A Cinderella Kind of Day

Today, we toured Châteaux Chenonceau and Chambord, and we ate lunch in the shadow of Château Ambroise. Even Cinderella would've been jealous.

Château Chenonceau was my favorite of the two we toured. When you first arrive at the château, you have to walk through a row of very old, very beautiful, and very green trees. Then you arrive at a courtyard that has access to two different gardens and the château itself. I'm not sure which I liked more: the château or the gardens.

The château was very well decorated with the original furnishings from when it was lived in. The chateau was owned by King Henry II (of France), who passed it along to his mistress Diane de Pontiers. When Henry died, his wife, Catherine d'Medici expelled Diane and took over the château. The intertwined "C" (Catherine) and "H"(Henry) initials were all over the château, but if you looked closely enough, you could see that the two letters slyly form a "D" for Diane. Oh, Henry. What will you think of next?

My favorite room was actually a series of two small rooms; both rooms had fireplaces, as well as drawings and paintings of the château, but one room had a circular window looking out over one of the gardens. The walls were covered in turquoise fabric, and there were purple and white flowers in each room. It was beautiful!!!

And so were the gardens!

We stopped at Château Ambroise for lunch and ate at a café/diner on the main street bordering the château wall. I had pizza for lunch (again), but my pizza from Tours was better. I decided to treat myself to ice cream since I'd been semi-dissapointed with the nutella ice cream yesterday night. Only this time, they had lavendar and rose flavored ice cream! I (again) knew that I couldn't get it at home, so I (again) decided to try it.

Bad life decision.

Both ice creams tasted exactly like they smelled, but it was weird eating them in ice cream form. The lavendar tasted like fancy baby powder, and it would have been lovely.....as a soap bar. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the rose tasted like. Soap. Needless to say, I had my mouth cleaned out for me. I tried to eat it (I really did!), but I just couldn't force it.

I was still craving ice cream, though, so I decided to order yummy summer flavors sure to quench any thirst on a hot summers' day: raspberry and blueberry. (YUM!) When I sat down and started to eat the ice cream, though, I pulled two hairs out of the raspberry ice cream. Yuck, I know. So I went up to the girl working the stand and told her what'd happened. She took my ice cream and disappeared for a minute, only to return with the same cup of ice cream sans the hairy chunk. That wasn't exactly what I'd been looking for. O well.

After having spent 7 euros on ice cream, I decided that I'd just had enough. I ate the ice cream anyway. Note to self: Next time, just order chocolate <3

After Ambroise, we headed to Chambord. I'd been SUPER excited to see Chambord because it'd been my desktop for over a month when I first found out I was coming to Paris.

After walking around and through the château, I have to say that I was disappointed. I'd expected it to be grand and elegantly-furnished, like the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. But it wasn't. It was nearly entire empty. (Apparently most of the furniture had been auctioned off after the revolution.) It was definitely a gothic structure, and it had a Wuthering Heights foreboding vibe. But the massive (empty) stone rooms felt lonely. The one cool part about Chambord is its main staircase. Instead of one flight of stairs, it has two intertwining flights of stairs that never meet. There are simply two access points to each floor from the staircase, one from each flight. It took a while for me to figure everything out visually once I got there, but you have to admit, DNA staircases should be the next big architectural trend. According to the floor plans, there are also a multitude of hidden staircases for the servants to use, but those were closed to the public.

There was also a nice terrace on each floor from which guests could access their rooms and other parts of the château without bothering the private royal chambers.

The final stop of the day was a Vouvray wine tasting. Surprisingly, the winery was in a guy's house! Moreover, the house is built into a hill! The wine caves are on the "ground" floor that goes back into the rock, which was holed out to make room for the wine. His house is on the 2nd floor.

He first showed us the barrels in which the wine is stored, and then he told us that the wine is put into bottles with a metal cap. The bottles are gradually turned from right-side up to upside down, forcing the sediment to the neck of the bottle. The bottle is then placed in freezing water, and the sediment freezes (but the wine doesn't because of a lower freezing temperature). The frozen sediment is removed, and the bottle is corked and stored in a cave according to year and grade. Each cave can hold two barrells' worth of wine.

He gave us four different types of wine to try: a sec (not sweet), demi-sec (a little bit sweeter), a bubbly sec, and a super sweet one. I liked the sec and the demi-sec the best, and I bought one of each for only 6 euros each!

Châteaux and vineyard tours?! Its enough to make anyone feel like royalty! See you tomorrow!