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Published: September 17th 2007
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So I said that my friends and I were going to rent bikes and go and ride around the Châteaux in the Loire Valley. And that is precisely what we did this weekend! We started our three day weekend with a wonderful group bonding session at one of our friend’s apartment’s (she’s an art major, so I’m not sure a French family would want her erecting a floor to ceiling set up for painting art!) to cook dinner. A few people cooked us really yummy pasta and mixed vegetable sauce, and then we had nutella crêpes! We’re thinking of making this a weekly event, with different people cooking different things each week… the catch… most people are either vegetarian or vegan (one girl is even allergic to whatever is in flour, but we sort of decided that is way too complicated to deal with as we’d just have to eat raw carrots every week otherwise!), so we are sort of limited in options for different meals, but c’est la vie. We all left on the last metro, but made it back in time to get some sleep before our biking riding tour the next day!
Four of us decided to
go on the trip (Sofia, Seva, Kevin and me), so we all met up at the Gare d’Austerlitz at 08h30, got our tickets and took the train to Blois. We chatted about where we were riding on the train, and then started discussing how PDA is apparently very accepted in France as a couple were going at it in the seat next to us! Once arriving, we found the Château and church in Blois, and eventually came across our little 15 euros per person per night hotel. It was actually really cute, with one room and bathroom for the four of us, including a double bed and two singles, which the guys naturally took! After grabbing lunch at a boulangerie for a lot cheaper than we do in Paris, we set of riding. In the Loire Valley, there are multiple bike trains that sort of form circles, and you pick one and go with it for 3-4 hours. We had decided to head to the Château de Chambord, then switch to a different circular trail after that castle and head toward another… HOWEVER… it turned out that we were taking the circle the wrong way (who’d a guessed?!) so we
had to cut across some gentle country roads to find our way to the castle. Riding through the countryside on the bikes was beautiful, and the weather was amazing! It was perfect because it was very warm, but there was a little breeze too. Once we found our away to the castle (after stopping to munch on Kevin’s éclaire… biking’s hard work!) we parked our bikes and headed toward the castle. It was really cool to have Sofia with us as she’s an art history major, and has seen a lot of the castles with an art history teacher before, so she was telling us everything about it and how it looked imposing from the front and didn’t have an entrance to ward of people who weren’t invited, but then when you got around to the back (aka the entrance) it was welcoming and had “arms outstretched” to welcome you… and this castle was only a royal hunting castle, not even a defensive one! We looked around the castle and made it to the top where the view was amazing looking over the land, then we spotted a couple getting married on the grounds, and started getting distracted by the
architecture and talking about where we’d want to get married. Before leaving, we couldn’t help getting some 78% pure fruit sorbet, so yummy! Oh, did I mention we convinced the castle that we were art history students so we got in for free?
Next, we got back on our bikes and headed toward the CHOCOLATE FACTORY that Camille had told me about (although technically the one she said doesn’t exist anymore, but we found another anyway, so no biggie!). We shared two huge pieces of chocolate. We got white chocolate with coconut (my choice.. duh!) and then milk chocolate with caramelized almonds and raisons.
Following that yummy interlude, we went back to seeking out castles. Our next quest: Château Cheverny. This castle wasn’t a royal castle, so it wasn’t as grandiose or large as Chambord, but I really actually enjoyed it as it seemed much more “livable.” In fact, there were family trees with children being born up until the late twentieth century.. and the castle was lived in as a home until 1985! They also had packs of hunting dogs which were all caged up in a tiny space and a beautiful rose garden. Crazy! We left
as we heard a voice screaming in pain and an ambulance rolling up. I hope the person was ok.
We flew back (possibly might have accidentally ended up on a 90km/hr highway for a few moments… oopps) as we were all starving, I fell off my bike and still have huge bruises, and took showers and got ready for dinner. We were intent on finding good French food, but the only possible place served Kangaroo, and there is no way I’m eating in a restaurant where the same knife that cut my lettuce was used to chop up a ‘roo, so we went to a crêperie. I had a goats cheese and caramelized onion crêpe with salad, which was super yummy, then split a dessert crêpe with Sofia that had tons of whipped cream, coconut ice cream, chocolate and coconut sauce, and other yummy things on top! Dinner took about 3-4 hours and we ended up having a long discussion about the Jewish faith, which was rather interesting for me, given that I realized I was eating with 2.5 Jews.
The next morning we were all sore, so we went around the castle in the town we were
staying in, Blois, which was beautiful. When we got to the top you could see over the entire Loire Valley! I loved the huge ballrooms and all the thrones that were around. It was really interesting because the castle was built in different time periods, so it had a medieval part, a gothic part, a renaissance part, and a baroque part.
After that, we hopped back on our bikes and rode to the Château Beauregard which was closed given that we arrived right in the middle of lunch on a Sunday, but we all sat in the grass in the castle grounds for a little while which was fun, and it was great weather, a little cooler than the day before, so the bikeride was très amusant!
We ate a little café for lunch and I had one of the best meals of my life. Moules with Roquefort, white wine and onion sauce. Heaven.
So that concludes our little visit to the Loire Valley. We made it back in time for me to prepare for my interview on Monday afternoon for my internship, and then get some much needed sleep before classes started the next. Enjoy the
pictures!
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Lara
non-member comment
Kangaroo?
EWW! I'm glad you're having a great time in France. I miss you lots and lots and lots. I'm leaving for our apartment tomorrow morning and you won't be there! I'll make it all pretty and send pictures to you (probably on Thursday, or Friday). MWAH