Tours Metropolis: Day 6 – Grand Chateaux Day

Hotel Ronsard, 2 Rue Pimbert, Tours, France

          Fine, waking up early wasn’t that hard…

          Leaving early to catch the bus at the Office du Tourisme, we had a very good plan: seeing two chateaux today and four tomorrow. I know what you’re thinking; “Four? Isn’t that a lot of castles in one day?” Well, that’s what I was thinking. But you see, chateaux are more like really, really big, castle-shaped houses. So they’re not like grand palaces. Most of them, anyway.

Villandry and its gardens

          Before I go on individually describing my chateau-experiences, I would like to announce my real goal, I mean, other than visiting cool old places. You see, last year when I went to Switzerland with Dad and Connie, we went into a castle: Le Chateau de Chillon. Immediately falling in love with its beauty, I made a major life-changing decision. There would be where I got married, one day. Granted, that was, at the time, the only castle I’d ever seen. So my final goal is to find an even better (if that’s even possible) location for a wedding.

          Our first stop was Azay Le Rideau.

          My first impression was that it wasn’t that big. For once, I was right.

          It was like a big, castle-shaped house. I definitely could’ve lived in there. It was about three stories high, and only about as large as the central staircase running through it. There were a few rooms on either sides, but nothing more. A dining hall, a kitchen, and a few bedrooms were the main rooms.  The house was also surrounded by “gardens”—that’s what they called them, anyways—which were really actually patches of grass and a nice little pond. I’m sure the experience would have been more enjoyable if it WASN’T RAINING AGAIN. Okay, it wasn’t that bad—a light drizzle made it just uncomfortable enough for us to pull our umbrellas out. After going around, we hurried back to the van of seven other people waiting for us—we were the last ones, and late.

          As I said, it would be a great place to live in, or even to stay for a while. To get married in? Not so much.

          Next, we headed for Villandry.

          Now, that is a place I would love to live in. In was built to be an actual house, you see, so it’s not as cold as normal, abandoned buildings. It was lived in by the Carvallo family in the early 1900s, and it was beautiful. They had actual gardens this time, and personally, I believe that they could’ve been the main attraction. They were separated into sections; there was a vegetable garden, a herb garden, an ornamental garden, even a water garden with fountains. There was also a maze. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much of a chance for wandering around, because we wanted to hurry as to not be late again. Inside the house, we saw the bedrooms, all of them (they had had six kids). I think our favourite room was the Oriental drawing room—the ceiling was simply magnificent. It had been brought in from the Maqueda ducal palace in Toledo, and it is part of a four-piece collection—the three other pieces are “housed by prestigious, international museums.”

          I loved Villandry, but to live in. Certainly not for a wedding, though, although the gardens would make a nice backdrop for photos.

          Heading back for the van (We were not late!), Patrick, the driver, asked us if we could do the two other castles today, and only do the two tomorrow, instead of four. (Hence the title, Grand Chateaux Day) We agreed, so instead of heading to the Office du Tourisme, we headed, oh right, to the Office du Tourisme.

          Patrick told us we had 15 minutes to find a lunch. Needless to say, we hurried. Finding a little sandwich shop, we quickly bought me a Panini, and Grandma a sandwich. We came back to the van and prepared to go to Chenonceaux, our next destination. It was a long drive—about an hour—so I dozed off while Grandma chatted away with Michael, the American man sitting next to her. We’ll probably be seeing him tomorrow, since we’re not finished out tour, yet, and neither is he. Pulling into the parking lot, I finally caught a glimpse of the infamous Chenonceaux, Grandma’s favourite chateau, apparently, and… I fell in love.

Chenonceaux: fairytale castle

          The castle… It seemed to have jumped straight out from the page of a storybook. Something out of a fairytale. I could practically see Snow White (although I don’t like Snow White, she’s such a wimp) pulling water out of a well, and Cinderella (she’s better) sweeping outside.  There were more, breathtaking gardens. What really amazes me is the organization—they’re all in specific sections, symbolizing specific things. Only the French, right?

The inside was nice, as well; lots of bedrooms, once again, and a great hall out back. It had been used as a hospital during the World Wars. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Reception location! There was also a chapel, when, you know, the actual marriage could take place. Although I’m not religious, so a chapel might not be obligatory. Either way, you’re all invited to my wedding at Chenonceaux (airplane tickets must be bought by yourselves)!

          And our last destination was Chambord.

          Now, Chambord is a beautiful castle… But the inside was, well, empty. I mean, it was more of a museum than anything else, and I was hoping for more information on how people lived, and less people. I mean, it was completely crowded. I think it was also just a little bit too big. The outside was still amazing, though. Really, really pretty. It was just huge… The main attraction was the central staircase, which wound up and up and up, till you finally get to the roof. That was nice, though. We had a really nice view of the little town, from up there. Getting bored, we strolled back to the van, stopping for ice cream (vanilla, from a vanilla bean—best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had).

          Finally, after the long drive back, we came home.

          Then, we went out for dinner.

          There was a Leonardo Da Vinci restaurant that was Italian, but that also had some meat and other things for Grandma. We walked over and sat down. Grandma had some ravioli-type things (she hadn’t recognized the name)—I thought the whole point of going there was for her not to have Italian food, since she had been complaining, but no, she changed her mind—and I had something resembling spaghetti (I hadn’t recognized the name, either).

          Half-way through the dinner, I misread something on the wall, and of course, Grandma  had to seize the opportunity to tease me.

          “I think you need glasses,” she told me. I replied that I did have glasses.

          “No, I mean for up close.”

          Looking down at my tablecloth, I stated, “Well, I see the bread crumbs on my napkin.”

          A few seconds passed, then, “That’s not a napkin.”

          We laughed so hard that I feared that the waiters would comment on our giggling. I don’t know why we found that so funny, but we just couldn’t stop. It was great.  After deciding that we would just look at the dessert menu, but ending up ordering tiramisu, we headed home once more.

          So that was the grand chateaux day, but tomorrow is still a chateaux day, although not so grand…