Pulling into Amboise
The beautiful water of the Loire River
Amboise was once the home of the royal court, and its narrow, market-style streets still hold some charming timbered buildings. It was the most beautiful, picturesque walk from the parking lot through those winding streets and up the ramp to the château grounds- like stepping back in time.
Heading to the château
Up the ramp we go!
The ramp from the city streets up to the castle grounds cuts across itself once and then the view hits you like a glorious painting- I'll let the pictures do the talking from here~
USAC takes over the last leg of the ramp
Ryan, Robina, and our tour guide with da Vinci's burial chapel behind them
Inside da Vinci's chapel
There he is!
Our tour guide led us from da Vinci's chapel up the grounds and into the castle. She took us through different rooms giving an explanation in French as to each room's purpose when it was in use. She also explained how nearly 2/3 of the château has been demolished over time by the French Revolution, an engineering assessment by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the German invasion in 1940. What a loss... a beautiful piece of history never to be appreciated by our eyes.
A map of what the grounds used to be- what's in black is what still stands today. AKA: not much.
From there we continued on our tour through the various rooms of the main portion that still exists~
I loved these columns with the Fleur de Lis carved all over
A very luxurious royal bedroom
In this room there were bags of money carved in the wall moldings to represent the wealth of the Crown
A fancy sitting/entertainment room (back when there were no TVs to keep you occupied). Don't the red satin wall coverings just complete the picture?
As we walked through the last of the rooms, our tour guide encouraged us to go up to the terrace to get a view of the surrounding land. It was good that we did- stunning!
Up on the terrace
Now you can see how high up the castle and its gardens sit
If not for the little car down in the lefthand corner, this could be a picture from centuries ago
I like this picture.... the Château d'Amboise overlooking its territory
From the terrace we spilled out onto the garden. I buddied up with Aleca once again and the two of us had fun snapping random pictures of each other posed all around the grounds. Believe you me, every shot had a gorgeous background
Looking over the walls to the town below
A better view of the château; it looks small now knowing how big it used to be
Garden grape vines
Heading back down to the city- bye bye beautiful castle
We had some time left before we had to walk back to the bus, so Aleca and I strolled through the marketplace looking at jewelry, and scarves, and food, and the like. We came across a very uniformed street band on the way~
Everything was a bit pricy at the market but we were both curious about a rather blackened "cheese bread" that we had never seen before. It was 8 euros so we decided to buy one and split it; it was interesting. You could definitely taste a light cheese flavor but it was more like sweet bread than savory, cheesy bread. And the blackened part on top was definitely more crispy but it didn't really taste burnt. I didn't know what to make of it. It was good, I can say that, but I don't think it was worth 8 euros... at least we gave it a whirl.
Amboise's blackened cheese pastry
Just after noon, everyone was back on the bus and we pulled out of Amboise to head for.... VERSAILLES! That's right, we were finally making the last leg of the journey to get us to Paris. So excited so excited so excited!
More beautiful countryside
Our lunch stop on the way: most travelers would probably buy their packaged sandwiches and snacks and then find a table or eat in the car, but we decided to populate a patch of grass in the parking lot. This was certainly not a common sight for the French- while we were eating a party bus full of male sports players (I couldn't tell which sport but probably soccer) nearly fell out their windows shouting, waving, and overall just trying to get the Americans' attention.
After lunch, everyone climbed back aboard for the last 2 and half hours of the trip. We could tell we were entering Paris as we neared it: the streets narrowed, the packs of pedestrians grew more dense and more gutsy, and drivers seemed to grow more blind and deaf to the horn honking around them. With growing anticipation everyone began glancing every which way for IT. And IT was there to be seen- the Eiffel Tower! Just off to our left and a little ways out was the most iconic symbol of France (and probably of romance as well) in the world. I had no control over the smile that lit up across my face. Paris is probably the most fantastic city in the world for the way the place itself is alive. There is an electricity in the air that no person is immune to. Oh Paris- how I have longed to see you again.
FINALLY, we pulled into the terribly crowded tourist trap that is the parking lot at Versailles. If you can manage to get from your vehicle to the tremendous line waiting to go into the palace without buying a few 1 euro Eiffel Towers, you should buy one just because you were able to avoid the swarms of trinket-sellers waiting to attack tourists with their wares.
Versailles!! Somehow the parking lot looks out of place with that as a background
As you can now see, this is one of the more popular tourist sites in all of France; not to mention, this being Easter weekend it was all the more crowded with people out for the holiday
"To all the glories of France"
Once in line all there was to do was, well, w a i t. Oh we waited and waited, but I gladly took this wait with good form because I remember standing in the same line with my class in 2007 and it was far more painful in July than it was today in April.
