La Loire à Vélo

After our lovely tour of Northern France, my friend Emily and I split off from the other four of our group (who were going to Paris) for an amazing adventure through the Loire Valley.  It was an unforgettable weekend in which we saw some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, transported ourselves back in history, and pushed ourselves physically and mentally on our non-stop whirlwind tour of the châteaux region.  

We were the ultimate examples of poor American college kids while waiting for our train to Orléans, sharing an apple and a day-old crusty baguette with some good old Skippy peanut butter.  PB definitely saved our lives a few times on this trip haha.  

We arrived in Orléans and then had quite the adventure finding our hostel.  After our 45-minute bus ride to a campus in the middle of nowhere and lots of wandering, we found our hostel in the stadium.  Yes… that’s right… a sports stadium.  It was fine, but pretty much the weirdest thing ever.  We went into town and visited the Cathédral St. Croix, a gorgeous church with stained glass panels telling the story of Joan of Arc.  As we walked in, the organist was practicing a beautiful hymn and I felt such a lovely sense of calmness.  

We got a free personalized tour of the Joan of Arc Museum, the building itself a replica of the one she stayed in during the siege of Orléans in 1429 (the original was bombed out in WWII.) 

Orleans: Joan of Arc!

The next morning, we arrived in Blois and rented our bicycles from a really nice guy who gave us a zillion maps and helped us plan out our entire itinerary, highlighting and scribbling notes about little tips about which tiny paths to follow and which to avoid.  Our first leg of the journey took us winding through adorable little villages and on to our first château Chambord.

  

It is the Renaissance-style wonder originally begun by Kind François 1^er, designed as his “hunting lodge,” but I’d say it’s a bit more than just that!  It is 156 meters log, with 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms.  I absolutely loved the magnificent double helix spiral staircase in the center, thought to have been designed by Léonardo da Vinci !  There were intricate designs of salamanders (symbol of the « immortality » of the French monarchy), scallops, cherubs, etc, and the turrets on top were just magnificent.  

After Chambord, we headed off through the woods, in the rain, to Cheverny.  It was really neat to be in the beautiful forest, but this was definitely not my favorite moment in life :( When we finally arrived, we were cold, hungry, and could barely walk … but we’d made it !  

Cheverny was neat, but definitely a bit decadent, over-done, and a visual-overload in certain rooms where everything was completely COVERED in intensely patterned tapestries, intricate bed spreads and curtains, rugs, carved furniture, etc.  It is still owned by the Hurault de Vibraye family, descendents of the original architects, and their family portraits are all over (they still lived there until 1987 !)  They had a letter framed on one of the walls from George Washington to one the family members who fought alongside La Fayette during the Revolutionary War. 

We built up our energy again with Prince cookies hehe and had a nice ride through a beautiful farmland, seeing cows, chickens, sheep, and even some doves (“there is hope!” we thought!).  We saw the Châteaux de Villesavin and Beauregard briefly along the way just from the outside because they were closed.  

 We got up really early the next morning and toured around the city of Blois quickly before our 7h15 train to Amboise.  We walked and biked around the lovely city when we got there, seeing our first real view of the Loire River.  Da Vinci spent the last four years of his life in Amboise as a guest to the King and member of the French court.  He worked at Clos Lucé, connected to the château by an underground tunnel.  Now they have 40 models/replicas of his inventions.  Unfortunately, it was still closed and we didn’t have time to see it. 

We went through the Château Royale d’Amboise right as it opened, which was neat, but a little creepy to see completely alone.  It was beautifully decorated, as usual, and had lots of antler-related decoration as well haha.  We almost skipped going into the little chapel, but luckily decided to take a peek.  Da Vinci is buried there !  How cool is that ? 

