Castles Part III

    On Sunday morning we started off the day at the Fontevraud Abbey. I was surprised by how big and gorgeous it was; the first buildings appeared in the 12th century and it has been expanding ever since. It was important for several reasons. First, it was a double monastery, which means that both nuns and monks lived there (although they were separated, of course). Eleanor of Aquitane spent a good amount of time there, and was eventually buried there along with her son, Richard the Lionheart. 

   During the revolution, many religious sites were destroyed in order to fulfill revolutionary renunciations of religion in France. However, this particular abbey's conversion into a prison saved it from this fate. The size and relative beauty of the buildings demonstrate their importance. 

This is the main church. 

The abbey is famous for the size and shape of its kitchens, this entire tower-like structure used to be where all the food was prepared. Notice the array of chimneys; inside, there are multiple fireplaces for preparing multiple dishes at the same time. 

For a place that was supposed to be devoted to piety and modesty, there was a surprising amount of ornamentation.

Interior view of the main church. 

Monuments representing the dead royals...

The woman on the fair side represents Eleanor of Aquitane. It's a little bit difficult to see, but she's depicted holding an open book. This idea was actually quite revolutionary at the time (early 13th century), because it was essentially the first time a women was represented as being particularly scholarly.

Side view of a chapel. 

The main gallery. 

The man in the front is Richard the Lionheart. 

Doorway to another ambiguous room.

The room was notable because of the huge murals depicting the life of Christ. As my Catholic friend Kevin explained to me, pretty much every old church in Europe has some sort of visual summary of Jesus' life to help out the ordinary people who couldn't read. In this photo below, I believe the image on the left is the last supper, and the image on the right is Jesus' ascension into heaven. 

This is clearly the crucifixion. 

Jesus' entry into Jerusalem? 

Washing the disciple's feet.

The abbey still has a huge, well-tended garden where the nuns and monks grew all their food.

More views of the gardens, it was a perfect day.

Another view of the kitchens. 

This is an inside view of the ceiling in the kitchen.

After the abbey, we returned to Chinon (where our hotel was) to eat lunch. My friends and I just ended up buying a baguette, some apples, cheese, and desserts, and bringing it to the river to sit and enjoy the view!

Some street views in Chinon. 

This alley looked so picturesque and perfect that my friend and I decided to walk down it, road less traveled and all that jazz. Turns out it was littered with dog crap, so it quickly became much less exciting and actually quite "shitty" (pun intended). 

After lunch we visited our last castle - Azay-le-Rideau. It was built during the French renaissance in the early 16th century, and differs from Chenonceau by the design of its gardens. If you remember, Chenonceau has huge, lush gardens in the French style (think Versailles). Azay-le-Rideau, however, has gardens that are designed in the English style, which means they're less excessive and more practical, but still gorgeous. 

This is the adorable little town that is built next to the castle; you get the feeling that it sprung up to meet the needs of the castle's rich inhabitants. 

Initial view of the castle itself. 

Bridge and moat. 

One of the towers. 

Another example of a staircase that is open to the outside. Our tour guide explained that it was fun for the castle's owners to stand in the windows and wave at arriving guests, just to show off their extravagance. 

Beautiful wooden fireplace in the renaissance style.

I was really shocked when I saw there was actually a billiard room with a pool table, but then I read the plaque which explained that Europeans have been playing pool since the 19th century. Who knew?

This room was set up with a complete table setting, it was interesting to see a realistic image of a room that could actually be useful. 

Another fancy fireplace.

Some furniture. 

These doors were discreetly built into a corner of the castle, I thought they looked very cool.

Side view of the castle, with some of the water that surrounds the back. 

This is the famous image of the castle, but it's actually the back side of it, behind the entrance.

This little chapel-like building was set into the wood-sy English gardens.

Waterfall around the back. 

Another garden, full of vegetables and flowers!

After exploring the castle, my friend and I checked out the village, it had some of the most picturesque views. 

This is the village church... I wonder if the families who lived in the castle would attend the same services as the townspeople. Something tells me that would be very taboo.

After visiting the castle, we headed back to Tours to the train station ("gare") that would take us back to Paris. We took the TGV both ways, which is the famous French high-speed train. It was quite comfortable and surprisingly quiet, especially considering how fast we were going! It was nice to get out into the country for a few days, and overall I had a great weekend.

