So Many Castles!!

I figured it was time to add another post because so much has happened in the past few days! We started our bus trip around Northern and Western France on Monday morning and we just got back in Paris again a couple of hours ago. All of the places that we went to, besides Normandy, were in the Val de la Loire (Loire Valley). The Valley has 57 castles, of which we saw eight. We started our trip by going to see the Tapisserie of Bayeux, which is actually an embroidery from the middle ages that is super super long! It tells the story of William the Conqueror and Harold of England and their battle over Normandy. We followed an audioguide that explained the story on the tapestrie to us as we walked along it. We then went to Omaha Beach in Normandy where we went to the visitors center on D-Day, walked around the cemetery with the rows of thousands of white crosses for the soldiers who died there in WW2, and walked along the waterfront at Omaha Beach. We also went west a little ways to Pointe du Hoc where there were original bunkers and watch towers that had not been moved since the war. The center and the cemetery were very moving, especially because we went there on Memorial's Day. They didn't have anything special going on on Monday because they put on a big ceremony on June 6th because that actually is D-Day, but it was still cool to be there on Memorial Day. We got to crawl through some of the bunkers that had been destroyed. It was so hard to imagine that that area had ever been anything besides an incredibly calm and peaceful beach. It really was beautiful and the water was so still and blue. Even talking to our host family we found that the people here really do have a lot of respect for the American intervention in WW2 because they essentially won their freedom. That was a very good visit.
On Tuesday we went to a basilica/castle called Mont-St-Michel, which is really really beautiful. It is built entirely on a rock island and really has the feel of a middle-age kingdom. It was really foggy and rainy when we went so we didn't get to see the view out from the top, but the castle itself was really pretty. We had a French tour guide who explained the architecture of the basilica and the chapels and the great halls and things like that. The basilica itself is supported on its north and south sides by the actual rock of the island and our tour guide took us beneath the church where we got to touch the rock. Supposedly if you touch the original rock it will bring you good luck :) They had just started a prayer service when we went into the basilica so we got to see the guy start to ring the bells announcing the start of the session. After Mont-St-Michel we went to a fortress on the coast called St. Malo and just did some exploring. It too was situated on some very large rocks that we climbed around and took pictures in.
Wednesday was when we really started seeing the castles. We started with Le Chateau d'Angers which had some very pretty gardens and had a really nice view of the old city. It was used much more as a defensive point than as a home to royalty, which was evident in the architecture of the towers. It had angled openings or windows through which archers would point their arrows and not get hit themselves and high lookout towers, an area for a moat, and a draw bridge. This castle also housed the largest tapestry series in the world! It told the story of the apocalypse told in Revelations. Very cool. We got sandwiches from a boulangerie and then headed to the chateau de Langeais. We followed a French tour guide here who showed us what all of the rooms were used for and some of the famous pieces of art in them. This castle, like all of them, also had really pretty gardens and a wonderful view of the city. We have been staying in very low-end hotels this whole week, which has been an interesting experience. There have always been sketchy guys calling out to us and watching us all come into the hotel. All of the rooms we have been staying in have bunk-beds and the smallest spaces imaginable. Wednesday night the one we stayed in had communal showers and bathrooms instead of having them in the room. Yikes! We have had to carry our suitcases up really narrow flights of stairs to get to our rooms, which have keypads and codes instead of keys. The hotels have provided for some very interesting experiences haha. Fortunately this week we have also had some really good meals!! We went out to eat as a group every night this week to very fancy, authentic restaurants. They really focus on the presentation on the food which is cool. There are usually colorful sauces drizzled along the plates and little leaves on the sides. It has all been really good though. We've had salmon, veal, chicken, sorbet, chocolate lava cakes, creme brulee, YUM! All of our meals have taken about two hours because that's just how they serve dinners here. Slowly.
Thursday we went to chateau Azay le Rideau, Chenonceau, and Amboise. Needless to say they are all starting to get jumbled up in my head about which is which. Azay-le-Rideau was built on a really beautiful river under Francois I. Chenonceau was a really cool one because it was originally gifted to Diane de Poitiers (Henri II mistress of whom Catherine de Medicis was very jealous) but when Henri II died in a freak jousting accident, Catherine took it for herself and made a lot of renovations to it and kicked Diane out! This one really felt like a castle because we got to go through the kitchens, the bedrooms, the dancing halls, the gardens, the chapel, and basically everywhere. Then we went to Amboise which had both Gothic and Renaissance architecture and styles. It also had the grave of Leonardo da Vinci! We followed another French tourguide on this one. So many tourguides and audioguides. This one really marked the marriage between Charles VIII and Anne de Bretagne because they brought Brittany into the kingdom.
Today, Friday, we went to the chateau royal Blois which had Classical, Gothic, and Renaissance styles. It was a site of much religious conflict and had a really cool helixed staircase on the outside. Then we went to Chambord. I am sad that we saved this one for last because it really was the coolest one, but we were just so castled-out that we didn't want to see anymore. It had a double-helix stair case in the middle of it that was inspired by da Vinci that is really its hallmark. This one had 282 fireplaces and 487 rooms! We really only took the stairs up to the top and took pictures from the top without looking around inside too much. For some reason it was filled with modern art, which was kind of out of place.
Anyway, there's the basic gist of what we have been doing this week. There really is so much more to say about it, but I'm tired of talking about castles now. We've listened to hours of audioguides and tourguides this week about castles, architecture, furniture, paintings, gardens, churches and the like and it has been very cool to see! But I'm glad it's done haha. I'll post some pictures. We're taking a plane down to Nice tomorrow morning where we will get to enjoy the Mediterranean for a week :)
A Bientot!