(Monday)
Today was mostly driving back to Paris. However, we did stop at a winery on the way:
Not pictured: a collection of giant objects from the novel "Gargantua" by Rabelais.
We got a couple decent wines; I think we would have gotten more, but it is apparently really difficult to get French wines to the states these days. Therefore, we needed to only buy what we were going to drink before returning home.
While there are many interesting things in the French countryside, such as wineries and picturesque villages, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. Most of it basically looks like the American midwest:
Mm mm, flat and boring: just the way we likes it.
Consequently, I got a lot of reading done on this segment of the trip (we also got kinda lost, but we’re not talking about that). However, we did eventually arrive at our main destination for the day, the magnificent castle of Chenonceau:
Oo, a castle! It's like I'm in a fairytale. I'm a pretty, preeeeetty princess!
Interestingly, this castle was a gift from Henry II to his lover, Diane de Poitiers:
Isn't it a little weird to depict your mistress as Diana, Goddess of Chastity?
Some gift! Diane made it even more impressive by adding a garden:
and by renovating the castle to give it its currently most distinctive feature:
Yeah, that's right. The castle is built ACROSS the river. With 1500's technology, no less.
The king’s actual wife, Catherine, apparently also thought the castle was pretty nice since upon Henry’s death she ousted Diane from the castle and moved in herself. She added a bunch of references to herself to parts of the architecture, including having a big-ass portrait of herself built into the stone above one of the fireplaces:
Compare this dress to the one Diane is wearing above. Yeah, I know which one I'D pick.
She also added her own garden to the estate:
This castle is a bit divided in design. On the one hand, it’s a protective fortification, with defensible bridges and choke points:
Yeah, try getting across that when people are shooting arrows at you from the guard tower.
On the other hand, it is a palatial chateau, with graceful galleries, pleasure gardens, and beautiful tree-lined walks:
Personally, I think the palace won out over the castle. I don’t think an invading army is going to have much trouble with the moat:
On the other hand, I've never tried to cross it wearing a suit of armor, so maybe it's harder than it looks.
Speaking of, what’s up with the water in the moat? I don’t know how well you can see, but the water there is actually black. Not, like, dark, but actually the color black:
Look out for the Pirates! (For those of you who are confused, um, I'm not going to embarrass myself further by explaining my dated reference)
Actually, we also saw some strangely colored water at Versailles:
Iron? Microscopic water-based organisms? A wrathful god?
Haven’t really seen water that color before or since.
After we finished at the castle, we drove back to Paris to return the car. Driving in Paris was…interesting. Suffice it to say, don’t drive in Paris without…actually, don’t drive in Paris at all. Probably a better plan.
BONUS: Sundial Fail!