    So I know I promised I'd put up the rest of the pictures from this weekend (and they're pretty cool, so prepare yourselves), but I just finished dinner with my host mom and her boyfriend and I have some stories to share.
    First off, my host mom is 58 years old and she's a widow, but has a longtime boyfriend named Etienne. Etienne works for the Ministry of Agriculture (which reminds me of the Ministry of Magic, again for those of you who appreciate my excellent references), and he's the epitome of a stereotypical older French man. He's extremely sassy and traditional, he knows what he wants in life and he's not afraid to tell you.
    Today he was on a roll with his sassiness, once you get him started there's no stopping the Etienne Train. We had a 10 minute discussion about cheeses, in which he informed me that pasteurized cheeses are pretty much the worst thing on God's green earth. I was happily munching on some Brie when he disdainfully pointed out that it'd been pasteurized (although he did grudgingly take a piece later on). Mostly he stuck with the Camembert though, which in his opinion is excellent because it's never pasteurized and is always the same size, shape, and color. He was also quick to point out that American trade laws forbid the importation of non-pasteurized French cheese, even though some American companies produce and sell it themselves. His general opinion seems to be that this practice is bullshit.
    He then went on to explain the varieties of French alcohol. Apparently each region in France has its own specialities, based on what fruits are available to turn into wine or liquor. Without Etienne, I will grudgingly admit that my knowledge of French food would be pretty lax. I never would've known that people make alcohol out of apples, plums, strawberries, and even peppers! Etienne also explained how cognac is made - apparently you just take wine and distill it for a second time, something about the vapors rising and mixing and such. Pretty interesting stuff.
    He also told me that in the past there used to be traveling wine producers. This was, of course, before the French government put limits on alcohol production to reduce alcoholism in the countryside (I add the "of course" not because it was something that I already knew, but because that's exactly the way Etienne presented the idea). Anyway, these wine producers were actually very skillful artisans who would wander across the countryside, stopping at each house of reasonable size in order to sell their services. Basically they would take whatever fruits they could find in the garden and distill it to make alcohols, hence each region developed its specialities based on which kind of fruit was native to the area.
   So, the moral of the story is, when Etienne is around I don't get to talk much. But usually I find his mannerisms so entertaining that I'm trying not to giggle anyway, so maybe it's good that I just sit back and listen....

Castles Part II

     After leaving Chambord our next destination was the castle at Chenonceau, which is literally built over the Cher River (in French, "cher" means "expensive," it's not just a weird testament to Cher the pop star). The castle was originally built and rebuilt by private owners starting in the 1400's, but by the 16th century the French monarchy had seized the property as compensation for unpaid debts. The castle became scandalous in 1547 when Henri II, King of France, gave it as a gift to his famously beautiful mistress Diane de Poitiers. She was responsible for expanding and improving the castle and its gardens, but after the king's death the queen Catherine de Medici jealously reclaimed the property, adding her own improvements in the process. Today the castle is owned by the Meniers, a family of chocolatiers who chose to list it as a historical monument and maintain the buildings and grounds as a tourist attraction. After seeing the castle I can only imagine how much chocolate they must sell to be able to buy a property like that... 

This photo is a little bit difficult to see, but as part of the grounds there's a giant outdoor maze made of neatly tended hedges. It kind of felt like we were in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, except no one died at the end. 

 Path leading up to the castle...

The castle itself is guarded by two of these sphinxes, it was an interesting aesthetic choice.

First full view of the castle!

 These gorgeous vaulted ceilings are the first thing you see upon entering the castle.

I wish I had a fireplace this elaborate in my house.

Even the doors are intricately decorated. 

 I have no idea what this piece of furniture is even supposed to be, but it's gorgeous.

 Ditto with this one... is it a dresser?

 Downstairs are the kitchens! This giant stove has a basket of apples inside to show how big it is.

 Kitchen table where the staff would eat (again, looks just like Downton Abbey).

 My mom would be very impressed by this collection of cooking pots. 

 This is the main gallery on the first floor. Windows on both sides look out directly onto the river.

View from one of the windows.

 Another gorgeous fireplace.

 Stained glass windows in the chapel (which, again, is just a room built directly in the castle).

More chapel images. 

Yet another fireplace.

Exterior image of how the river flows directly through the castle. 

 Ceiling fresco in one of the rooms, a lot of the rooms either have a mural painted on them or they have beautifully painted beams like the second photo below. 

 This tower sits off to the side of the main building. 

 This is what the gardens look like from the balcony of the castle - this garden is on one side of the castle...

 ...and this garden is on the other side. 

 More randomly beautiful wall paneling. 

 This is what all the castle's staircases look like (with the exception of the plain stone one going down to the kitchen and servant's quarters, of course). 

 Two main doors to the castle's tour. 

 These giant flower pots are all over the gardens. 

Images of the gardens. 

 This adorable little house is set into the garden, I got the feeling that it's just a glorified garden shed. 

Wine cellar!

 More garden pictures. 

 The castle also has a little farm for tourists, these donkeys were very happy to say hello.

 After visiting Chambord we went to a vineyard for a wine tasting. The cheerful owner gave us a taste of at least 5 different red wines, all of which more or less tasted the same to me. The vineyard was beautiful though. 

The vineyard has its own giant cave full of barrels and bottles of wine. 

 The sun was just setting as we left, it was absolutely gorgeous. 

And that pretty much sums up what I did on Saturday! More pictures/stories to come.