France s'il vous plaît: September 2011

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Chateaux de la Loire Part 3: Chambord

I learned something very interesting about myself when we visited the final Chateau of the day. I learned that I am extremely sensitive to commercialism and that I do not like it at all. Chambord is the largest Chateau in the Loire Valley, and it is world known for its French renaissance architecture. Everything about it is grand and magnificent, so it is interesting that I didn't really like it. Well I shouldn't say that I didn't like it, because it was truly interesting and it was cool to imagine a building so big being built without machinery. However, it has been turned into such a large tourist attraction that I couldn't take it seriously. The other chateaux had small little gift shops with post cards and other random knick-knacks, but Chambord had an entire store of things! T-shirts, hats, books, food, drinks, post cards, jewelry, etc. Plus the employees were all dressed in attire from the middle ages. The chateau itself was so big that it was almost overwhelming to try to walk through. There was just no warmth to it, it was impossible to have an emotional connection or imagine real people living there. It felt like it was just built to be a form of amusement or entertainment. As I walked around I was so surprised that my reaction was so negative. I think it is so cool that traveling with the intent to learn about other people and cultures, actually turns out to be one giant lesson about yourself.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Chateaux de la Loire Part 2: Chateau de Chenonceau

This Chateaux was breathtaking, and very fun to look at, but I didn't feel the same emotional connection that I felt with the first one. Everything about it was spectacular. I mean it was built over a river for goodness sakes!!! Honestly my favorite part was the tree lined entrance to the Chateau, which may seem silly since the building and manicured gardens were so beautiful...but I am learning that I am finding nature and simple things much more impressive.

Anyway it was a gorgeous Chateau. It was much bigger than the first one so it was fun to explore all the rooms and hallways. They had almost all of the rooms set up like a museum of how life used to be. I loved the beds! There were also lots of great paintings and tapestries on the walls. When I was on the top floor looking out over the river I felt very prestigious and imagined that I was the Lady of the estate and that my lover was off on a hunting trip and would ride down the tree lined drive at any moment, we would then stroll through the gardens and fountains and he would tell me all about his journey and I would be a proper lady and fan myself (because of course the dress I was wearing was way to hot but so big and beautiful it didn't matter) and lovingly stare into his eyes......GROSSSSSS! hahaha I just can't do it. I can't even write about sappy romantic things without laughing out loud to myself. At least I tried.

Here are some pictures so you can imagine your own fairytale:

Chateaux de la Loire Part 1: Chateau D'azay-Rideau

You are about to get a glimpse of my childhood imagination, thoughts, and dreams. I have always had an intense imagination and as the years have passed the stories and the people have changed. With age comes wisdom, which is fabulous, but age also brings a loss of innocence and naivety. I realize that I am still a young little thing in the grand scheme of things, but as I have gained wisdom over the past few adult years of my life I have learned about a lot of really sad things. I read or hear about stories all the time of people in so much hurt and pain. Since I have such a vivid imagination their pain becomes my pain and I continually live with the burden of a stranger's despair. Fictional scenarios run through my head all of the time of terrible things happening to the ones I love; there are times that I have almost come to tears in the middle of the day because I have imagined loosing someone I love. My innocent imagination of youth has faded as I have gotten older and I had forgotten about the wonderful world my mind used to live in.

A wonderful thing happened to me Sunday that changed all of this, I was re-introduced to my childhood imagination. The long forgotten tales of a young girls trials and tribulations. When I was a kid, my brother Spencer and I would spend hours and hours every day (rain or shine) outside in the trees building forts and creating fairytales, or in our room with our toys taking them on wild adventures. One of my favorite things to imagine was being a young girl who lived in an old castle with tons of passageways and forests all around to play in. (note of clarification: I was a tomboy and these tales never included being all princessy or older and glamorous, I always liked to imagine being the servant girl or the rebellious young daughter who didn't want to be proper but her mother made her...ect.) In fact a lot of my imagination stemmed from reading the series Anne of Green Gables twice before I was 10 as well as my mother reading Laura Ingels Wilder to me every night before I went to bed.

Sunday morning I got on the bus not really knowing what to expect, but as I watched the French countryside roll past it was like I was traveling farther and farther back in a time machine. The rolling hills, the tiny villages, quaint country cottages with ivy growing up the sides and a small garden next to it...it was fabulous. I stepped onto the bus a 22 year-old woman with worries and stresses running through my mind; I stepped off the bus a 10 year-old girl filled with excitement of where my imagination was going to take me that day. It took me very far.

Chateau D'azay-Rideau

To be able to describe where my mind was at is utterly impossible. To be able to sketch a rough draft would be like writing a novel. So I will treasure those thoughts to myself and instead explain what I saw. The Chateau was quaint. Looking at the pictures it may not seem that way, but read part 2 and part 3 and you will understand. There was a small moat that surrounded the chateau as well as all different types of trees and foliage. The building itself was simple and elegant. There were many small details that were exquisite, but they were not too loud or overdone. The grounds surrounding the chateau were so beautiful. I went on a little adventure and walked through the paths and trails. I even found some wild berries that were so delicious and I have no clue what they were! (this completely shocked a classmate of mine that I would even think of trying them...I told her I like to live life on the edge.)

It was hard to leave such a tranquil place, I wished I could have stayed there all day. However, two more Chateaux were on the agenda for the day so I grudgingly made my way back to the bus with mixed feelings of sadness and excitement for my next adventure.

Here are some more pictures!