Tours and Chenonceau

Since getting to the Abbey, the concept of "down time" has been nonexistent for me, which I usually love, but it's hard to fight through jet lag and jump into eight hour class days. Surprisingly enough, though, I'm actually liking all of the (shudder) liberal arts classes I'm in this semester, since it seems more "real" when I'm literally not more than half an hour from some major historical landmarks.

The Chateau! It looks like it's straight out of Cinderella.

This weekend we went on an excursion to Chateau Chenonceau, which is an amazing Chateau (mansion) built in the late 1400s spanning the River Cher. This mansion was a gift from King Henry II to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Apparently, the French have a much more open view towards relationships than most people in the States. Henry II's wife, Catherine de Medici, however, wasn't super thrilled about this, because she'd actually fallen in love with Henry II. After Henry II's sudden death in a jousting match, Catherine kicked Diane out of Chenonceau and redesigned the gardens around the castle to better reflect her personality. We didn't get to see the gardens, but I'm planning to come back in the spring and check them out!

After Catherine died, she passed the mansion to her daughter-in-law, Louise de Lorraine, who was married to Henry III, the third and final king produced by Catherine and Henry II's marriage (they had 11 kids together, three of whom became king). Louise created one of the most interesting rooms in the castle, called the black room. It's exactly as it sounds -- very ornate but at the same time very austere and dark. She created it after her husband's death, and she spent the rest of her life wearing mourning garments and basically sulking in this room. After her death, the Chateau left the hands of the royal family.

After a very rushed tour of Chenonceau, we were off to Tours for the day to shop (finally!) and see the Musee des Beaux Arts.

Only one of those things was actually successful (and it wasn't the shopping). After a good hour of wandering Tours with Dr. Mackaman, we finally asked directions to get to the Musee des Beaux Arts. We spent about an hour at the museum, which had some incredible pieces in it (and an elephant outside that rivals the one at Wayne State's Engineering Library!).

Fritz, the taxidermied elephant outside the Musee des Beaux Arts

Then we explored the cathedral next to the Musee, which was absolutely breathtaking. I'm not usually a sappy art person, but seeing the organ in this cathedral actually took my breath away.

The most amazing organ - I think I was more impressed with this cathedral than I was with Notre Dame, actually.

Stained glass in the chapel - amazing

After another hour of wandering around lost, a few of us got food and asked the man working the sandwich shop for directions. I spent about half an hour speaking only French to figure out how to get back to the main street and our hostel, but now I definitely know how to say "left" (a gauche), "right" (a doit), and "straight" (tout doit)! It was a really stressful day, but we managed to find our way back to the hostel about an hour later, then we went out and got lost... again on our way to the Place de Plumereau, where a lot of university students hang out on the weekend. It was really lively, but I didn't stay too long because I was exhausted (By the end of the day I think we had walked at least 15 miles... ouch). Plus, there's always the option of a return trip now that I know my way around (mostly). And if not, I can ask for directions now!

Place Plumerau!