The beginning of the adventures :) After this awesome weekend of castles, fellow students, and perfect weather, we have one week of school, then 2 weeks of VACATION, then 2 days of school then a 5 day weekend!! (Which I'm turning into a 6 day weekend to go to London. And then promptly finding a job because London is as expensive as Paris, but in pounds. Which is a 1.5:1 ratio to the dollar, worse than the euro!)
The Friday before the weekend, I spent the night at a friend's house with another student to watch Pitch Perfect so we could get to the rendez-vous the next morning bright and early! After driving for around 3 hours, during which the bus driver got lost and actually stopped and ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS (it was fine by us, more time for sleep :P) we made it to
Brissac! This castle was on the small side, but the amazing part was that a family actually lived there! I walked around the whole time imagining what it would be like to run around, playing in a castle, and knowing that thousands of people were touring the 1st and 2nd floors of your house each year.
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| Crest | |
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| Beautifully painted, three-tier windows |
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| Dining Room- with over 80 antlers mounted on the walls. Antlers. Everywhere. They were all slain by a past Lady of the castle, who killed over 2000 deer in her lifetime! |
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| There was a flower competition going on for florist students, and the entries were stunning! |
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| One of the bedrooms. All had incredibly busy-looking tapestries floor-to-ceiling, and were dark. There was also a cabinet with a false back that the tour guide showed us, to hide letters, jewelry, and poison. Just the necessities of castle life! |
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| This piece of artwork literally had a mini pond at the bottom, complete with goldfish! |
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| The first of many pictures of kitchens. I am now deeply in love with copper pots :) |
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| Outside of Brissac |
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| Idea borrowed from Kate :) There was also wine-tasting in the basement, which was a one of the highlights of the castle with these cool windows. |
Then, after an interesting lunch in which we mistook the main course for the entrée, and some awesome conversation with one of the students who took a year off before college and WWOOF-ed (worked on organic farms across Europe), we went to
Villandry!
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| We walked into the room with this photo and immediately 4 people agreed and said I looked like this painting. Not sure how I feel because it's a painting OF A CHILD, but I'm going to take it as "Hey look I'm in a castle!" |
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| Lovely peach dining room |
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| Gorgeous kitchen (see a trend?) |
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| So pretty |
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| The white tent is for a couple who were taking wedding pictures here! It was amazing, and the ladies wore hats and decorations similar to those of the royal wedding! |
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| Singer sewing machine! |
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| I did not understand this chair. How does one awkwardly recline/sit and not slide off? |
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| Millefeuille :) It means "thousand sheets" which is due to the pastry with many many paper-thin layers. We briefly adventured into the town of Villandry in search of pastries. I split it with Molly, but the woman didn't give us any utensils. So I ate it wit my hands. Like an American. |
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| Gardens of Villandry, beautiful now but they must be stunning in summer! It was pretty empty that day so it was nice to explore without huge crowds. |
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| We wandered the woods above the castle a bit. You can see the huge carefully-cultivated gardens that Villandry is famous for in the background to the right. | |
After Villandry we got back in the bus for a short drive to Tours, where we spent the night. That was an adventure in and of itself- the rooms were a strange combo of double bed with a twin bunk-bed, and everything was white. So much white. I have stayed in more hospitable hostels :P
Stay tuned for Sunday: Chenonceau (aka the best castle in the world) and Amboise (where it was warm and we got gelato)
<3
Katie May
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