Les châteaux et Tours
Okay so right now it is 6:50 in the morning and I woke up without having to go back and forth hitting snooze on my two alarms. I am obviously still suffering from the effects of jet lag. There is not much going on though right now, because my host parents are skiing in the Alpes and Christina (the German girl who lives with them is sick). I think the highlight of the last couple of days for me, well besides seeing the chateaux was the fact I was able to make it home without getting lost yesterday, Christina took me to the IES center, but I was on my own to get home.
The castles were so cool though, I never actually realized the sheer size of them from all the pictures I have seen of them! They are enormous, and so pretty; it is amazing the craftmanship that went into building each of them. I saw Chambord, Loches, Blois, and Chenencou. Chambord is the biggest castle in the Loire valley, but it is so cold! They had a few fires lit, but they never warmed more thanthe immediate area around the fire place, so we spent a lot of time hoovering around the fireplace. Its good to know that despite the fact I am the only one who goes to school and lives where it does not snow other people are also freezing. Chambord is also the one with the staircase that two people can be on but never see each other because they are actually two separate staircases, you can tell though if you actually pay attention that the two staircases are different; I guess if you were to storm the castle that might not be something you notice, when you think you see the king on the stairs. It was pretty cool though because our tour guide took us the the roof of chambord and in all these small passage ways that the typical visitor doesn't get to see. It was so crazy on the terrace (roof) because there seemed to be an entire different castle with all the towers that were just added to the top. My favorite castle was Chenencou (the one that was built over the river). It is so pretty, and what I like best about it was the fact it was furnished, and we were able to see the kitchen area and all the rooms that made up the food preparation area, including their own butcher. Granted it was pretty cold on our trip to the castles, it was really cool because there were so few people there, and I have snow in my pictures of the castles, which according the the french is so rare, our teachers were taking pictures just of the snow around the castles, and the gardens covered in snow.
When we were on our trip to the castles, we stayed in Tours. It is a pretty cool city, once you know where things are, because all the cool stuff is tucked away from the main roads. We managed to find a pretty cool little bar area one night, though the night before we walked around in the cold for probably an hour and found absolutely nothing! The bar we went to was also cool because we got glow sticks! in our drinks, granted we paid 6,5 Euros for it, I think that is the only mixed drink I will be buying here, I am just going to stick to wine or beer when we go out.
Food was funny on this trip, because before I came I noted that I am (was) a vegetarian so they gave me a green card for all my meals, which basically meant I got my food last and either got steamed vegetables with NO seasoning or I got what everyone else got minus the meat; or I just got what everyone else got. They were not very accomodating. It was also funny because they had the group eat an assortment of food, like deer, duck, eel. The eel was interesting because it was still on the bone and mine had a find on it. People also learned that the french don't cut out the fat and eat everything on their plate, while in fact the french basically clean their plate with their bread before finishing. We also have dessert with both lunch and dinner here, and wine with some lunches, but all dinners. My host mom laughed at me the first night when I asked for water with my food.
I have to get ready for my second day of orientation in Nantes!
The castles were so cool though, I never actually realized the sheer size of them from all the pictures I have seen of them! They are enormous, and so pretty; it is amazing the craftmanship that went into building each of them. I saw Chambord, Loches, Blois, and Chenencou. Chambord is the biggest castle in the Loire valley, but it is so cold! They had a few fires lit, but they never warmed more thanthe immediate area around the fire place, so we spent a lot of time hoovering around the fireplace. Its good to know that despite the fact I am the only one who goes to school and lives where it does not snow other people are also freezing. Chambord is also the one with the staircase that two people can be on but never see each other because they are actually two separate staircases, you can tell though if you actually pay attention that the two staircases are different; I guess if you were to storm the castle that might not be something you notice, when you think you see the king on the stairs. It was pretty cool though because our tour guide took us the the roof of chambord and in all these small passage ways that the typical visitor doesn't get to see. It was so crazy on the terrace (roof) because there seemed to be an entire different castle with all the towers that were just added to the top. My favorite castle was Chenencou (the one that was built over the river). It is so pretty, and what I like best about it was the fact it was furnished, and we were able to see the kitchen area and all the rooms that made up the food preparation area, including their own butcher. Granted it was pretty cold on our trip to the castles, it was really cool because there were so few people there, and I have snow in my pictures of the castles, which according the the french is so rare, our teachers were taking pictures just of the snow around the castles, and the gardens covered in snow.
When we were on our trip to the castles, we stayed in Tours. It is a pretty cool city, once you know where things are, because all the cool stuff is tucked away from the main roads. We managed to find a pretty cool little bar area one night, though the night before we walked around in the cold for probably an hour and found absolutely nothing! The bar we went to was also cool because we got glow sticks! in our drinks, granted we paid 6,5 Euros for it, I think that is the only mixed drink I will be buying here, I am just going to stick to wine or beer when we go out.
Food was funny on this trip, because before I came I noted that I am (was) a vegetarian so they gave me a green card for all my meals, which basically meant I got my food last and either got steamed vegetables with NO seasoning or I got what everyone else got minus the meat; or I just got what everyone else got. They were not very accomodating. It was also funny because they had the group eat an assortment of food, like deer, duck, eel. The eel was interesting because it was still on the bone and mine had a find on it. People also learned that the french don't cut out the fat and eat everything on their plate, while in fact the french basically clean their plate with their bread before finishing. We also have dessert with both lunch and dinner here, and wine with some lunches, but all dinners. My host mom laughed at me the first night when I asked for water with my food.
I have to get ready for my second day of orientation in Nantes!
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