And we're still on the road...

September 29-30, 2012

My last two days were not so adventure filled (you're welcome mama) but they were still fun. On Saturday morning we went into Amboise where Joan of Arc's castle is and went to a little farmers' market that they set up every saturday. We walked around and enjoyed all of the homemade food and fresh veggies and looking at all of the cool jewelry. I was walking around with one girl named Paige Anderson (she's a cutie) and we saw this lady who had hand made all of this really cool brass and silver jewelry. It looked like something that could be sold at Anthropology because it was just really cool and unique. That was really fun because all of the streets were so old and looked like a scene straight out of a movie. I would love to come live in a quaint little town in the French countryside. I mean I'd rather live in one of the castles, but I could deal with a cottage, too. After we did the market we went and visited the chateau of Catherine de Medici. It was so beautiful. Every room had big 16th century tapestries and woodworking everywhere. It amazed me at how old it all was because some of it dated back to the 1500s and was still up and still beautiful. There was an interesting room in there, though, which was called the mourning room and it was painted all black with white feathers painted on the ceilings and walls and an illuminated painting of one of the kings who died and a big black bed covered in black velvet bedding. It was weird and creepy and I didn't like it but the rest of the castle was really cool. There was a little village out in the back that had the most incredible colors ever. The village cottages all had red doors and window panes and then it was all covered in strikingly green vines. But we were so tired we just lied in the grass for a solid hour. Castles are all starting to blend together in my head, though. I need to start getting more sleep or something so I can be more alert. After we got done at the castle we had the option of either going to see another chateau or seeing the Da Vinci house. We went to go see the Da Vinci house, which was definitely the better choice. They had set up models of a bunch of his inventions and there was this garden outside that blew my mind. It was all green and mossy and had this incredible bridge and oh my goodness it was beautiful. The second picture I posted is of the garden. This morning was not super. We went to church (which, of course, was in French) for about 2 hours and then had to sit on the bus for 4 hours so we could go to Mont St. Michel and I wanted to punch someone in the face. It was very cramped quarters and I ate way too much nutella and rice cakes that by the time we got off the bus and arrived at our hotel I was quite sickly. One thing that was interesting, though, is that apparently France has a law that you can't go on car trips for too long, I guess, so we stopped at the beach for about an hour and got to frolic in the sand, which I loved. It's so warm here, it's seriously like southern California weather. But I was really happy when we got here because were fed a fat 3 course meal for free. It was so good... We started out with some salad and a really flaky warm quiche and then had some pork, gravy, and a twice baked potato, and finished off the meal with some fantastic rhubarb pie. I am still so full and so happy.