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.

Bonjour, ya'll

Sorry about my previous post- the pictures are all over the place. I still don't really know how to work this thing.

Last night after dinner I went out with most of the group to a really cool bar district. All of the buildings were very Renaissance, which I loved. I had the best beer of my life there, but I can't remember the name, because it was German. Or Dutch. Probably German.

Today we went to the town of Amboise and went to the De Vinci museum. It was his house, with some of the original furniture. The basement was full of his sketches (not originals, sadly) and actual models of the sketches. Very cool. Next we went down the street to the chateau, which was amazing. It overlooks the entire town, and the Loire river. It was a pretty good work out, too, because you had travel up steep ramps and staircase after staircase to get around the chateau.

We had a picnic by our bus, food provided by Robbie the bus driver. Then we headed off to MontLouis for wine tasting. (!!!!!!!) We ended up only trying 2 different wines, but the 2nd one I tried was fantastic. It was very fruity, not too dry, and was from 2005, I think. I wanted to get a bottle, but then I realized that I didn't want to lug it around for the next month. (Or drink it alone tonight. Hi mom and dad!)

Dinner was at the same restaurant tonight. The meal started with a smoked salmon dish that had been mixed with a variety of spices, and a creamy sauce on the side. Next was duck, and I have no idea what to call dessert. (Besides delicious, that is.) I think it was ice cream with a variety of crushed nuts and a cream cheese sauce. I don't know, I'm still working on perfecting my palette. We have to get up early tomorrow to see approximately 8,712,636 chateaux, so I don't think I'll go to the bars tonight. Plus we have a quiz tomorrow and a short paper due Friday.

Katie and I after wine tasting- superbe!

Me and Liz at Chateau d'Amboise

Artsy fartsy flags and such

De Vinci's garden

De Vinci's quaint house. And by that I mean manor.

Planes, planes, planes. I hate them.

Day 1: no word or food from home.

Kidding. I've always wanted to start a blog entry that way. I refuse to discuss the plane rides, so I will start with landing in Paris. We grabbed our luggage and met up with Professor Scott, a fantastic British man with hair that resembles an albino cockatoo. Afterwards, we got onto our bus and immediately got into French mode. It was a little difficult at first, because I was still a little groggy (Oh Tylenol PM...), and the bus driver, Robbie, gave a little speech about the rules of the bus, which took about 10 minutes. Six of those minutes were reserved for toilet rules. I didn't really understand him, so I've decided to never use the bathroom on the bus. Problem solved.

I took a catnap on the bus, and woke up to us pulling over to a rest-stop area. We all got out and had a picnic with bananas and cookies. After chilling in the grass for a bit, we hopped back onto the bus and headed to Chartres. The cathedral was even more amazing than I had remembered. Now I may not be one for "religion", but I am obsessed with cathedrals. This is one of my favorites, by far. I will add pictures later tonight. (I got all artsy with my photos, so you all should b

e impressed.

And by you all, I mean the 5 people that might take the time to read my ramblings). We split into smaller groups and were each given 10 Euro for lunch. Some of the girls and I went to a little sandwich shop, and got a delightful deal. When they asked what I wanted to drink, the first thing that came to mind was Coca Light, so sorry mom, I drank a pop.

We stayed in Chartres for about 2 hours, and then loaded onto the bus again. This time we were heading to Tours, where we are staying for 3 nights. I fell asleep to the sweet, sultry tunes of Michael Jackson, while watching the countryside fly by. And now, I am in my hotel room! We are about to leave to do something, perhaps dinner. I'm not really sure though.