When we were in Tours we decided that instead of renting a car and fighting with maps to figure out where the chateaux were... we bought a tour that was taken care of for us. :) We were able to see 4 chatueax during that Thursday (the 17th). Really interesting... and pretty! The first one we went to is called Azay-Rideau and is considered to be a relatively smaller chateau, called - very quaint. It wasn't small, but in comparison to most of the other ones, it is not AS big :)
(Pear tart for breakfast at the train station... I'm in love with the pastries)
(Front view)
(view of the chateau from the pathway behind it)
Its surrounded by a little moat, a "forest" in the back, walking paths and a little chapel.
The next chateau was Villandry, which is famous for its extravagant gardens. They are truly beautiful and are constantly being worked on by their many gardeners.
(View of the gardens from the chateau)
The chauteau itself was really nice, and is actually owned by a wealthy Spanish family.
After Villandry we headed back to Tours to grab lunch and then go out to the other side of the city to see the other places on our agenda for the day. Our tour group was actually really small - only 7 people and our 1 guide, so we drove around in a van all day and had the opprotunity to have the guide talk about the countryside that we were passing. :) The next chateau was Amboise, which as some of you may know is where Leonardo di Vinci spent much of his time and he is actually buried there in this chapel.
(His tomb)
It reminded me more of a fortress than anything else, very large and it's built up on a hill so it was easily defended.
(Gargoyles!!!)
(The castle itself, but the entire place is built up on a wall high above the city)
After Amboise we went to Leonardo di Vinci's home, which was amazing!!! Before entering, we were made to put our cameras in our bag, so sadly we have no pictures from the inside. :( But all I can say it is was beautiful and quite awe-inspiring. In the study of the house there is a glass cased on a desk, in which they have an actual manuscript written by Leonardo - that was amazing to see!
(This is his house)
Finally we went to see Chaneceaux, which is Charlie's favorite chateau and it was easy to see why. They had gardens that grow along one side of the walkway up to the chateau - which Charlie and I went in and looked around all the flowers and veggies. :)
The chateau itself was filled with people so it took a while to go around the place and see the rooms. Sadly, we weren't able to see the entire place, but we saw most of it. It was built over the river, so the castle itself acts as a bridge - its really cool.
(view of from the 2nd floor of the courtyard/entrance)
(The "Long Room," which acted as a banquet hall and is what is actually over the river)
After that we headed back to Tours and Charlie and I made our way to a grocery store to get dinner and got back to the hotel. :)
We discovered the wonderful capability of renting movies on iTunes - so that night we downloaded and watched the movie Kinky Boots, which is absolutely hilarious!!! :)
The next day we spent our time walking around the town and relaxing... its full of little shops and bakeries, we picked up a tart for dessert that night after another bread, cheese and fruit dinner. :)
Saturday the 19th we got back on the train and went up to Paris, got on the metro and went across the city to another train station and got on the next train to head down to Cannes :) The 5 hour long journey was okay, we had a crabby couple of ladies sitting across from us, who had NO concept of personal bubble space... :\ I had one of them put her feet up on my lap - so she could be more comfortable?? no good. :( But Charlie and I had a deck of cards and we played games most of the time, we brought snacks...and then snoozed.
(the most brilliant idea ever!)
(View of Provence from the train - about 30 minutes from Cannes)
We got there around 9 pm, waiting a while for a taxi and then got to our hotel a few miles out of Cannes on the beach around 10. I've never been so happy to get to a nice hotel... that has glass glasses, lots of room to put our luggage and a comfy bed. :) Loved it!!!
(view from our room the first night there - the moon was red)
(Views from our room)
We spent the next few days down on the beach, Charlie went swimming a lot and I read my book :) Granted, we got a little burnt... ok, quite burnt, but it was good for the soul.
(us lounging on the beach)
(Salad at the lounge in the hotel - quite delicious)
Tuesday the 22nd was our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary! So we splurged and got hour long massages there in the hotel by the sweetest French lady. After that we grabbed lunch, went out for a short swim to cool down, got ready and headed out to the town of Cannes to celebrate.
We found a little bistro for dinner, quite delicious - we of course had to have creme brule. :)
We walked along the shops, window shopping at Burberry and Dior... then we walked down the beach side of the main boulevard as the sun started to go down.
We saw the plaza area where they hold the Cannes Film Festival, they had cardboard cutouts of famous movies and actors,
(Yes, thats Charlie :) )
and their version of the stars on the ground.
That night back at the hotel, we decided to go down to the casino for the fun of it... I gave in and played the 1 euro slot machines for a while and then Charlie had some fun at the blackjack tables. It was a lot of fun! We didn't win anything but who cares...
(Our last day there :( )
Wednesday the 23rd, we got back to the train station and headed up to Annecy. The journey wasn't too bad, although I had to go backwards (no bueno for my tummy) so I tried to go to sleep for the majority of the time. We had to switch trains in Lyon and thankfully we had a little bit of a break to grab some food (pizza...) and then we got on the little train to go up to Annecy. This part of the trip was much more enjoyable - the train was not full of people and we had an entire car to ourselves. We practiced our blackjack skills (we might as well get better, haha) and played about an hour's worth of Rummie.
When we got to Annecy, we could see our hotel from the train station, which is because it was built OVER the train tracks. haha.
(one of those rooms above the tracks was ours)
We got checked in and fell right to sleep. If I didn't know any better I would think that we have mono or something, we're so exhausted that we're sleeping all the time. So we slept in Thursday, ate a late breakfast and then went out to explore the little town.
Annecy is adorable! I absolutely loved the small town feel! They have a pedestrian street that is lined with shops and cafes - Looking down the streets you can see the mountains and then walk down to the lake...
(view from a cafe where we had lunch)
(Charlie and the lake :) )
So peaceful. Charlie and I decided to save money and just enjoy the town rather than paying lots of money to do some of the water sports or going over into Switzerland. Therefore we spent our days there just wandering around the town enjoying it as much as possible. :)
(yay?! we avoided it)
(Charlie, waiting for our vegetable pizza... :))
(The streets and restaurants along the canal)
Sunday the 27th we left Annecy and came back up to Paris, which is where we are know. Sadly I have some kind of bug?? so yesterday while doing laundry I got really really sick - hopefully its just the stomach flu, but I haven't been up to going out and doing anything. :( I wanted to go out to Versailles today, but I'm so weak - I've had to come to terms that its not happening. sigh.
At least we have a good view from our hotel room for me to look at
We leave tomorrow (the 30th) in the afternoon Paris time for Thailand! Hopefully we'll have some internet access!! We're excited to go back to where we started our relationship 4 years ago! It'll be a great way to end our trip. We'll be leaving midnight the 13th/14th of August from Bangkok and we'll get home to LA midmorning the 14th.
We love you all and miss you tons!!! I hope to get to post again while we're in Thailand!
before I leave, here is our most recent picture of the puppy litter:
We're so excited to come home and get him!
No comments:
Post a Comment