Today is Friday, it's 5pm here, and I am about to head "home." The mother in my host family is a really sweet French lady who cooks delicious meals (yet with very simple ingredients!), so I look forward to going "home" each day to see what inviting smell is there to greet me. (I'll post more about my host family later.) The pictures below are the final installment of photos from my week of "castle hopping" during the first week I was here.














These photos are of the Saint Calais chapel at Château de Blois, built by Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne; it was consecrated in 1508. In the picture of the entrance, their initials (L and A) are above the door. Louis XII was the father of François I, who was the father of Henri II (married to Catherine de Medici), all kings of France.

Our dinner Thursday night was at La Ritournelle. The picture is blurry, but the restaurant was very cute. We ate outside on a patio behind the restaurant.

This is a picture of my dinner – Mom, this picture is for you!

Friday morning I toured the wine caves at Vouvray. They make three different types of wine & sparkling wine here.

I visited Château d'Amboise Friday afternoon. This is a picture of the château and the chapel.

Here I am at the top of the château .

Our guide told us that at the very beginning of the Wars of Religion in
France (before the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre), the king had Protestants hung from the balconies (that you can see on the left) to be seen from the town below to set an example. I asked the guidehow many people were hung and she said, “Oh, less than 10… but that’s still too many, right?”

This shot was taken from the top of château as well.

This is the chapel at Château d'Amboise; the tomb of Leonardo de Vinci is inside.

On Saturday, I visited Château de Chenonceau. You walk down this long pathway surrounded by trees, and at the very end of the "tunnel", it opens up to a huge open area with the château.

This is Diane de Poitier's room -- Henri II's mistress. Henri gave this château to Diane as a gift, but Catherine de Medici (his wife) took it back after Henri's death. She did give Diane another château in exchange though!

This is a painting of Catherine de Medici from the 1800s. It’s ironically hanging in the room pictured above, which is called “La Chambre de Diane de Poitiers.”

This is Catherine de Medici's room, her window, and the view from her window.

Once again, this is the symbol seen throughout the châteaux that has various explanations of its meaning.

This room is known as “La Galerie,” and it served as a hospital during World War I.

This was taken in the kitchens of the château. I took a lot of pictures of the kitchens since I love cooking & kitchens, but I won’t bore you with those!

The château has beautiful gardens around it, which you can see in these shots.

One of the gardens is a maze garden --here I am after finding my way out in the rain!

Here’s two last shots of Château de Chenonceau. I loved seeing all the châteaux, but I especially enjoyed this one since I’m reading a biography of Catherine de Medici. It was so fascinating to see the places that I’m reading about in the book.

My future posts shouldn’t be as long since I’ve started my classes now, and I’m not traveling as much. The next pictures I post should be more about the town of Tours, my host family, etc…

Until next time…

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures from the airport – Jacob & Christian, I MISS YOU!