My Dad Thinks I'm a Princess!

This past weekend we decided to take a relaxing 2 day trip to the Loire Valley to see some real French châteaux!! We started in a town called Tours which is a little bit southwest of Paris. It is in the countryside of France and is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! Let the fairy tale begin:

Friday morning we left at 8am. Funny story though -- my alarm didn't wake me up, so I literally got out of bed at 7:30... When we were supposed to meet. Hahaha!!!!! Typical. So I was looking realllllll good that day. Perfect start to the day :) I'm just glad I was already packed and we were only staying 1 night! We arrived in Tours, France about 12 just in time to eat the sandwiches we had made and brought with us. The tour started at 1:00 so we basically just sat at the tourist office for an hour... Cool I know. All of a sudden we see a couple of school bus yellow VW vans pull up. Ummmm what?! If there is more of a way to be spotted as a tourist, please, let me know. Luckily, we got a rocking guide who was really excited to take us into the countryside for the afternoon :)
As our journey began, we were introduced to the beautiful land full of rolling hills and farms scattered across the horizon. Literally, there are castles just hanging out around there. We saw 2 or 3 just on the way to the first one on our tour!!! Crazy!
We arrived to Chambord within about an hour and a half (after a nice nap in the car) ready to explore! Chambord is a giant estate that was originally built to be a hunting lodge so it is on a ridiculous amount of land! It also was built to resemble a crown, and it does. It's ginormous!!! Our guide got us our tickets and we took off running to try and see as much as could! Unfortunately, there was  fire in the castle earlier that day so part of it was closed off :( Boo. Probably due to the fact that there are 300+ fireplaces in the place!! I guess that would be nice after a long day of hunting in the forest though since France stays pretty chilly most of the time... It was incredible! Granted, it wasn't Cinderella's castle because it's so masculine, but it felt like a castle with its towering spires, intimidating walls, and lack of "homey" decorations inside. We meandered throughout it's hundreds of rooms (only seeing 2 wings) and took a stroll on the double helix staircase!!! That was so cool. I don't know how they did it, but it is impressive. After exploring the interior, we decided to go outside and enjoy the beautiful river and open space. It looked like an area out of a movie!! So so pretty!!

Next we were off to Chenonceau, the most beautiful castle in the Loire Valley and 2nd most visited castle in France behind Versailles! Seriously, it's incredible. It is built on the Cher River and extends out all the way across it!! King Francis I of France seized the castle from its original owner for unpaid debts to the crown. His mistress, Diane de Poitiers, was partial to the castle and after his death she took over. It was she who actually extended the castle out across the river and began building the gardens on the banks of the river. His widowed wife (Queen Catherine) took back the castle from Diane. She then built a separate garden and then there were 2. Since then, the château changed hands multiple times between the royal family and the king's mistresses. Yep, pretty much all of them had it for at least a while. Weird huh? I thought so too. Haha
Anyway, the castle is absolutely amazing!!!!! It's unlike anything you've ever seen before and looks fake almost. When you walk up to it (via a walkway with trees growing over it, mind you), it seems sort of anticlimactic. But it most definitely is not!! The 2 gardens are on both sides of the château and it just goes on forever over the river. It's really really cool. I can't even describe it.
After we explored the castle and the gardens though, we went and found the hedge maze!!! YES!! Like out of Harry Potter! It was so much fun!

After the castles we went to our hotel (Hotel Mister Bed... yeah). That was interesting. Hahahaha Very very interesting. But an experience nonetheless.
The next morning we woke up and went to some free wine tastings!! That was so much fun!! We went to this one called Montlouis. It was about a 10 minute taxi ride away but TOTALLY worth it. We tried 7 different wines both sparkling and still. The vineyards in this region produce grapes that make white wine and they specialize in sparkling white wines (like champagne). We tried a rose wine also that wasn't from the region just because the lady told us it was good :) It was. I ended up buying 2 wines from them and a wine glass :) WIN! On our way to the train station we found another wine tasting and of course stopped in!! The little man was precious. He didn't speak a lick of English so we all got to practice our French with him! He was so funny and loved joking with us! Some Irish men came in and we translated for them with the owner man.

It was a really great weekend that was quintessentially French!! Castles and wine -- what more could a girl ask for?! :)

I'm leaving in the morning for my 2 week spring break!! We are going to Italy and doing Milan, Florence, Venice, and a day trip to Verona!!!!!!!! Then I'm meeting mom, dad, and Katie in Munich and we are doing the castles in that area and Neuschwanstein which is the inspiration of Cinderella's castle by Walt Disney! :) :) :) Then we are doing Salzburg, Austria; Interlaken, Switzerland; Vichy, France (so I can show mom and dad around of course!!) then Paris, France!!!!!! :) :) :) I'm so beyond excited right now and can't wait to see all of these awesome places! Get ready for the best blog ever in 2 weeks! :)

Au revoir!