 

Our bike ride from Amboise to Chenonceau was definitely my favorite part of the journey.  It was pretty sunny, a little windy and hilly, but we went through the prettiest little forests, fields, and villages.  It just made me so incredibly happy :) 

Chenonceau (le Château des Dames) was gorgeous, vast, elegant, and overall very impressive.  It tied with Chambord for the place of « favorite château » in my heart.  We first saw the château through a long path of trees seeming to bow together toward it.  Two sphinxes proudly guard the entrance.  There are beautifully planned out gardens on either side, along the Cher River.  

Each room was filled with so much history and beauty, but not overdone or tackily decorated.   There were tapestries and paintings depicting many scenes from Greek mythology and Biblical history as well.  

Henri II gave the chateau to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, who is noted as responsible for the planning of many of the beautiful carvings and design.  However, in 1559, when Henri II was killed in battle, his widow Cathérine de Médicis ordered Diane to five Chenonceau back to her (don’t worry, she gave her Chaumont-sur-Loire in exchange haha).  I don’t want to bore you all to tears, so I’ll stop with all the history now, but I just absolutely loved Chenonceau.  

Overall, this trip was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.  We were incredibly fatigued and probably looked like real Grenoble vagabonds with our backpacks and messy helmet-hair by the time we returned home haha, but it was truly amazing. I hope to return someday to be able to see more of the 40 châteaux in this beautiful region!  

La Loire à Vélo!

Beautiful Bretagne

After getting some lunch at the market in Caen, we got on the train to Pontorson in Brittany. Our "hostel" ended up really being an adorable Bed & Breakfast with a cute little British couple. Somewhere along that train ride, we were magically transported from France into England... pretty sure :) Our "host grandpa" from the B&B was waiting at the train station for us and helped us all pile into the back of his ancient Land Rover (with British steering wheel on the other side). We bumbled along off to the B&B, passing by beautiful farmland and old brick houses and buildings. It was incredibly cute! We took a walk around the village around sunset and it rained a little, so there were crazy beautiful clouds!


Monday morning, after our lovely little English breakfast, we piled back into the crazy truck and headed off for Mont Saint Michel. It was so exciting to finally see it as we drove through the winding country roads. I don't know how we could have possibly gotten there if we hadn't stayed at the amazing "hostel," because it was quite out in the middle of nowhere. There were hundreds of fluffy sheep in and around the road welcoming us to the lovely island town as we arrived. There were no tides this week, for whatever reason, that was a bit of a bummer... but it was still quite amazing! We did a guided three-hour tour (in French- go me! haha), which was really great.


After lunch, we wandered around the extremely touristy winding streets, ate ice cream on the rooftops after squeezing through little alley pathways upwards, and explored a little around the bay (getting a bit muddy in the process). We got some good inexpensive food at the Oyster Catcher, one of two food establishments in the tiny town we stayed in, and walked around the village until sunset.

More pictures :)

Brittany

Mont Saint Michel

Oh p.s. There is controversy over whether Mont Saint Michel is in Normany or Brittany... and I think today it is technically part of Normandy, so I apologize for having it part of the post of Brittany haha.

Wednesday, we took another train to Concarneau, on the Atlantic coast of Brittany. We really lucked out with a cute and clean hostel right on the beach. Our window in the room opened right up to the beautiful sea ☺



We had a lovely afternoon clambering around tide-pools. Emily, my friend who is a marine biology researcher, told us all about the different algae, shrimp, anemones, and assorted crustaceans we were seeing. It was so much fun! After hanging out on the beach a little, we headed into the cute little maritime city. We walked past he busy marina and headed into the old fort on the water, which is now apparently where they cram in the cheesy tourist town. It seemed like a crazy little village from Shrek or something haha… there was a band playing pep-band/folk music, souvenir shops, creperies, etc. It was cheesy but fun.



We were able to cook in the hostel’s kitchen, so we made a lovely little spaghetti sauce and pasta for a grand total of 2€ each… now that’s what I’m talking about!



