JenScoobySnacks

Thursday was another white knuckle ride as  we rode down from the Pyrenees.  It was a day of stop and go as we had alot to see.  First stop was the fort Salses.  Actually we did not really stop.  Jared hooked up a camera rig to the window and we drove around it and filmed it.  You could see the difference in architecture because we were so far south.  Very Spanish and different from any other we had seen.

We drove to Nimes.  There is a Roman arena right in the middle of town where they still have bullfights today.  It was amazing but there was some kind of bull festival going on and it was CRAZY.  People everywhere.  We had to get out of there.

Pont-du-Gard was next on the list and it was very cool.  An ancient Roman bridge/aqueduc  in the south of France. It was huge and largely intact.  I loved walking around in parts of the riverbed that were dried out.  The water was clear and blue; something that I am not used to seeing.

I do have to say that the Europeans have this thing going on about no seats on a lot of the public toilets.  I hate it.  Food in the gas stations however still rocks.

We spent the morning in Carcassone which is a very interesting fortified city.  The problem is it is a little bit like Disneyland with the souvenir shops and masses of people.  We took our pictures and film and got the heck out of the mass of people.

Our next stop was Perypeteuse a ruin high up in the Pyrenees.  The ride was white knuckle yikes ……………tiny thin roads and mountain drop.  I was on the edge of my seat.  Jared was driving in the middle of the road and 10 miles an hour.  It took forever.  It was worth the risk.  The ruin was incredible.  High up in the middle of nowhere and a view that I have never seen before.  Treacherous walks up to the ruins but in the end we prevailed.

We stayed the night at the Chateau de Ducs de Joyeuse.  Very nice staff , beautiful grounds and awesome room in one of the towers.  Jared too kpictures which I will post when we get home.  It is too hard to do that stuff right now.

I was able to check my email last night and found out that Karla had passed away over the weekend.  I think I had convinced myself that it wasn’t going to happen.  I am not at home and we have such a non stop schedule that I fear that this is all feeling very unreal.  I did not get to go to the funereal so i think this is all going to hit me a little harder when I get home.  I keep thinking of things that I want to tell her about the trip and  then I remember that she isn’t there.  It is a feeling that I have never really experienced before.  It is driving me insane.   I literally feel like someone has taken off my right arm.  The last phone call that we had was when she was in the hospital the Tuesday before we left for France.  She told me what the doctors had said and then told me that she would rather just stay there until the end because she felt comforted.  She did not want to go home and die.  I was lamenting about leaving to go to France and she said “Go and have a good time…..for me Jenny”  So that is what I do and I make sure that I put her name in every guestbook for every Chateau that we visit.

Rocamadour was fascinating.  It is actually a pilgrimage town.  there is a cathedral built into the side of the mountain and the town is built around it.  You have to take an outside lift to get up and down.  We actually walked down but we took the lift back up.  The place was like in a time warp and very isolated.  There was mass going on basically all the time to keep the tourists happy and the actual Cathedral was very exciting to see.  It was weird  though…..a lot of people were taking pictures inside the cathedral which is fine but they were like using their flashes during mass which I thought was very disrespectful.  What do I know?

We drove to Carcassone which is huge and found our B&B.  We had an interview scheduled but at the last minute she freaked out and said that she thought her neighbor would be more interesting because he was a professor.  She was right.  A man walks in with a Rip Van Winkle beard and proceeds to talk for 20 minutes basically non-stop.  In French of course but we got the basics  of what he was saying.  It will be translated by someone at Case later.  He told us to make sure to eat some Cassoulet.  The specialty in the area.  It is basically like a bean casserole with duck.  We went to the restaurant they suggested and we weren’t disappointed.  Tim and Jared ordered the Cassoulet and I tasted it.  It was very good.

It has been a week since I updated because we had bad internet connections and such so I will do the best I can to get up to date.

On Monday we went to the Chateau d’Angers.  It was a huge structure owned and run by the actual city of Angers.  They had turned the dry moat into beautiful gardens which I thought was a very nifty idea.  It really added to the experience.  Unfortunately it was a holiday and all the museums and stuff attached to the Chateau were closed so we were limited to the outside but we got a lot of pictures and film.

The rest of the day was spent in the car.  We had a 6 hour drive to Rocomandour.  We drove into a terrible storm and it took us much longer than expected.  We finally found the B&B and as we were settling into the room a lightening strike hit right outside of the room.  The lights went out and I screamed and jumped across the room.  It was earsplitting trust me.  I thought it was an explosion.  I went to sleep not feeling too good about the accomadations.  they were probably the worst since we got here.  Rocamandour is pretty much in the middle of nowhere so we were stuck.

We woke up early today so that Jared could get some shots and film before people were walking around.  We drove to L’angais about 15 minutes away.  They have a large street market on Sundays.  We went to the front of the Chateau de L’Angais.  At 9:30 the Chateau lets down the drawbridge to welcome visitors for the day and Jared wanted to capture it on film.  It was very cute.  Families who walked into town for the market brought their kids to the Chateau, watched the drawbridge come down, and went on to the market.  The castle was fun and had a great history.  It was fun driving trough the Loire region.  You could see one castle after the other in the distance.

The market was an interesting experience.  I bought a watch for 5 Euro and 3 days later it is still working.  By the way it is heaven going to a chocolatier at 8 in the morning.

We went to saumur in the afternoon and it was hot and sunny.  Not good news for me because I am fried, by that I mean I have a mean sunburn and there is no suntan happening here.  Saumur was beautiful and the surrounding area was breathtaking but there was a lot of renovating going on and so there was not alot that we could see on the inside so the trip was cut a little short.  We got some great shots of the outside.

