Loire Valley... two weeks late

So I realized I never posted about my day trip to the Loire Valley with my host mom. Probably because it wasn't hugely fun... but whatever.  We went there the day after my meh trip to Mont St. Michel.  I was having a very off weekend.  BUT.

Our first stop was in Angers, after two hours in the car, where we thought we were going to have time to see the chateau but thanks to poor planning we got right back in the cars to drive another two hours to another place.  MP is part of a group that organizes outings and carpools to them together, and you don't necessarily know the people it's with... you just go.  I'm not sure I necessarily enjoy that, but I've done it with her two or three times now.  Anyway.

That's the castle we didn't get to go in.  I was really sad because it also houses the Tapestry of the Apocalypse  which would have been cool to see because we talked about it in one of my classes last semester at Doane. Sigh.

Then there was a bunch of madness about trying to eat lunch, trying to pay for the castle entrance, and blah blah blah... stressful.  Then a two hour tour of a castle that was only sort of cool on the inside but had really cool gardens.  Also, the woman who "organized" the whole day, and who doesn't know me at all, had to stop the tour guide in the middle of a sentence to say (in French of course), "We have a young American with us, is there anything you can do to make it easier for her?"  Um, excuse me lady, I've been here two months already, after 7 years of school French which I realize isn't the same thing, but I can still understand spoken French pretty dang well.  Way to embarrass the crap out of me in front of all these people I've never met before.  I almost cried right there because it was already such a bad day.  But I didn't.

Part of the really cool gardens at Villandry.

I guess I didn't take many pictures of the castle itself.

After that lovely experience, Marie Paule decided it was time to leave the group and go off on our own. Thankfully!  We went to one last castle, Azay-le-Rideau, and it was much prettier and much better because we just walked around on our own.  And there was sweet fog on the lake nearby.

Then we drove home along the Loire river at sunset and at least that was gorgeous.  Four hours is a long time to be on the road though!  I guess it was a good experience. I got to see some more neat things.