We had a nice little walk around the tide-pools again in the morning after breakfast and then a stately monsieur cormorant sent us off on our trip to Carnac.

l'Océan Atlantique

After quite the process of buses, trains, and autocars, we finally arrived in Carnac, another city on the coast. We walked out of town to the park where they have the ancient megalithic stones. It is apparently the largest site in the world, with over 3000 stones dating back to 3300 – 4500 BC. The rocks are all lined up in rows for about a kilometer, and there are many different theories about their origins. It probably had something to do with astronomical alignment and/or farming. Whatever it is, it is pretty impressive and mind-boggling!

Carnac

News from Normandy

Hello all!  I have just returned from my whirlwind nine-day tour of Normandy, Brtittany, and the Loire Valley.  It was absolutely fabulous, and I will try to write a bit about each day with pictures. 

Our first morning, I spent three hours between trains wandering around Paris because it was such a beautiful day.  I had a lovely time seeing all the sights, but my body punished me for being over-ambitious and so I spend the whole week with blisters on my feet.  Oh well, it all worked out! 

We traveled around Caen and Mondeville, saw some beautiful churches, and the Chateau of William the Conqueror.  We decided that St. John’s should be called the Leaning Tower of Normandy! 

We took the train to Bayeux in the morning and did a taxi-tour service of the D-Day beaches, which worked out really well. It was kind of depressing driving through some of the little towns and hearing our tour guide talk about how all the small businesses and country way of life are dying out. 

I’m glad I got to see that again because I understood it better and got a chance to see the new museum at the American Cemetery, which was very informative and well put together.  We walked through the cemetery and memorial, drove to see the huge bombed out craters above the cliffs and went to Omaha Beach itself.  Seeing such a destroyed area was pretty tough stuff, it made me realize how very blessed I have been in my life. 

After our tour of the beaches, we went back to Bayeux itself and visited the Cathedral, which was absolutely gorgeous.  It was so filled with beautiful light, which I find much more uplifting than the scary dark old cathedrals.  It was also quite huge and impressive for such a small town. 

We finally saw the Bayeux Tapestry!  It was so awesome to finally see it, after having studied it for years in history, French, psychology (changes in language), and even science (Haley’s Comet!).  They had nice audioguides that explained it all panel by panel, a museum, and a video.  It is so interesting to me to think of how our sense of history can be so influenced by what artifacts and stories we have.  What a great day! 

Nomandy

Un peu plus de Paris

Friday afternoon in Paris we walked through Place Vendome, a very fancy area with elegant buildings, designer shops, expensive jewelry, the Ritz, etc. There is a huge Napoleon statue in the center. We walked through the Tuilerie Gardens a bit and got our first view of the Eiffel Tower for the trip ☺


We saw Place de la Concorde, built between 1757 and 1777 as a monument to Louis X. It served as the lovely slaughtering sight during the Reign of Terror. Termed “Place de la Revolution” during those years, the guillotine there severed 1,343 aristocratic heads. Ewwww! It was later renamed “Concorde,” which means harmony/peace, so as not to have any negative aristocratic, religious, or political ties.


The Obélisque de Luxor was given as a gift to Charles X by the Viceroy of Egypt. It is from the 13th century BC, so it is Paris’ oldest monument.


My friend Dee and I went to the Orangerie, a museum of some of the most beautiful and calming rooms I have ever seen. There are two huge oval shaped rooms with four of Monet's "Nymphéas" (water lilies) surround the walls in each room. I was so awestruck by the beauty of it all, I just loved it. I would love to have those paintings on the walls in my bedroom. What a calming scene to wake up to every morning! I took lots of pictures, but they just cannot do it justice. The basement of the museum had some of my favorite Renoir's, Cezanne's, Picasso's, etc. What a great find! I would highly recommend going to the Orangerie if you ever can.


We all went to the Louvre for the free student night (Fridays) and it was of course fabulous. It's so huge, I could never even begin to see everything in the three hours we were there. I went through the Greek and Roman god/goddess sculptures, which always capture and amaze me. I bumped into my friend Christine and we went through all the French paintings together, studying for our art history class as we went along. We saw paintings by Fragonard, Watteau, Boucher, Chardin, Corot, Corbet, Daumier, etc and it was just really neat seeing them all in person. We of course saw the "Venus de Milo," "Winged Victory," and "Mona Lisa."