We are staying tonight at a B&B in Angers.   I was really missing the taste of a hamburger so we went to a small place in Angers who made me a burger and fries.  Guess what?  They gave me mayo with my fries.  What?  I have been eating fries with mayo for years and people at home act like I am being gross but here it’s normal.  Vindication at last!!  We ended the day earlier than usual because we really needed to catch our breath.  We have a 5.5 hour drive to Rocamandour tomorrow.

So we have been here officially for a week and close quarters can make things a bit dicey.  Jared has his Ipod which consists of alot of ELO and Paul Simon.  Tim and I started asking him to skip songs about the 4th day because we kept hearing the same ones everyday.  Then Tim didn’t like “Fool in the rain” by Led Zepplin which I love.  I think the only two songs that we could agree that we all three liked was “Rubberband Man” by the Spinners and “I love the rainy nights” by Eddie Rabbit.  I don’t know what that says about us.

We had a busy day and Jared is like a drill sargent so we got going early.  Our first stop was Chenonceau.  I loved it.  It was romantic and beautiful with the gardens and amazing waterway.  There was a grand covered bridge and a wax museum to explain the history behind the chateau.  I t was by far my favorite of the day and I plan on reading alot more about it when we get home.

Villandry is a privately owned castle famous for the gardens and a fabulous yard Labyrinth.  I liked the fact that the family still ran the castle.  It had a real personal feel to it as you went through and saw the rooms.  The gardens were so awesome that I ended up losing Tim and Jared and walking around them for a couple hours.

Chateau Azay-le-Rideau was the next castle and it was very unique.  It was built next to a lake and looks like it is coming out of the water.  Jared got alot of great shot here and we were able to film some outside but they would not permit us to film any inside at all.

We spent last night at the Chateau de Rochecotte.  A beautiful 16th century castle.  We had a great interview with one of the owners.  It turns out it is owned by a family who converted it into a hotel 25 years ago.  They were so nice and thankful for the oppurtunity to talk about their castle.  it was very refreshing.  I proceeded to drink way too much of their house wine and now I have a headache.

We headed to Chatre which was 3 hours from Mont Saint Michel so we stopped at a rest stop for provisions.  Gas stations have amazing food in France!!  Chatre houses an incredible Notre Dame Cathedral.  The windows in the structure were incredible and we got alot of great shots.  It is not far out from Paris so it is much more of a tourist trap than some of the other places that we have visited.

The main attraction here is the Labyrinth.  I lit a candle for Karla, signed the prayer book and started walking the Labyrinth.  I took it very slow.  I was watching a man in front of me who was walking slowly also.  He was holding a rosary.  I was jealous.  He was walking it for the right reasons.  I was a tourist.  Which made me start thinking.  By the time I was done I realized I had spent 15 minutes thinking.  Thinking about Karla, thinking about how short life can be, thinking about allowing ugly things and ugly people(ugly on the inside) into your life, and how about it is all up to you not to allow said ugly things and people in.  It really helped, I feel better.

We drove to the Loire region of France in the afternoon and arrived at the Chateau Chissay.  We had permission to film and interview so we filmed quite a bit before dinner.  It is a beautiful place converted into an upscale hotel.  I had the best Veal of my life and a great dessert.  I also had the best night’s sleep in the awesome bed.

We started off the day at Chateau Ducal in Caen.  I think I spelled it wrong yesterday.  It is a huge structure.  I loved the fact that you could still see some of the old staircases covered in ivy and grass.  There was alot left of the ruin so there were lots of walkways and towers to explore.  Great opportunities for great film and stills.  Unfortunately it was a bank holiday so we couldn’t get into the museum.  We stopped at a bakery to get egg ham and cheese sandwiches(I love those things) and headed out to Mont Saint-Michel.

Mont Saint- Michel is an amazing place. A fortified city that was built around an abbey which is still a commune today.  The sight immediately takes your breath away.  It is built on a tidal island and alot of activities and visitation depends on the tides.  It is like a different time when you walk around ande inside the abbey………..pure Goth.  It was so large it took us hours to walk around and film and shoot it.  There were monks praying and I put Karla’s name in the prayer book.  It is in the Normandie region and because it is on the Atlantic it was very cold.  We stayed at a hotel on Mont Saint-Michel.  The walls were lined with pictures and autographs of people who stayed there. The morning comes early here we woke up at 630 and walked around while there was no one here and it was like heaven.

The first stop of a a very busy day was to the Chateau de Gisors, a well kept ruin with lovely grounds.  We got alot of great shots there and at the Beautiful cathedral across the street.  I was finally able to explain that I needed aspirin tablets to a woman in another pharmacie and was able to buy some.  She also tried to sell me an alka seltzer type tablet first.

We went on to the Chateau de la Roche-Guyon.  It was huge with several different generations of castle add-ons.  This housed a bunker used by the Nazis.  This castle was full of alot of history and interesting caves.  We climbed to the top of the keep and there was a group of school children.  They got a big kick out of trying to talk to us.  Tim started to sing “See ya later alligator” and I taught them how to say “bye bye” which every single one proceeded to say as they walked by to go.  It was very satisfying.

The next destination was the Chateau gaillard.  This was the castle of Richard the Lionheart.  It was my favorite of the day.  I am not really sure why.  There was just something about it on that hill with that long drop off.  I could just imagine the way it was hundreds of years ago.

We drove to Caen where we are actually staying at an Ibis.  We at dinner outside at a cafe across the street from the Chateau du Cal.  The castle of William the Conquerer.  With the castle lit up with lighta, the musician on the street collecting money, and all the other sights; I felt like I was in a movie.

Tomorrow is going to be very exciting.  Mont- Saint- Michel is one of the spots that I havebeen looking forward to and we will be staying on the island tonight.