Châteaux & Talking to Strangers: France II

The last two days we planned to stay in Tours, but since Amboise, another beautiful small town with a castle was on the way, I convinced my traveling-mate to stop with me! Amboise was just as picturesque as promised, especially because the day was beautiful and bright. We followed our now-typical plan of finding the tourist office and getting information and a map from there and exploring. Since the château was rather expensive, we decided to skip it in favor of going to Leonardo Da Vinci's house in Amboise- Clos Lucé! The compromise we made of not going in the main château was to walk all around it, which involved us discovering new paths that may or may not have been meant to be walked on, climbing an extremely big hill with our heavy backpacks (traveling makes you buff) and finally getting a fantastic panorama of the city.

Amboise!

Loire Valley, always beautiful

Panorama of the city

Clos Lucé was where Da Vinci lived for the last five years of his life, having been invited to France by Francois I, and actually died there as well. While Clos Lucé is described as a château, it's more of a house. The cool part was getting to learn a bit more of Da Vinci's life and about his inventions and artwork. There were models of many of his works, and several life-sized ones in the park around the house. The man truly was a genius, and talented across so many area. It was surprising at first to realize that many of his inventions were for war, but that actually makes sense if you take the time period into account- war was a part of life.

Amboise's castle

downtown Amboise, lovely little street full of shops and cafés

Clos Lucé!

One of Da Vinci's inventions in the park: a double bridge

A delicious crêpe with Nutella and a mini quiche Lorraine from a bakery later, we were on our way to Tours! Our second to last stop before going back home to Brussels, after two weeks of traveling for me. Tours is a bigger city, but there's not a whole lot to see there to be honest. We only stayed for two nights, and explored the city the first day, taking in the small castle, cathedral and garden in front of the Gallery Beaux-Arts that had a massive cedar from Lebanon? Our hostel was in the historical district which was fun, it has an amazing atmosphere at night when all the pubs, bars and restaurants come to life! Everything lights up and you suddenly realize how much Tours is a student town as well- there were university students everywhere, groups of friends out for a drink together, talking and laughing into the night.

Tours!

Tree from Lebanon? It as absolutely massive

I couldn't stop taking pictures of the river

Since there wasn't a whole lot to see in Tours, I decided to spend the next day going to see Chenonceau! This was absolutely one of, if not my favorite, châteaux. I went alone since Nele had had her fill of castles, but I've always wanted to visit and it was completely worth it. The château is beautiful, arching over the river with five arches, giving it a fairy-tale-like appearance. Two either side of the château are beautiful gardens, orderly and elaborate, laid out by two of the castle's occupants, Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici. Fun fact about Chenonceau: it was mostly a woman's castle, nearly always overseen by a woman. A second fun fact is that during WWI, the long gallery full of windows over looking the river was transformed into a hospital for soldiers, treating a few thousand patients. The castle itself was lovely, as were the grounds. Extremely green, full of gardens and a big forest, it was fantastic just to walk around and soak in some nature- it's been sorely missed in Brussels. There was even a small labyrinth hidden in the woods! Suffice to say, I adored Chenonceau, and went back to Tours extremely content. We had a last dinner at a crêperie, and left for Paris the next morning.

The tree-lined entrance to Chenonceau

Some Sphinx guarding the castle. You know.

Gardens!

Chenonceau!!

Hall where soldiers in WWI were treated

Labyrinth

Proof that I was there

Our last stop before finally going back to Brussels! The weather was not amazing in Paris unlike when we left for Orléans at the start, so as we followed the Seine around towards the Eiffel Tower, we decided to spend nearly the whole day in the Musée d'Orsay! It was a fantastic choice- the museum is huge and well laid out. Plus, it was free for us being between 18-26, win for Paris. We lucked out because there happens to be a fantastic Dégas exhibit on right now, which we also got in for free and saw all these beautiful original works. Between that and the Impressionists exhibit on the top floor, we had an amazing time and saw a lot of famous pieces.

Inside the Musée d'Orsay

We didn't quite have time to make it to the Eiffel Tower, so we walked until Les Invalides and then headed to the closest métro station to get to our bus back to Brussels.

It was an incredible spring break, full of unexpected adventures, a few meetings with old friends and seeing loads of new places. I got to be immersed even more completely in French for a week which was a fantastic experience that reaffirmed how much I love the language. Plus, I love the food in France! We had some great experiences with people helping us out, and I am now completely comfortable talking to strangers in French, so asking for directions back home now should feel ridiculously easy! Now that I had been away for two weeks, coming back to Brussels felt like I was coming back home, back to familiar surroundings where I didn't need a map.

Finally, I was able to pick up my new debit card, my residence card for living in Belgium AND a week after I got back from France, my laptop! You never realize how much you depend on a computer until you don't have it.