Saturday, January 22, 2011

Les Chateaux

Once we got to Tours, we had 2 days of visiting les chateaux! The first one we went to was Loches, a walled medieval chateau, on Friday (1/14/11). There was the actual chateau, which really only had 2 rooms, then a church nearby, and finally le donjon, which is the keep. Afterwards we looked at the parts that had been used as prisons in the later years of its history. There were nicer rooms reserved for political prisoners, and then rooms where all of the normal people would just be crammed in. We also saw a spacious cage for some of the political prisoners, and an iron collar attached to the wall that some prisoners had to wear. In addition to being really heavy, the chain for the collar didn't reach the floor so you would have to sleep sitting up. My favorite part was le donjon because it was all green from moss and plants growing up the tower. All of the upper levels that would've been there are gone now, so it looks completely different. 



























The second chateau that day was my favorite of the trip, Chenonceau! It's the one that crosses over the river. The rooms were furnished and they all had awesome, giant floral arrangements in them! You could see some of the original tiles in the entrance room. There was also a farm on the grounds with some donkeys and a horse, and a flower/veggie garden, plus a maze in the bigger garden. Also, the chateau had this hallway that I loved for some reason! It went over the water and had topiaries that were lit up...it was great. (Sorry for the weird positions of the photos, they're being difficult)
 I'll post the other 2 chateaux tomorrow!

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