Nearing the palace there are many tokens of the riches that await you inside
=)
Finally we made it inside. We each had a map of the palace and our time limit to see everything (be on the bus again at 7p), so we were let loose into the enormous crowd pushing its way to the main hall. I once again tagged onto Aleca, and this was a very good choice (as it always has been): Aleca's never seen Versailles, she's never been to Paris. And the way she was struck by everything in Versailles was infectious- I appreciated each detail all the more because of her attitude.
Finally inside the pot of gold that is le Palais de Versailles!
Most of the rooms in Versailles were named after Greco-Roman gods. If you remember, Louis XIV and his family were often depicted as Roman gods in paintings. This room was known as the "Venus Room"
Tips for decorating your home like Versailles from the "Mars Room"
1) Be sure to dazzle your guests by hanging your wealth from the ceiling, painting it on the walls, having it liquified to make crown moldings. You'll want to be sure they feel like utter street rats before they leave your elegant home.
Can you imagine if it fell on your head? (I don't know why that was the first thing I thought when I saw this)
Ladies and gentlemen.... the Hall of Mirrors
It was amazing we could find a clear section of mirror to take a picture but... that's us!
The King's Chamber
The King's Bedroom
The Council Study. Can you imagine having a meeting in here? I would be too distracted for business
Marie Antoinette's Bedroom- this is the room where she famously gave birth to such an audience that supposedly the pushing and shoving of their crowded bodies broke the banister that kept them from pressing right up to the bed. The public was no longer allowed to attend royal births from then on. This is also the room where Marie Antoinette escaped through a secret doorway the night a Paris mob stormed the palace.
The "Queen's Nobles Room"- this is where you would have waited for an audience with the Queen. Basically, this masterpiece is a waiting room
The famous "Coronation of Napoleon" (the real one's in the Louvre; this one is a replica)
After forcing our way through the crowds and nearly having the life squeezed out of us by a group of Japanese tourists, Aleca and I finally made it out into the gardens. The weather had turned while we were inside and it was suddenly gray and chilly- almost like rain was coming. Well, we are in the north now so it was perfectly plausible that we'd go from sun to storm today. Walking around in the gardens of Versailles is unreal: the land that belongs to the palace stretches on for an unfathomable length and every inch of it is manicured, color-coordinated, or fitted with marble statues. Unfortunately the glorious fountains weren't on today- though that should have been our clue to leave while it was still dry out. Hmm...
There are also speakers hidden all around the gardens, and today they were softly filling the air with classical tunes; very fitting for the environment. Aleca and I wandered down the long sanded path towards the ponds, but on the way we noticed that it was beginning to drizzle. We both figured (and hoped) that it wouldn't get much worse by the time we walked all the way back and out to the bus, so we kept going. So what if we got slightly damp?
The magical gold and marble fountain at Versailles. See the pond way up ahead? That's where the two of us headed
Looking back at the same fountain and the palace
As we neared the expansive, glassy pond and the second fountain lightning struck... well, not literally, but we quite suddenly realized that we were about to be caught in a downpour. And sure enough, on came the rain. We were entirely without umbrella's, Aleca in a skirt, I in a dress, and my ankle was still sprained. Basically, it wasn't the best of times for the sky to suddenly open up. There was also not an overhang in sight and we were quite a jog from the palace. From there, it was another walk through the open-air parking lot back to the bus. I'm not sure why- probably our determination to enjoy every last bit of this whole experience rather than waste even one second being mad or disappointed- but we simultaneously found something truly hilarious about the situation we were stuck in. Already getting soaked to the bone, we laughed almost to the point of gasping as we searched in vain for a dry, warm place to stand and hope for the storm to pass. Again I'll point out that I really like spending time with Aleca- me by myself would probably have been quite put out at getting soaked by the rain. But with her, it was simply a matter of not letting the rain do what it does on my parade.
At the pond; you can see it starting to come down on the water
This picture I find quite hilarious now: put yourself in my shoes- you know you are about to be soaking wet and cold and you still have to make it back to your bus. Plus, your natural instincts are still telling you to do something (like run instead of walk) to prevent from becoming too uncomfortable. Well, this is what you and I saw when we turned around to appraise exactly how much opportunity the rain was going to have to soak us. Merde.
Oh we ran and we laughed... and we got wet. We eventually found a bathroom and squeezed our way inside to dry off. The bathroom was also full of about 15 other women who were in various stages of wetness. There were also quite a lot of men crammed under the overhang just a step out from the door. What an awkward situation. To make it funnier, this bathroom had a glass ceiling; which means that we could see exactly how much the rain looked like it was coming down in buckets, and exactly how unlikely it was that it would stop anytime soon. Aleca and I used the few dry minutes to pull our hair back, tuck things into our bags and gather our breath. We were shivering and totally wet down to our socks- it was all bad. But, as we ducked our way through the bodies back OUT into the downpour, we started up the giggling once again.
