'Mid pleasures and palaces...

'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

So I thought this would be an appropriate title for this blog post, not only because it is about the fabulous châteaux we saw as we drove back to Paris through the Loire Valley, but also because it was the last thing we did before returning home and thus, this will be my last post. I know, I know, cue the violins.


But before you get all weepy on me, let me tell you about the Loire. It is beautiful and is full of charming riverside towns, vineyards, and, of course, châteaux – over 300 of them! The two that my dad and I visited, Chambord and Chenonceau, are two of the most famous and recognizable châteaux and they were both incredible, although very different in terms of architecture and history. 


Oh, but before I show you the châteaux, I thought I'd throw in a bonus pic of Tours, the town we stayed in the night before (after we left Mont St. Michel). Tours is the largest city in the Loire Valley and is known partly for its spectacular cathedral:

Alllright, now that that's out of the way, we can commence with the châteaux. So we left Tours (indicated by a large green dot on the map below) in the morning and headed to Chenonceau, which is situated on the Cher River, a tributary of the Loire. 

The Château de Chenonceau is one of the prettiest châteaux in the Loire Valley and also one of the oldest. It dates back to the 11th century and was famously the home of King Henri II's mistress Diane de Poitiers until the king's death, when his widow, Catherine de Medici, forced Diane to exchange it for the Château de Chaumont and then moved her royal ass in and made Chambord one of her favorite residences. Don't feel too bad for ol' Diane though. Chaumont is still pretty baller. http://www.37-online.net/chateaux/photos/photos_chaumont/chaumont_page.jpg

The approach to the château

The Chancellerie (Steward's House) at the entrance to Diane de Poitiers' Garden

The famous "gallery" of the château actually crosses the Cher River. It was added on to the château by Catherine de Medici in 1576.

This part of the château also played a role in both World Wars. During the first, Gaston Menier, the then-owner of the château paid for a hospital to be set up here in the gallery, as is evidenced by the sign in the above photo, which reads "Here 2,254 wounded were cared for during the war." During the Second World War, Chenonceau again aided the Allied cause by serving as a passage between occupied France and the Free Zone. Because the Cher River, on which the château sits, served as the demarcation line between these two areas, the door of the château was in occupied France, whereas the exit from the South door at the end of the gallery was not. This made it possible for the allies to pass hundreds of people through the château into the Free Zone.

View of the Cher River

View of Diane de Poitiers' garden from the balcony

Catherine de Medici's bedroom. 

Diane de Poitiers' garden again.

 The aforementioned gallery that crosses the Cher, view from the garden.

Couldn't decide which I liked better, so I just put them both up.  

 Catherine de Medici's Garden

So after we left Chenonceau, we made our way up the Loire to Blois, where we stopped for lunch, and then it was on to the Château de Chambord (I included the map for those of you too lazy to scroll back up...which I assume is most of you. No judgement.)

Annnnnyway, now that we've all oriented ourselves, I can go ahead and tell you about Chambord. It is the biggest château of the Loire with 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces, and 84 staircases. This massive building was, like Versailles, originally built as a "hunting lodge" (I know, who needs 440 rooms to go hunting?) for François I and then passed through a myriad of owners before eventually being bought by the French government in 1930. 

So that's it. Like, that's the end. No more blog posts. Sad times for all of us. 

But seriously, I had a blast writing this blog and creating these posts and I really hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I want to thank all of you so much for your comments and compliments about the blog -- they made me so happy and gave me so much encouragement, especially since I know next-to-nothing about either blogging or photography. I hope I get to do something like this again, as sharing my adventures with you all has been so much fun for me. No one else appreciates mes bêtises like you guys.

Une vraie merveille

On the day we left Fougères, we drove up to Mont St-Michel, which is located right on the border between Normandy and Brittany, north and slightly west of Fougères. 

Mont St-Michel is technically the name of the tidal island upon which the now-famous monastery sits. The island has been used as a strategic defensive fortification since ancient times and was especially useful in France's ongoing struggle against England. In the 8th century, Aubert, the bishop of nearby Avranches, had a vision in which the Archangel Michael is said to have appeared to him and commanded him to build a church on the island. Thus, the monastery was founded and named after the archangel, Saint Michel. 

Over the years, Mont St-Michel became somewhat of a symbol of French resistance and nationalism as it repeatedly foiled and defended against the attacks of the English. In 1067, the monastery lent its support to William the Conqueror in his claim to the throne of England and then continued to frustrate the English by remaining impenetrable and fending off their many attacks throughout the Hundred Years War (c. 1337-1453). 
Although the history of the place is rich and fascinating, what is really impressive is the building itself. It literally rises out of the bay on this tiny, rocky outcropping, majestic and architecturally astonishing. I can't really explain how it was built, because it's too complicated and frankly a little too boring for me to waste time on here, but if you're interested, the Catholic Encylopedia has some interesting information - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10551a.htm.
Anyway, that's probably more information than you wanted or cared to know and I'm assuming you would prefer to look at some photos.

Below the monastery and the church, a small town winds its way around the base of the island.

Atop the island sits the abbatial church and the cluster of buildings called La Merveille (the Marvel) where the monks lived and worked (hence, the title of this post, which means "a real marvel." Get it? Oh, the cleverness of me! – 10 points to whoever can tell me what that's from...)

The 1000-year-old abbey church

The cloister.

Spooky stairwell.

A hidden gem

So, after we left Bayeux, we weren't sure where we wanted to go. We knew that we wanted to spend a day doing Mont-St. Michel, but thanks to the advice of one Chloe Bordewich, we knew it wouldn't take a full day, so we decided to explore somewhere else in the meantime. We thought we should try to find something to do in Brittany, a province to the south of Normandy, just to try something new/say we had been there. So we looked in our guidebook and found a little town called Fougères that was supposed to have a really cool walled castle. 

Map of the region. I have indicated Fougères with an orange dot.

We decided we had nothing to lose, so we went to check it out and it actually turned out to be amazing! The main structure in the city is the huge fortress, complete with a giant wall and a moat, that sits smack-dab in the center of the town. It's pretty damn old (built between the 12th and 15th century) and served as a stronghold on the frontier between the Duchy of Brittany and France (apparently, Brittany was it's own thang until the 16th century. Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Brittany) and as a fortification to protect the town and its citizens in times of trouble. Fougères also has an "upper town" on a hill that overlooks the lower part of city and affords great views of the fortress and the old buildings below.

 View up the street from our hotel.

 Église St. Leonard

Église St. Leonard (side view)

 A park near the church.

 One of the aforementioned view of the castle from the higher part of the town.

 I guess I felt the need to get artsy?

 View of the "upper town" from the castle.

 This sign reads "the happiness is in the wheat." As a bread aficionado, I wholeheartedly agree.