An American girl in Paris - Day 4

Day four consisted of castles and wine in Loire Valley.  This was our first time on the Bullet Train.  The speed we were going at was 200 mph, and the train can go up to 350 mph.  Loire Valley was 180 miles away from Paris, and it took us around 1.5 hours to reach Loire Valley.  It was VERY fast, and I certainly wish we have something like that from the Bay Area to Los Angeles.

We booked a tour with Tour Loire Valley.  It was an excellent choice!  Our tour guide, Julie, was very knowledgeable and friendly.  Further, the group consisted of only eight people (four couples), and we get to skip the line to all the castles.  The castles visited were Blois, Cheverney, and Chombard.  It's nice to visit the castles and have a tour guide tell you a little bit about the architecture, how things came to be, and a bit of history of the royals that used to live in these castles.  Amazing!

Of course we started the day with some caffeination as we got up at 5:00 am!  MOCHA!!! No more Cafe for me this morning!!!!

OOTD - looked like a total tourist with my boots.  Glad to be away from the gypsies for the day.

Blois Castle - this was the castle that Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth I's mother) lived in while she was in France.  It was actually the smallest of the castles with four different generations of architecture.  It wasn't as decadent as I imagined.  

View from Blois Chateaux

Wine Tasting!  We got to try some french wine, and learned a bit about tastings!   The lessons sort of reminded me of Hendry Vineyards in Napa. 

Lunch was actually pretty good.  We got lamb with artichoke.  I thought it would be a baguette with some ham and cheese, but non, fancy fancy tour.

Chateaux #2 - Cheverny.  This castle was the inspiration for Tin Tin comics.  A Marquess' family actually still lives there.  They are decedents of royals.

Drive to the third Castle - so beautiful

Chombard - this was my favorite castle.  It was built as a hunting lodge ONLY to show off.  There are seven stories, and a LOT of stairs.  The stairs were wide enough so people can have their own form of an escalator back in those days, horses!  They rode their horses up these stairs.  We walked, and it was tiring!

Dinner at Les Cocottes de Christian Constant.  It was good but not as good as we thought it would be, given all the praised it got.

Lastly, we made it to the Eiffel Tower!  It's pretty...due to fear of pick pocketers, we just stayed on the outskirts and admired.