Little People, Big Chateaus

10:38 PM

I've never met a closet I couldn't fill.

Until this weekend. This Saturday I finally moved in with my actual host family, and thus, was finally able to unpack and see all of my wrinkled, navy-color-palette'd clothes (everything matches better that way, so sorry not sorry if I look like a smurf in all of my pictures).

My new room is probably two and half times as big as my previous one with fourteen foot ceilings that I will never hit my head on so yay for no concussions. And, the closet space....wow. Imagine two fourteen foot high closets, plus two sets of cabinets and you can see why I've finally met my match. And why it'll be even more impossible to resist buying clothes now that my closets are begging to be filled (they are). But, no fear, being my Type A self, I already have a list typed out prioritizing my future purchases and hopefully keeping me from going broke (is anyone surprised...)

view from my new room...not bad not bad

Anyways, after unpacking, staring at my closets for more time than I'll admit, and spending some much needed time in bed doing absolutely nothing, our group met up for a day trip to two local chateaus.

The first we visited was Langeais, a fortress built in the 1400s, I think...didn't really pay attention, I was too busy running inside the cold stone castle to escape the 90 degree weather (note: it was 60 degrees two days ago...what even). The castle was cool but like history isn't really my thing and the whole spending 10 minutes in each room reading information sheets and watching videos was semi-painful. But, it was cold, and I found a seat in pretty much every room while also taking insensitive pictures with friends so I'd say we made the best of the situation. Afterwards, we ~~walked~~ sweated through the accompanying park and made it about 0.10 miles before hiding in the shade and turning around. Then it was back to the bus...

caro making friends

embracing the creepiness of the situation

selfies with strangers

view from the castle to the accompanying park & ruins

Langeais (*note the little people)

welcome to my house party

from the front

Up next was Villandry. But, first, ice cream. Exhausted from not paying attention and sitting whenever possible, we grabbed some boules (scoops) and then we're on our way to Villandry and its accompanying gardens. Needless to say, the chateau part wasn't exciting me much, so I was so happy to learn that we were only walking through the chateau to get to the gardens #littlewins.

I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't anything along the lines of what I saw. Behind the impressive chateau, which was built later than Langeais and with comfort in mind as opposed to hiding from rocks, or whatever weapons people used in the Middle Ages, were the most beautiful terraced gardens. With three levels, each with a different purpose, it was one of the more impressive things I've seen in my young 19 years. We started at the highest level, which was made to symbol tranquility with a peaceful pond with two swans (attacking fish, but minor details...) and very geometric landscaping. The next level was symbolic of love and had flowers arranged in various shapes within it such as hearts, labyrinths, and knives so I'm going to go out on a limb and guess people back then were super romantic.

The third level was closed, but it has all sorts of fruits and vegetables growing within it, again arranged in cool shapes. We debated picking some pears but didn't want to cause more of scene than we already were, so we settled for trying some of the wine grapes growing on the outskirts of the gardens (poor choice). We also saw a couple taking wedding pictures and I've decided I want to do the same because it's just impossible to look bad in that setting, I mean even I got some decent pics which is like a once a year event so yeah, it was good. After an hour, we got back on our air conditioned (#praise) bus and headed back home for dinner with our host families and some much needed sleep.