Chenonceau !!

Yesterday, Valeria, Mamie, Joel, and I went to the Château de Chenonceau for a day trip, before classes start and because we've been bored as hell sitting around the house all day.

The train left at 10:08am, so we got up early and went into town for pain au chocolat for breakfast before we left. If you've never had it, pain au chocolat is amazing. It's basically like a square croissant pastry, but they put two stripes of chocolate in the middle, so it's chocolaty and flaky and delicious. Then we went and got our tickets, which were pretty cheap, since the château is only a 20-minute train ride away.

When we got there, it was kind of weird, because we didn't know really where to go. There was basically just a little train stop (it looked just like a bus stop; there weren't really anything in terms of maps or anything like that) right to the side of a cute little village. Fortunately, when we went towards the village we saw the sign pointing the way! There was a little gift shop where you could buy the entrance tickets, so we bought them and went in!

There's a long drive between the gift shop and the actual château, so we walked for a while, and then finally saw it! The actual château itself is built mostly over the river Cher, so it's kind of a like a combination bridge/castle. We walked around through the four different levels, and saw the kitchens, the gallery, the library, and the bedrooms of various kings and queens.

Chenonceau is kind of known as a woman's castle, since it was frequently given as a gift to various women by the kings or lords who owned it. The most famous historical story about Chenonceau is that it belonged to the crown when Henri II was king. He, feeling generous, gifted it to his favourite mistress, Diane de Poitiers (which, you can imagine, didn't please his wife, Catherine de Medici, at all). Diane owned the castle for a long while, and did a lot to improve and expand it, making it beautiful and comfortable. After Henri died, however, Catherine expelled Diane and took over the castle herself, remodeling it again and making it her place. There are several other notable stories associated with the castle, too, including the fact that during WWII it was one of the few crossing points over the Loire between Nazi-controlled France and Vichy France, so a lot of people escaped through it. It was also used as a hospital during the war, so it saved a lot of people directly, too!

It was a lot of fun to just walk around the castle. A lot of it was obviously built for people my size; there were lots of tiny doors and hallways, which was fun for me. It's a lot smaller than you'd think, for an actual castle, especially if you've ever seen Versailles or any of the other larger châteaux. But I thought it was really cute. Once we had seen everything in the château itself, we went out to the grounds. The whole day was kind of cold and wet and rainy, and only two of us had brought umbrellas, so we didn't really want to wander around too much. But we went through the Garden of Diane de Poitiers, and got some really pretty pictures of the château and the river. There was also a house (probably originally intended to be for the gardeners and servants) that I absolutely fell in love with and really want to live in.

After the garden, I insisted we see the Maze on our way out. It's a hedge maze, with diverging paths and dead ends and things, which was fun. For me, it was tall enough that I couldn't see the right path, but Joel could see the right way to take fairly easily. It was kind of sad; I would've liked to wander more, but it was pretty cold and everyone's toes were freezing. So we took a bunch more pictures, and walked back to the little gift shop. When we got there, we looked around and warmed up a bit. I bought a little necklace that had the maze on it, and says "Château de Chenonceau" on the back. It's not like I'm a little obsessed, or anything. :P

We had basically decided that we'd seen everything we were going to see, so we went back to the train station. At that point, we still had an hour or so before the train was supposed to get there (from my brief looking at the sign), so we went into the town to find a restaurant or something. A lot of them were still closed, since it's probably the off-season for the châteaux, but we found a little bakery/pastry shop, where we got ham-and-butter sandwiches on baguettes and Orangina. We thought we still had some time, and the desserts she had looked incredible, so we also stayed for dessert. Mamie and I shared a little wildberry tart, which was absolutely delicious.

Unfortunately, because we'd stayed for dessert, the train was passing by just as we walked down the street towards the station. We started running, but we didn't realise that there was a second platform to access trains going in the other direction. The trains only stop for about 30 seconds before taking off again, so by the time we had run up to the platform, it was already leaving. That meant that we'd have to wait almost 3 hours for the next train. We basically just sat in the gift shop for Chenonceau, because at least there it was dry, and heated.

We *did* manage to catch the next train, which was a very good thing. All in all, the trip was a lot of fun, and it was wonderful to go out and see things and have fun. When we got back, we told the others about the trip, and settled in until dinner, which was really really good. We had chicken with mushroom sauce and rice, and Jacqueline had some Chinese spring rolls left over from brunch which were also delicious.

Today's been a lazy day, since some (though not all) of us are starting classes tomorrow. I have my first class, Beginning Greek, at 1pm. I went out for a walk along the river a while ago, which was gorgeous. It was late afternoon, and the sun was shining, and the wind was blowing. I went across the Loire River on a bridge that I don't think I was technically supposed to cross by foot, but I did it anyway. Then walked up the other side of the river, where there's a bunch of little walking paths. There were a lot of older couples and people walking their dogs around; I kind of followed where they were going and found the walking bridge across the river (which is what I should have gone over to start with). I took it back, then walked up to the City Library to check their hours, since I only brought two books with me. Then I walked back through the little streets and window-shopped, and saw the Cathedral. I want to go in one of these days, but I think I'll save it for a day that's not a Sunday.

Tonight, we're apparently having sushi for dinner, which is really exciting! (Some people don't like it, and they'll apparently be having something else, but I dunno what.) Then I would say I should go to bed early, since I have class tomorrow, but it's not until 1pm, so whatever. :D