Eventually we made it back to the bus. There was only one true mishap when, as we came across a massive pond-puddle, Aleca had to help me jump across and I totally felt my bad ankle strain. It was super painful, but I just gritted my teeth through it so we could get into the dry warmth of our seats. Making it back was actually a rather comforting thing: not only was almost everyone else on the bus at least damp, there were two other groups of people who came in after us plenty soaked. Hah! Keeping to our positive spirit, we posed for a picture- hopefully it will always remind us to smile (or laugh) in the face of difficulties~
Ta dah!
No one was completely dry when we made it to our hotel, but such is life. Aleca and I are in a room just the two of us so we were on the same page when it came to checking in, dumping our bags, and taking showers before dinner. I suppose I should mention- if for no other reason than to give you a good laugh- that I was not so fortunate with the grand Moving of the Luggage fiasco at this hotel. To my horror, there was no space (being that we are now truly in crowded Paris) for the bus to pull right up to the front of the hotel. SO, in order to disembark and get to the hotel, we all had to strap on our bags in a way that would keep them secure as we crossed not one, but TWO intersections before making it into the very tight hotel lobby. Not to sound like a big, fat whiner but I was literally in pain trying to move my two massive suitcases, stuffed-to-the-seams carryon bag, and bursting backpack. I tried to be clever and strap my carryon bag onto the front of one of my large bags but guess what... THE STRAP BROKE! The handle on my stupid carryon bag broke and fell to the ground right in the middle of an intersection! Thankfully it was a very narrow intersection, so I could cross it in about four steps to take the two necessary trips to get everything across. But I was completely screwed after that trying to figure out how to keep moving. Thankfully another USACer was there to keep me company on the street corner as I hustled to do something, so I wasn't mugged or anything. Eventually I realized that the only thing I could do was stretch my hand to impossible lengths in order to hold onto both my large suitcase handle and the torn handle of my carryon bag in one hand, and slide the other bag in front of me. If that image isn't enough to make you chuckle (or shake your head with pity) then get this: as I was panting with pain and exhaustion but sighing with relief at the sight of the hotel doors, I heard some voices calling my name above my head. Looking up, I saw 2 or 3 friends leaning out of their hotel room laughing at the sight of me with all of my stupid bags. I tried to just laugh it off (after all, I did look ridiculous), but I was honestly just so frustrated with my predicament that I wanted to yell at them to come help me. *Huff* Finally, I made it to the lobby and the last hurdle was maneuvering the Paris-sized elevator to get upstairs. The darn thing was so tiny that the first two times the swinging doors tried to close, they bounced back because my suitcase was sticking out. Oh by the way, I was the only person in the elevator AND I left my carryon and second bag in the lobby! Incroyable.
When Aleca and I were finally settled in our room, showered, dried, dressed, and much more comfortable, we headed out into the warm evening air of Paris to find food.
We found our dinner at a little Parisian café in the form of Croque Monsieur sandwiches. A traditional Croque Monsieur is a sandwich filled with ham and a Hollendaise-type sauce and topped with toasted cheese. Our sandwiches tonight were variations on that: large slices of flatbread topped with ham and then covered in a Roquefort and other cheese mix (on mine) or Emmental and other cheese mix and tomato (on Aleca's). We each cut our sandwiches in half for food-sharing purposes. They were delicious!
My Roquefort sandwich on the left, and Aleca's cheese and tomato on the right
The café where we had dinner
It was really nice to sit, eat a quite meal, and relax for a while. This had been another very busy, very full day and after all of that running in the rain I was definitely feeling a little pooped. Finally feeling rather stuffed as well, we paid our bill and heading back out into the lovely evening. We went for a short walk in the direction away from our hotel to spot the nearest ATM and a church. Easter's tomorrow and Aleca really wanted to find a church where she could go to Easter morning service. I felt a little guilty that this hadn't really crossed my own mind, but I was all for going with her if we could find a church with reasonable times given our field trip itinerary. We didn't have much luck with the church but we did find an ATM. We're going to try to figure out if going to service at Notre Dame tomorrow is an option for us, otherwise we might have to hold our own personal service.
Sometime around 10p we started walking back towards the hotel to catch some zzz's. I was able to use the hotel's internet (thank goodness!) to talk with my family on Skype for a little while. It was very settling to see their faces... and to know that I don't have to haul my luggage anywhere for another three days. =)
