July 2, 2008
Loire Valley, France
Woke up this morning and the weather was very shitty.
Breakfast: same as usual.
Bust ride to the city of Paris with lots of stops along the way.
First, Le Chateau de Chenanceau. Built by King Henry II for his Mistress Diane of Medici and his wife Catherine de Poitieres. Really pretty place located right on the Loire river. Lots of pretty paintings, furniture, and carvings. Bought a tiny box with green and white figures on it at the gift shop. Slipped on the stairs outside the gift shop and landed hard on my a**. I really picked the wrong day to wear flip-flops... gonk
Next was the Chateau de Chambord, built by Francois I, the Henry guy's son. It was bigger but not as pretty. Francois' signature animal was the salamander so salamander carvings were everywhere. Didn't spend a lot of time there but got lunch.
Lunch: -Croc Monsieur heart
-potato chips heart
Next we drove to Chartre to see a special cathedral. It's extra dark so that the pictures in the stain glass windows stand out more. It's also said to house an actual piece of Mary's tunic that she was wearing during Jesus' crucifixion. Didn't see it though. Zaneb gave us hints but no one could find it.
Bought some stuff at the gift shop:
-gargoyle pen
-gargoyle key chain
-gargoyle figurine
(Gargoyle palooza! blaugh )
Then a drive to Paris! Yay! (It had stopped raining by the time we left Chartres. We're staying at the Hotel de Princesse Caroline. They only have one elevator and it doesn't always work, and me and Karen are on the 4th floor... xp Could be worse. Heather and her mom are on the 7th floor! eek
Very pretty Hotel. Our room is yellow and the beds have a canopy over them and everything just looks so nice and pretty like it was made for a princess. 4laugh
Walking around Paris at night is scary. You could easily be pick-pocketed and there are freaky homeless people everywhere.
Dinner: -Nasty cottage cheese puff xp
-herb-chicken and mashed potatoes blaugh
-crepe 4laugh
Next a short walk around Paris past the Arc du Truimphe. Very pretty at night. (Can't wait to see the Eiffel tower tomorrow!)
Bought some stuff from a souvenir place:
-backpack that says "Paris" on it.
-2 mini Eiffel tower statues for Sam and Mir-Mur.
There was a lady in the store who was unmistakably a prostitute and she was heckling the store manager over something. She eventually ran out of the store (almost running into me in the process!) on her cellphone. She was wearing these crazy stripper heels and she stumbled in them as she ran out.
Went back to the hotel, and managed to not get pick pocketed! Yay! mrgreen I'm sure Paris in the day time is a lot less scary than it is at night.
I'm really excited because it's not much longer until we get to go home.
