hours from Paris, and then take short trips from there.  We were advised by French and American people alike not to drive in Paris so we took the RER train, similar to the metro, for 20 minutes to Versailles and rented a car there.  Everything was going as planned and we were at the Hertz office, Starbucks in hand, about to begin our adventure at 10:00am on Tuesday when we found out that our rental car was a stick shift!  Most cars in this country are manual, but it didn't occur to me to request an automatic when I was making the reservation online.  Since Maggie informed me that she didn't know how to drive a stick shift the driving chore fell on me for the three day trip.  I guess there's some good luck in the fact that I drove a stick shift BMW in Connecticut all last winter, at least I had some recent experience.  So, off we went in search of castles, wine, and more delicious french cuisine.

Our first stop was the town of Chambord.  We saw the biggest most well in tact castle I've ever seen.  It was built by King Francois I in 1518 and was finished in 1543.  The castle has 440 rooms, 365 chimneys, and 15 staircases.  It is an incredibly grand castle.

Chambord Castle

One of the many fireplaces. 

A model of Chambord

The bedchamber of Francois I

The Queen's bedchamber

The next stop on our travels was a town called Blois.  The castle Blois was built by the Count of Blois in the 9th Century.  It was bought by the Royal Family in 1397 and they continually added on to the structure.  Both King Louis XII and King Francois I spent time at the castle Blois.

The Hall of the States General from the original castle.

The intricately painted ceiling of the Hall of the States General.

The Louis XII frontage from around 1397

The Gaston d'Orleans wing built from 1635 to 1638 with the famous
Francois I grand staircase on the right built in the early 1400s.

One of the fireplaces with the salamander seal of Francois I

The King's Throne

On Wednesday we visited the remains of the castle Chinon.  This castle was one of the main fortresses of the Counts of Anjou and the kings of England.  It was also the residence of Charles VII and the place where Joan of Arc met him before going into battle.  The castle has been damaged over time, but is still a very magnificent place set high on a hillside overlooking the river Vienne.

A view of the town from the castle on the hillside.

The narrow slit that archers shot arrows out of whilst remaining protected. 

The bread oven!

All in all our trip to the Loire Valley was a huge success, minus the part where we drove down a very, very, very steep old cobblestone road and got stuck in the middle of the hill and couldn't turn the car around.  That was the only bad part, but a very nice older French speaking gentleman who looked like he probably raised sheep in his backyard came along and helped us out.  The French in the countryside were much more friendly than the Parisiennes.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!