Amboise, Vouvray, and Blois

This past weekend was absolutely wonderful! My friend Dipesh and his girlfriend Eugenie took me out to see the country of France. Having a car was perfect so we could go wherever we wanted and to see whatever we wanted! It was so exciting! First we went to Ambroise and we stopped and walked through the village market and had a picnic by the river then headed up to see the chateau in Ambroise. Most of the chateau was renovated because almost all of it was torn down but there was still some of the castle left and it was beautiful to see! It was the highest point of the village and had a spectacular view of the city. After walking through the castle and trying to understand the French tour guide (Eugenie translated and helped me understand things about the castle) we walked through another small market by the chateau and I bought some gifts for the family!

sidenote: the coolest thing about the castle was that when the King died they used the very bottom level as a prison. I thought that was really interesting!

After we saw everything that Eugenie had a list for we got back in the car and drove to Vouvray, France. Here she had planned for us to do a degustation which is wine taste testing. We were driving by the river the whole time with amazing scenery and we started to pass these rocks with windows and I then learned from Eugenie that these are houses or apartments built in the rocks or in French "troglerdyte." We drove around looking for this one wine testing place then stopped to ask for directions and thank goodness Eugenie and Dipesh were there because their French is perfect!...Obviously because Eugenie is Parisian and Dipesh has lived in Paris for 5 years. Anyways, we finally found them but they were all closed. She wanted to take us to one that was in a cave or again what was a troglerdyte. We parked the car outside the wine place and walked up this street to look at the view of this small country village. It was a phenomonal view and so peaceful. As we started heading back to the car, Eugenie and Dipesh saw a man in his troglerdyte and asked him if he knew about any wine places around that are open on Sundays. He walked out and started talking to us. From right off the bat Dipesh knew he was not French. Come to find out he was actually from England but he spoke French very well. He was very nice and he actually gave us a tour of his cave or troglerdyte. It went far back and right now he uses it for storage and his house is across the road. The farther back of the cave the more humid it got. He owns a bed and breakfast and he gave us all his card if we ever wanted to stay there. He is thinking of putting like a dining area in the back of the cave for his guests. We thought that would be very neat and we thanked him for showing us his troglerdyte! So we then got back in our car and we finally found a wine taste testing place that was open. It was all free and we could taste as many wines as we wanted and we also got a free tour of the cave where they store the wine. There were racks after racks of bottles and he explained everything in French so once again Eugenie translated for me! I'm pretty sure he said there were over a billion bottles in that cave. The cave was built long ago for taking the rock and using that rock to build chateaus that were surrounding the village. After the tour we tasted some more wine that was much sweeter (because we started from dry to sweet) and then Eugenie and Dipesh bought some wine and we headed out. It was getting late so we went to the hotel (B&B) to check in and then we went to get some food. My stay in the hotel was free because Eugenie's dad travels so much and when he travels he stays in a B&B so he got us a free nights stay and breakfast in the morning. All we had to pay was 0.90Euros and I of course paid that! ha! I had to after all they have done for me! So we checked in then we had a choice to go to Flunch or McDonald's. Dipesh wanted Mcdo so I broke my promise and we ate at McDonald's. This place was PACKED. I thought it was quite funny but it was shocking to see so many French people in an American restaurant.

Anyways, the night in the hotel, the room all to my self was AWESOME. I took a shower, watched some soccer then went to bed because I was exhausted. The next morning we got up and had breakfast and it was wonderful! (Usually you have to pay to eat breakfast in European hotels and to have it paid for was awesome and very generous of Eugenie's father!)

So we hit the road and set out for Blois. We first went to Chambord which is the largest chateau in France and it was beautiful! After walking around the chateau we then rented a row boat and rowed around the chateau along the river. I started out rowing because Dipesh and Eugenie have never rowed before. When I was rowing Dipesh just laid on the boat as if he really was a King. It was absolutely hilarious when Dipesh tried to row. It took us about 20 minutes to get around the corner and to the other side of the chateau. I do have to admit that the boat was fit for fast rowing and because the boat was wide in the middle it was easier to have 2 people row at the same time. The rowing was relaxing and I needed that relaxation in the sun badly. The exercise, the fresh air, the beautiful scenery, it was a perfect hour to think about nothing but laugh and smile and enjoy my time with wonderful people.

Later we had a picnic near the chateau and we enjoyed some conversation then headed to explore the city of Blois. We started out by visiting the Royal Chateau of Blois then walked around to see the major attractions. My favorite was the statue of Joan of Arc! It was right at the lookout of the whole city and the river that ran through it! After walking around for about 2 hours we sat down and I had some hot chocolate because the wind had made me cold and I needed something to warm me up. The ice cream looked DELICIOUS but I had to be smart and say no to that wonderful looking goodness. We sat and relaxed and I helped Dipesh with his accounting homework then we walked back to the car and I got a baguette for the road back to Paris.

On the ride back to Paris Eugenie drove through all the villages and through the countryside to show me more of France instead of just the highway. Everything was spectacularly green and there were old bridges and she told me that every village in France has a church. There are around 52,000 cities in France and probably over 100,000 churches. She was very intelligent and I loved learning neat facts about France from her! As we were driving I also noticed all the huge wind turbines there were in the fields. There were so many of them! After a 3 hour drive back we finally get into Paris and there is no where to park so they drop me off at a metro and I head home. I am SO grateful that I have met them and they were so generous to take me to see things that I would have never seen probably. I plan on sending Eugenie's father a thank you note from Texas and also send Eugenie and Dipesh something as well. Going on this trip allowed me to not just see France but spend money on gifts for my family instead of a hotel or transportation. It was a wonderful trip and it was very nice to get away from Paris for 2 days.

Next weekend I'm back to the Loire Valley but I will be with ISA this time and we will be visiting more chateaus. Although we will be seeing the same chateau..the Chambord, its worth seeing again and this time I will get to go inside!