April 9th Wednesday

After going to bed rather late I had quite a rude awakening the next morning. Apparently the kitchen that they use to make breakfast in was right across the tiny hall from our hostel room. There was loud banging and clanging coming from the kitchen and drilling into my skull. They serve breakfast from 6:45am until 9:00am. I was in an awful limbo of being too exhausted to get up but unable to sleep. I eventually dragged myself out of bed at 9:00am after what may have been the worst night’s sleep of my life.

I missed out on going to breakfast but Adrienne was a sweetheart and collected a tray for me. It was full of goodies. I had orange juice, hot chocolate, some dry cereal, apple sauce, madeleines, yogurt, and a cake type bread with jam. I wasn’t able to finish it all because I was not feeling well.

We got ready and then woke up the other girls. We checked out of our room and asked if there was a place where we could keep our luggage. They had a room that they kept locked where we could deposit the bags. We let it there and walked into the center of town. The weather was sadly gray again today and it looked like it might rain. The others hadn’t had breakfast so we stopped in the Brioche Dorée for some. I was already a little bit hungry so I ordered a goat cheese pizza. We had a bit of time before going to meet up with the château tour so we split up to do a bit of shopping. I returned to my favorite manga store in Tours called Ailleurs. (Manga are the Japanese comics/graphic novels). I’d been itching to get my hands on the next manga in the Nana series. I ended up spending a good chunk of my money on volumes 12 to 18. I clutched it to my chest as I walked back to meet the others. I absolutely love this series.

I met up with the others and we went to the tourist office. There, we met up with our tour guide Pascal. He said that we would first drive to Amboise and pick up some other members there. We made our way there and picked up two Australian girls and one tour guide in training named Alexandre. Alexandre was an attractive and welcome addition to the group.

We continued onward and ended up at Cheverny. Cheverny is the castle that the author of Tin Tin modeled their mansion on. It is known as one of the best furnished châteaux. There are many rooms completely furnished in original furniture. It is quite a thing to see how the people lived at this time. We made our way through the house and then outside to the other feature of the place. They have a collection of hunting dogs in a huge kennel. We got to see the trainer come out and talk to them. He yelled at a pair that started fighting like they were a couple of kids.

We met back up at the van and headed off again. We drove to Chambord. Along the way they told us some history of the area and the château as well as pointing out some smaller châteaux along the way. Alexandre got a chance to try his tour guide skills.

We then arrived in Chambord and got to see the castle. The outside of this one is amazing. There are nearly 400 rooms in the château making it one of the largest in the Loire Valley. The other interesting part is the roof. The rooms have 365 fireplaces which need 365 chimneys. The designers made the roof look like a city. There were such intricate designs. The rooms themselves were quite bare although they did have some exhibitions in some of them. The other important thing to see is the double helix spiral staircase. This staircase has two intertwining stairs that lead up through the different levels. They never intersect and the only way to switch between them is to go out on the landing and walk around to the other one.

We finished our time in the castle and went through the gift shop. I bought some postcards there and then headed out to the van. We hopped in and drove back to Tours. We were just taking the highway back so there wasn’t much commentary. Most of us ended up resting our eyes which was funny since we’d all been complete chatterboxes in the beginning.

We arrived in Tours around 6:00pm and separated from our guide. We went to the train station and bought our train tickets back to Paris. We were near the McDonalds and the others wanted to eat there. While they ate there, Adrienne and I went to a nearby sandwich shop and got a baguette sandwich that had ham, cheese, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. We sat in the McDonalds for a bit and then left.

Everyone was tired but I insisted that they couldn’t leave Tours without seeing the Cathedral. We followed the map through the streets and ended up there. Its construction was begun in 1170. The front of the cathedral shows of incredibly detailed carvings. I had forgotten just how magnificent it was. We went inside and looked around a little bit. We almost lost Adrienne for a bit as she followed another group of people thinking they were us.

After the cathedral we headed back to the hostel and picked up our bags. We walked back to the train station and took the 8:45pm train. We had some snacks with us so we talked and snacked on our way back. The car was almost completely deserted other than our group. We finally got into Paris around 11:00pm or so. Adrienne and I took the RER home.

Once home I talked to my parents on Skype. I also scheduled a time to meet up with Casey. The next day was orientation and she wasn’t sure where to go. I agreed to meet her and go to the orientation with her.

I had some yogurts to hold me over and then went to bed a bit after 1:00am.