MISC Pictures

So what do we do when we're not in class and we're not at chateaus?

Well for the most part we hang out at cafes, wander the city, watch stupid youtube videos that we then quote for days, and hang out with our new friends. It's amazing how quick we bonded with other people. There is a group from Wake Forest and from West Georgia that we have become friends with. Our group is kinda split into two groups, not that we don't like eachother because we really are one big happy family, but the other group is a little more touristy and my side is more content to just hang out with friends.

But most days we go see Dr. Persels at his office hours and then sometimes we'll meet up after dinner and go out for a little while. Tonight we're going to watch the France and England football game at a pub. Wednesday we're going to get Morrocan food with the whole USC group and Thursday we're doing a wine tasting at the university. This weekend I think we're going to Amsterdam for Morgan's birthday!

Morgan hiding from the rain after school.

At Dr. Persel's office hours (raining again)

Typical Saturday night at "The Spot"

Jess, Maria, Lara, Morgan, Austin (West Georgia), and me

Our first night at a discotech

Me, Austin, Cody (visiting from US) and Morgan

Me, Arthur (our new french friend), and Morgan

One night at the Loire

This was at Clos-Luce

Zach being weird.

Daniel's 21st Birthday

Marshall, Lara, Whitney, and Austin

Clos-Luce

Bonjour,


So where I left off was at Amboise. About a five minute walk down the street from the chateau is the house where Leonardo Da Vinci lived for the last three years of his life. It was pretty cool walking through someplace where he lived and worked. Basically the king at the time liked Da Vinci so much that he invited him to live at Clos-Luce so that he could just chat and rest in peace. There is even an underground passage way from Clos-Luce to Amboise. Pretty cool? Jess really wanted to hop the rope closing it off and adventure through. Outside of the house there is a whole park with different things dedicated to Da Vinci's life and work. I have to admit, when we were walked around, some of us were starting to get a bit silly because it was hot and we'd been walking all day. So we probably didn't absorb as much about everything around us as we could have. We learned that ducks like lemon cake though! 

Zach is 6ft tall and he barely fit through the door. French people are small!

 His study

 In the basement there was a whole exhibit on his inventions are the different things that he worked on over the course of his life. There was also a whole thing outside on his use of light in his painting.

Here you could take a Da Vinci style drawing class.

After Clos-Luce, we caught the train back home. That weekend there was a wine festival in town. You paid 5 euros for a glass and then could try all the wine that you wanted. There were over 100  different tents. Around 9 it started raining so we decided that we had had enough and went to MAO, a thai restaurant close to the festival. Below are my and Morgan's dinners. Their noodles were to die for. After dinner we were walking home and ran into a concert going on. It was part of the festival and the guys playing were playing in time with the fireworks that were going off. They deffinitely were shooting fireworks of in front of town hall, in the middle of the street, in the center of town. That would never happen in the US!

Morgan, Lara and I

My dinner

Morgan's dinner

Blois and Amboise

Last Saturday we took the train to Blois and Amboise. We left at 10 and it was about a 40 minute ride to get to Blois which is farther than Amboise. Basically these are really big houses that people used to actually live in. There is one of the chateaus that is still owned and lived in by the original family. Pretty cool, right? 


So our day started in Blois, lived in by Louis XII. This chateau was interesting because most of the major archetecture typed used for bulding the chateaus are all part of its construction, gothic, classique, renissance, and ... There was a really big court yard in the middle and it has the famous outside stairs.

 One of the Churches in town

Our first view of the chateau from the side.

 The Front of the house

Kelsey, Zach, and Wendy reppin Carolina

 One of the family symbols 

 Inside the court yard

 Morgan, Jess, and I

There was a whole room of extra busts and gargoyles that were no longer a part of the chateau. It was also an example of the building rooms that the chateaus would have.

 It's a big ol' fireplace

This is one of the largest court rooms in France.

 The Kings bed.

 View from the far side of the chateau. That is the cathedral Saint Louis

After the chateau, we headed into town to find some lunch. There were originally just 5 of us eating together, but then Dr. Persels, Cathy and Erica D. all found us and decided to join. It was probably one of the best meals I've had here so far. I had duck with cheese risotto and goat cheese whipped cream. Right outside of the chateau is the house of the magi which has salamanders that come out at the top of every hour. Also at lunch, we ran into a man who used to be a professor at USC and who lived near Dr. Persels. Small world?

After lunch, we hopped back on the train and headed to Amboise. This is the chateau that Leonardo Da Vinci lived near durring the last few years of his life, and he is burried at the chateau. Amboise sits on the top of a hill, overlooking the surrounding city. This medieval fortress made way for the royal residence of King Charles VIII and Francois I. The Chateau is known for its collection of Gothic and Renaissance furnature and "artistic fineries".

 Amboise

Some music festival in town

 Heading up to the chateau

 Da Vinci is burried here

 There were some vines growing grapes here.

 There was a lot of intricate sculpting

 My future home

After Amboise, we walked to Clos-Luce, where Da Vinci actually lived. But this post is already getting really long, so I will save that for next time.

Tomorrow we are heading to Chinon to see the chateau and do a wine tasting!