Saturday morning, we did a big tour of Montmartre with Miranda, starting at the Moulin Rouge. Then we walked up through the cute little streets, passing by the homes of many artists, writers, philosophers, etc. It was a little cloudy and gray outside, but still quite enjoyable. There were many adorable cafes, parks, and gardens, including the Moulin de la Galette, where the famous Renoir painting took place :) Yay! That made me really happy to see that because it’s one of my favorite paintings.


We saw the café where Edith Piaf sang her last notes, the famous Lapin Agile, and the apartment where Marcel Aymé, author of “Le Passe-Muraille” lived. This is a famous short story about a man who could walk through walls and his adventures with that power. I did an analysis of it at Carthage last spring in my literature class, so that was really fun to see the statue and Aymé’s home.


As the morning went on, the clouds started clearing up and it became a beautiful warm sunny day just as we got to the top of the hill to see the amazing Sacre Coeur. Its white stone was so beautiful in contrast with the bright green spring grass and lovely blue sky. We learned that in WWII, the bombs dropped all over Montmartre, but just missed Sacre Coeur and the church right next to it. It’s only a normal little street between the two churches, so the bombs missed destroying them by just a few feet. The inside was very beautiful and peaceful. Hearing the choir’s voices rise up into the dome was extremely calming and really made me miss singing at Carthage.


We decided to climb up into the dome afterward, which was really fun and a great view. There were obviously a lot of steps, so it was quite a workout, but well worth it.


After lunch, we walked through the scenic Luxembourg Gardens, which houses the Palais de Luxembourg where the Senate meets. There are many beautiful fountains, statues of famous figures, and pools/ponds. There were children playing on playgrounds, basketball courts, ponies, carousels, older men playing petangue, and it was overall quite lovely. Right near some beautiful blooming cherry trees, there is a small version of the Statue of Liberty that was used as the model for the creation of our Lady Liberty. It made me a little nostalgic for America with the combination of the Statue of Liberty and the cherry blossoms, which always remind me of Washington, D.C. in springtime.


We headed over to the Champs Elysée to see the Arc de Triomphe. We paid to go up to the top, which was so great! It was pretty cloudy, but still marvelous to be able to see the whole city like that. The architecture is so amazing in itself and the statues on the sides are really interesting.


We took a boat tour along the Seine for our last night in Paris. It was an absolutely magical and perfect evening for me. It was so fun to be with everyone and see some of the must awe-inspiring views I have ever seen. The Eiffel Tower at night just blows me away every time.


Sunday was quite a rainy dreary day, but still great and filled with the energy of the city. We did a tour of the Latin Quarter, seeing the Sorbonne, several churches, a museum of the Middle Ages, cute cafés and bookstores, and of course Notre Dame. 

Walking into such a calming and remarkable environment during Sunday morning Mass was so peaceful after coming in from the rain outside. With all the music and candles, it felt like a safe haven from the yucky weather outside.



After lunch with the girls, I decided to be independent and enjoy my last few hours of Paris on my own for the afternoon. I got absolutely soaking wet wandering around little streets, but had a goofy smile plastered across my face the whole time. I just really enjoyed my weekend in Paris and did not want to miss one minute of it. I walked past the Hotel de Ville (City Hall), the back of Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, the Palais de Justice, Hotel Dieu, and Centre Pompidou. I also saw the Pantheon, were Voltaire, Rousseau, Pierre and Marie Curie, Braille, Hugo, Zola, and many more famous French figures are buried. It also houses Foucault’s Pendulem, while proves the rotation of the earth, a very important historical discovery!

It was a lovely afternoon and I was sad to leave. Just as we walked up to the train station, the sun came out and so the train ride home was very beautiful. Paris, je t’aime!


So in case you're still reading this and you actually want to see MORE photos, click below!

Paris