Hey guys,
Once again it's been weeks since my last post, but here's my update on the famous Loire Valley!:
While my trip to Normandy was nice, this trip was even much better. Once again, got up at the crack of dawn and met our group at Porte d'Orleans. After an hour, we arrived at a very familiar-looking castle, Château de Blois, which turned out to be one I'd visited last December with Theo and his family on our way to Royan. We toured that though it wasn't terribly exciting the second time around (it was really exciting the first time either, but I digress..)
Afterwards we all split into small groups, ventured into town and got lunch. Their Saturday market was also going on and it was pleasant to walk around and see everyone's wares.
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Then we were off to Château numero 2. This one, though not huge, was super cute, and sat on a quaint river. Also, we had to take a wooded path to get to it. I think that was the first sign that I was gonna like this castle:
The sun was shining, the leaves were turning...it was beautiful.
I also liked the interior of this castle a lot more, especially the kitchen! How I would've loved to have a kitchen and mess area like this..behold:
Of course there was a wood oven for bread :)
The autumn squashes were a nice decorating touch, too :)
After that castle, we were taken to our 'surprise'. A wine distillery! We did a short tour of the process, and then on to everyone's anticipated part..the tasting. Or dégustation, as they call it here. Oh man, it was beautiful. They had the tables set up for us like so:
I think we all had our arms crossed so that we wouldn't lunge for the food...;)p
Some amazing goat cheese and pork pate stuff, not really sure what it was. And the wine. We can most certainly not forget the wine. Glasses and glasses of it. I suppose it's a good thing there was so much to eat with it, otherwise a few of us might have had some problems. We all had a great time chatting, and here's an after picture of the table:
DEMOLISHED. hehe
I ended up buying some good sparkling wine, and a very nice white wine. It wasn't cheap, but then again, for wine, the French consider anything above 10 euros pretty up there. (It was 12,50)
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Anywho, after that, we continued onto our hotel, where we dropped off our stuff and went out to eat. Dinner this time wasn't that great either. My group was a bit rowdy, and got worse after a couple of them ordered 3 meter beers. Like so:
And my actual food? Someone please remind me never to order something that's supposed to be Mexican in France ever again. Because my 'Mexican salad' was horrid. To top it off, I felt sick shortly afterward and called it an early night when everyone else went off to the pubs. At least I got to take a bath in the hotel room?
Sure, it LOOKED ok, but I think it was the culprit for the upset stomach :/
Next day we visited our last castle, Château de Chambord:
Can't see me all that well, but I'm there ;)
Amazing view!
And what a gorgeous fall day it was, like fall should be. We toured the castle which was fairly impressive itself, but the best part were the grounds. We were given tickets for a bike rental and each of us went in groups and biked around the grounds on paths. It was beyond relaxing and tiring at the same time. 
Biking along the river, side view of the castle
At one point, it was also mentioned, that the architect of the castle had designed it so that from a distance, the relatively small size (by their standards) would look like a city to visitors. I can see it:
Shortly after our bike ride we meet up again with our group, and proceeded to a nearby biscuiterie, their (yumy) version of a cookie shop. And behold! Another dégustation! SO. MANY. COOKIES. (The ones pictured below were only a tiny, tiny fraction of the ones we got to taste)
And for those of you thinking, Gee, Chambord sounds oddly familiar, you're right! Chambord is actually also the name of a liqeur sold in the US. Like so:
Originally from this same region of France, the company here was sold to to someone in the US, where they say their liqeur is now more widely bought than in France. (The bottle with the crown is the one sold in the US, the other, here.) Interesting. Anyways, when mixed with white sparkling wine, it makes a drink called Kir that goes great with sweet things, like say, cookies! 
In the end, I bought a box of cookies, a little baggie of some kind of delicious brittle called Croukou, and a tiny bottle of the Chambord. I've since eaten the cookies and brittle, but am saving the Chambord for a special occasion (it wasn't cheap!)
Once we were all stuffed from cookies and Kir, we all piled onto our bus and began the long drive back to Paris, all 0f us attentive and perky.
Yeah, right.
If you honestly believed that we didn't all conk out like pre-schoolers during naptime, you are sorely mistaken. Kinda like this:
That was to be our last excursion as a group, which is a little saddening, but at least it was a great one :) Now off to start my next post about the Salon du Chocolat. Here's a little preview, an ad they had everywhere in the metro. Now let's see how long it takes me to get this one posted ^^
Until then!
Love,
Rachael
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