Chateaux and Gardens and Moats- oh my!

Ok, so I'm really trying to catch up on this thing! Two weekends ago, ISA took all of the students from ABS, Sorbonne, and Catho to the Loire Valley. For those of you who don't know, the Loire Valley is in the middle of the country and known for its grand chateaux. After a two hour bus ride (which was very necessary since I had to be up at 6am), we first visited the Chateau de Blois:

Honestly, I didn't really like this one too much. It was first built by Louis XII and over the centuries, the kings of France continued to add on and make renovations, so there is no cohesive style- it just looks like a hodge-podge of architectual styles.

Next up we visited the Chateau Chenonceau:

So the chateau and the tower look connected, right?

Funny story- they're not. Nicely played, tower, nicely played...



Chenonceau was so much better than Blois. The grounds were gorgeous- and in full bloom, so it was even better. And the story behind the place is pretty scandalous too. King Henri II offered it to his mistress (not his wife), Diane de Poitiers, as a gift. After he died, his mother Catherine de Medicis acted as queen and threw this Diane chick to the curb (in actuality, Diane just moved to another castle- lucky bitch) and took the chateau for herself. When Catherine died, the chateau was passed on to her daughter-in-law Louise, married to Henri III. Upon learning her husband was killed, she fell into this extreme depression and changed some of the decor of the place to reflect her mournful mood, seen here:

Now I wouldn't exactly choose black and skulls with cross bones as the design scheme for my bedroom, but hey- whatever floats your boat.

After we left Chenonceau, we were told that we were in for a little surprise- a local wine and cheese tasting :) First, we learned a little about how these particular wines were crafted...

 ...and then we drank some. And when I say some, I mean a lot- it's not our fault if they kept refilling our glasses. Of course, we tried to counteract some of the effects of the wine with a little bread and goat cheese. It wasn't all that effective.

(The table after we destroyed it)

The next day we visited Chambord before, which was my favorite chateau, by far, before heading back to Paris. Fun fact: it served as the inspiration for Beast's castle in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast."

(double-helix staircase)

The story behind Chambord is a bit scandalous, as well. King Francois had this place built as a hunting loge, but probably only spent about 40 days here in total. A double-helix staircase is located in the middle of the castle; it's rumoured that Francois would have one mistress going down the staircase at the same time another one would be ascending. (Notice a pattern of infidelity with the French royals?) Also- fun fact: the chapel at Chambord seen above was used to house and protect treasures from the Louvre during the time of occupation during World War II.

Some of you may recognize the name Chambord- yes, there is a liquer by the same name and yes, it origniated here. So naturally we got to have a tasting.. And this time, we actually had a TASTING and not a "let-me-see-how-many-glasses-of-free -wine-I-can-down-in-an-hour" type of deal. And they gave us cookies, which were delicious.