what a sick weekend.
friday night, carley, jodi and i went by the seine after dinner to chill for a little and check out the eiffel tower. it was awesome, not to mention ridiculously relaxing? i legit wanna do that every single day for the next 2 weeks and 5 days that i'm here. afterwards, we went and sat down on the lawn by the tower and watched the light show. there were a million people there with wine and picnics and it was so adorable. i definitely wanna do that at some point, too. sitting there just made me so happy, it was ridiculous.
saturday morning, aka yesterday, we left for the loire valley at 7:30. our first stop was the chateau de chenonceau. it was really beautiful (and built on top of a bridge, which is really cool), but it was kind of a disappointment. the front was being renovated so there was a huge tarp, and the guided tour was really cramped because the rooms were small and well, there are 80 of us. still, it was cool to see it.
the second stop was da vinci's manor. it was absolutely beautiful. we just walked through his house and got to see all of his inventions and things. sam and i got ice cream and checked out the garden in the back, which was the most beautiful of all. it was just kind of overgrown and natural with cute little paths and streams and things. i loved it.
the last place we went to was actually a "surprise," and a lovely one, at that. gabriel took us to a winery and we had the owner explain to us how the wine is made. the best part was that afterwards we all go to try the red, white and rose with goat cheese because "the french don't drink without eating." lol. i think he just tells us that so we don't aim to get drunk at these things...at around 8pm, we got to the hotel, grabbed some dinner in town (totally delicious and not a baguette, thank you very much) and then passed out. we had breakfast in the hotel this morning and then headed out for chambord at 9:30. today was by far my favorite day of the excursions, so far. the chateau was ginormous. they said it took over 30 years to make and on the 4 floors there were over 300 rooms. the staircases were all double helixes and when you walk on one side, you'll never see the people on the other side, even though you're right next to them. crazy!
we obviously took a ton of pictures and then had some lunch. our second "surprise" was either a bike ride or a boat ride at the chateau...but we all know that since i can't ride a bike, i didn't exactly have a choice. haha. the boat was actually really cute, and i love sonia so it was a good time.
cutie =]
our last surprise was a cookie tasting...um, yum. i almost bought a bag, but figured it would be a waste since i'd probably just be eating them all right now for dinner. no good. overall, it was SUCH a great weekend. now i've got to attend to homework, another week of class, and then versailles on saturday! oh! and i'm going to nice in the south of france my last weekend here =]
au revoir, lovelies.
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