It was great being able to show them the place where I've been living for the last 5-6 months, and I think I've well and truly cemented my friendship with the staff at my favourite crêperie now!
They arrived on Saturday with the car, which meant we were able to explore the Loire Valley a bit on Sunday. We started off at Château Azay-le-Rideau, which has been on my to-see list for quite a while. It's fairly small but the architecture gives it the look you imagine castles having as a child, with pointy turrets and ornamental windows. It's set on an island off the Indre river, which was incredibly high when we were there. The flooding is nothing like it's been back home of course, but it was fairly substantial, the weather in the North of the France is unfortunately not too different to the weather in the South of England.
The eaves of the château are host to a protected species of bat, which they actively try and sustain and encourage. You wouldn't think bats were endangered if you walked along my street here in the early evening, I always see them flying over the graveyard walls.
After we'd finished looking round the château and the un-flooded parts of the grounds we decided to drive on to Chinon as it's in the same direction out of Tours and possibly one of my favourite towns to walk around. We parked on the other side of the river from the castle, which gave us a great panoramic view of the town, and then walked up past the churches and through the old town to the castle. We decided not to go in as it was closing soon but really a large part of the appeal of Chinon is just to admire it from the outside.
During the week I still had lectures, so some days I met my parents in the evening for dinner and they explored during the day, but we still managed to get in a decent amount of sight-seeing together. On the Tuesday Elvira came to see me as she was in Paris with a friend and arranged to come and see me for the day. It was so lovely and surreal to see her again, and a great opportunity to catch-up. We walked around the main-sights (Cathedral, Basilique...) and also went to the Jardin Botanique, which I've never been to before and has a strange mix of animals including a donkey, wallabies, goats, and flamingos.
On Fridays I have no classes so we had the whole day together again. We decided to go to Amboise as I'm taking a course on Leonardo Da Vinci this semester and wanted to see Château du Clos Lucé, which is now a Leonardo Da Vinci museum as he spent the last years of his life living there. Pauline had no classes either so the four of us went to Amboise together. We started off at the Château d'Amboise, then had lunch in town and walked to Clos Lucé. As well as the standard rooms, which were decorated with relevant Da Vinci quotes (including one in the kitchen reminding us only to eat when we're hungry!), there were several rooms full of miniature models recreating his inventions and ideas. It's amazing the diversity of his interests and knowledge! Luckily it was a nice day so we were able to walk around the gardens at both of the Châteaux and see the giant reconstructions in the grounds at Clos Lucé.
It was a great week, although it was strange when they left as I'd got used to their company and to eating delicious meals out every night! In a month it'll be Rebecca and Nick's turn to see the sights of Tours- can't wait!
On Sunday we had farewell drinks for Rhianna and Heather, who are both off to Germany for the second part of their years abroad. I hope they have an amazing time but also I'm going to miss them so much! Whose photos am I going to steal now :'(
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| Just kidding this is Rhianna's picture of Azay-le-Rideau |
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| and so is this |
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and this
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| Amboise |
