Castles, Cathedrals, and (Wine) Caves - Part 2!

Coucou! Hope all of you are doing well and that you had a great Thanksgiving. Although I was sad to miss my family in New Jersey this year, I had fun hosting some friends at my apartment. I bought roasted chicken (instead of trying to cook a turkey in my tiny oven/microwave!), but I made the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I also attempted my first homemade pumpkin pie, baking a fresh pumpkin for the filling and making whipped cream to spoon on top. Everything turned out really well!

Anyway, I already told you about the first half of my four-day trip to northwest and central France a few weeks ago, but there are still two more days to cover! So continuing right along...

Monday at the Château de Chambord

After breakfast at the auberge Monday morning, we packed up and drove south to the Loire Valley to visit the Château de Chambord. I won't lie. I actually wasn't that excited about the day's trip, and not just because we had a five-hour ride to get there. I just wasn't really psyched to see another castle. (Spoiled much?)

Arriving in Chambord and walking through the ticket gate, however, my eyes widened and a familiar sense of wonder washed over me again. The château, the largest of several in the Loire Valley, was breathtaking! And it wasn't even a primary royal residence. It was originally built by Francis I as a hunting lodge. Can you imagine if this was merely your vacation home?

First glimpse of the castle. Disney used it as inspiration for the castle in Beauty and the Beast!*

Walking around...

View from the other side

We didn't arrive in Chambord until pretty late in the afternoon around 3 pm, so we only had about two and a half hours to explore before the site closed. That was plenty of time at some of the other stops, but I really would have loved to have more time to wander through the castle at a slower place and to walk all over the extensive grounds. Instead, my friend and I did a whirlwind tour inside the château, climbing the famous double helix staircase to each floor, taking in the views from the balconies, and scoping out as many nooks and corners as possible. In contrast to Versailles, where I had followed a very structured path jam-packed with tourists through a limited number of rooms, Chambord was more or less wide open and we had free rein to explore. 

Famous double-helix staircase in the center of the castle

Walking around on the top was the most impressive part

Afterwards, we spent our remaining time walking the grounds before it was time to leave. We caught some really nice views of the castle at sunset!

Sunset view from the grounds

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Saying goodbye to the castle

It really was a very quick visit, but I think this might have been my favorite stop of the weekend. And craning my neck to catch last glimpses of the château as the bus pulled away, I had to admit I was totally wrong. Castles never get old.

Tuesday in Bourges and Reilly

After spending the night in another auberge de jeunesse in Bourges on Monday night, we had several hours free on Tuesday morning to walk around the city. Located more or less in the center of France, Bourges is known throughout France for the "Printemps de Bourges," a HUGE music festival that the city hosts each Spring. It's also known to tourists for its gorgeous, immense cathedral, which was our first stop for the day. There was a special mass in honor of Armistice Day starting just as we arrived, so we wandered (extra) quietly around inside the cathedral, admiring the windows, the architecture, and the massive organ.  

 

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the morning leisurely exploring the city. We walked around the old part of town, stopping to pick up little quiches for lunch at a boulangerie, strolled through some nice parks, and paused to watch a parade and some other ceremonial events for the holiday. It was a quiet morning since most of the town was closed, but it was still very nice to walk around and enjoy the sunshine. We got lucky with the weather on the trip! Other than the rainstorm our first day at Saint Malo, we had blue skies the rest of the weekend.

Watching the parade

Redwood trees spotted in Bourges!

Next, saying goodbye to Bourges around noon, we drove to Domaine Claude LaFond, a winery in the central French town of Reilly, where we took a guided tour of the facilities and did a little wine tasting. During the tour, we learned all about the wine-making process and saw the fermentation tanks, the elaborate bottling apparatus, and the huge warehouse where the winery stores cases of bottles waiting to be shipped out. Afterwards, we did a wine tasting with three whites, a rose, and a red. I liked the first one we tried, a wine named "La Raie." Apparently they ship wine internationally, so if you happen to spot any of their wines in Total Wine or wherever, give it a try!

The equipment and process was really similar to beer brewing

A wine tasting for forty people...our guide was a pro.

Degustation!

Finally, it was time to board the bus one last time for the ride home. We didn't make it back nearly as early as we anticipated, though, because our bus broke down on the highway about an hour away from Lyon. I still don't know what the problem was, but we ended up standing on the side of the auto route in the dark (and eventually in the rain) for a few hours waiting for a new bus to pick us up. It was actually a little funny because I think this is the third time I've been on a group bus trip with bus troubles. I only vaguely remember something happening to our bus on the way back from a high school band trip to Florida, but I distinctly remember stopping on the side of the road in the middle-of-nowhere Poland when the back of our bus started to fill with smoke during a youth group trip. Isn't there something about curses coming in threes?

Despite the bus troubles, I had a terrific weekend, and I'm feeling very thankful to have had the chance to see so many incredible sites in such a short period. Even though I've already been here for two months (crazy, right?) I still can't believe this is my life right now!



*Side note - I didn't realize it until I started writing this post, but we were watching the French (that is, not Disney) version of Beauty and the Beast on the way to and from the castle. I'm not sure if that was intentional since Chambord was apparently the inspiration for the Disney version or just a coincidence!