Je suis sur un bateau et...je vais vite et... (I'm on a boat and...I go fast and..)

Holy long day.

I grabbed a croissant as we ran out of the hotel doors this morning. We went straight to the chateau Chenonceau, which was beautiful, of course. The history there is amazing, and the decorations are very elaborate. We spent about 2 hours there, then headed to the chateau Chambord. (about a 1.5 hour drive) Once Robbie parked the bus, we had a picnic with sandwiches, various cheeses, and things that I am not very well acquainted with. Chambord is by far my favorite chateau. It's enormous, glamorous, and will one day be mine. For parties.

Next we headed to the chateau Blois, which I had not been to before. It was very different than the others. It was in the middle of the city, surrounded by buildings, and is composed of 4 different buildings, all in varying styles. The museum was really confusing, though. I'm fairly sure that Liz and I went through it backwards. Oh well.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted. But then we had a vocab quiz, which I totally aced. After was our last dinner in Tours, at the same restaurant. The woman who owns it is ridiculously cool. Once we finished eating, she brought her dog into the room and showed us some tricks. And then a group photo, of course.

I have to write 2 (short) papers tonight, so I won't be going out, but that's okay. I'd rather have my stuff done and get a fairly good amount of rest before my RIDICULOUS day tomorrow. The itinerary says this for tomorrow: travel to Moelan Sur Mer, visit the town of Angers, go to the Jean Lurcat museum, and the chateau with it. Then visit the dolmens, then Carnac, then Locmariaquer. Like I said, RIDICULOUS.

On another note, I'm practicing my French! We speak it all during dinner, and almost all day. I'm getting a lot better at it- I just really need to work on my confidence. I can understand fairly well, but when it's my turn to speak, it's quite a bit harder. Today I accidently said "she's raining" instead of "she's crying". Soo, I'm still making some mistakes, but other than that, all is well!

Liz, Katie, and me before dinner in Tours for the last time

Francoise the 1st used the salamander as his symbol. All of the chateaux that we saw today were his at one point, so they were everywhere. I dug it.

Chateau de Blois

Me and Katie with the original stonework from Chambord

Chateau de Chenonceau. Not only is this place absolutely gorgeous, but I have so much fun saying it's name.