Loire Valley !
The amount of beauty and history that fills the country of France astounds me, and I still have only seen a fraction of it..
One Saturday morning we all woke up bright and early and met at a bus that was going to take us to the châteaux! It was an organized trip through our program, so all 11 of us were there and ready to sight-see! We started off with an hour and a half long bus ride over to Le FountainBleu. This is where Napoleon Bonaparte and a few other French monarchs resided in their time. It was beautiful grounds, and we got their at the perfect morning light – so basically it was all gorgeous. We walked through the castle and saw the little museum with the old clothes and artifacts, then went into the adorable little town for lunch and a cappuccino.
Then it was another hour long bus ride into the Loire Valley, where we saw the Chateau Chambord. This castle was grand and beautiful with gardens as far as the eye could see. It was breathtaking, and I could definitely give up normal life and live there as a princess if that was necessary.. This chateau is the largest in the Loire Valley and construction was started, but not finished under Francois I. This is one of the few chateaux to not need an extraordinary amount of work to restore it. (I won’t bore you any more with history, but if you want to know more you can go to http://www.chambord.org/en/decouvrir-chambord/the-chateau/through-history/)
After that castle, we proceeded to get back on the bus and drive another hour to the capitol city of the region, Tours. When arrived in the city, we got to our hotel, a lovely Ibis Budget. It was a place to sleep and shower, so I can’t complain.
That night we ate dinner at a pizza restaurant, where each of us ate an entire pizza… I missed pizza, I’m sorry. Then we went out on the town for a little bit. Mostly because there was dancing and reduced price drinks at one the bars in town.
The next morning we woke up, ate some croissants and drank some coffee, then we were off to our next chateau! The chateau of that morning was Le Château D’Azay-Le-Rideau. This was probably my preferred chateau on the whole trip. It was a little smaller, really adorable, and surrounded by beautiful fields, water, and trees. (Here is a history of the chateau if you want to know more about it http://www.azay-le-rideau.fr/Explorer/L-histoire-du-chateau-d-Azay).
After we grabbed some lunch in town; for me it was a burger and fries. But the burger was on a bagel instead of an actual bun.. We got back on the bus and headed off to the next destination: the city of Ambroise!
Here we did a wine and cheese tasting of the local wine and cheese in a wine cave. It was actually pretty amazing. The owner of the wine cave gave us a tour and explained to us the differences between the wines and what the aging process is like, and then after we learned about it we were able to experience it with a tasting. He fist showed us how to properly taste wine. You look at it. Then you smell it. Then you swirl it. Then you look at it again. Then you smell it again (the smell is different after air goes into the wine). Then you actually get to drink it. Then we ate cheese to compliment the flavor of it. It was a great experience and I like most everything I tasted, other then one of the 30-year-old white wines that just tasted like sweetened mushrooms and dirt to me.
After we left the wine cave, we were able to go around the city. We had to find a bathroom. But then we walked around the city. I took my time to get a beautiful gelato and then take a picture of the outside of the Chateau Ambroise (we didn’t have enough time to actually go inside of this one).
Then it was back on the bus and back to Paris!
Can We Go Please? 
Really fantastic and informative post! Amazing photos too! What camera/lens do you use?
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Some of the pictures are actually just with my iPhone 6 (when I am too lazy to pull out my camera) and other wise it is a Sony NEX-7 with an Optical Steady Shoot 3.5-6.3/18-200 lens !
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iPhone cameras are wondrous things!
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