Oh right! On the day that we arrived we went out to a really nice dinner. I have to say, of all the cities that I've visited so far, I think Lyon had the best food. Every single meal that we had was spectacular! On that night in particular we ended up going home really full. We also started watching Sherlock Holmes (the one with Robert Downy, Jr.) which was really amazing.
Our first full day in the city (the day on which we arrived doesn't count) was our "stay at home day." My parents promised my brother that we would stay home at least once a week so as not to over-exhaust ourselves. I was feeling sick in the morning, and we were all really worried that I had gotten whatever Giulia had (she still wasn't feeling well when she visited in Torino) but thankfully it passed. The next day we all headed out and went to the Musee des Beaux Arts, which translates literally to Museum of Beautiful Arts, although it can be compared to saying "Museum of Fine Arts." Anyway, we got to see a lot of art that was done anywhere from the medieval period to present day. It was quite a wide range, and we enjoyed it a lot. The weather was becoming increasingly nicer, and we got to enjoy up to 80 degree weather. And it's still spring! I've got to say, one thing that I'm beginning to understand much better now that we're spending 6 months in Europe instead of San Francisco is what traditional weather patterns actually look like. ;) We also had another delicious meal and got to finish Sherlock Holmes. SO GOOD. Robert Downy, Jr. is really good at portraying the quirkiness of Holmes' character.
The day after that we saw Lyon's basilica and cathedral. Don't ask me what the difference is, all I know is that they're both bigger and more important than a church. The basilica was WAY over the top, with 19th century mosaics in the style of Alfons Mucha (remember him?), gold plating and color everywhere, detailed statues, and not an INCH of space left unused. Crazy. The basilica is also on a hill overlooking the entire city, so we got a great view after we finally trudged up the hill. By the way, did you know that the Virgin Mary is the patron saint of France? That's why you have all those Notre Dame cathedrals (or in this case a Notre Dame basilica), because "Notre Dame" translates to "Our Lady." Unfortunately, the cathedral was under restoration and the entire back section was closed off, so that didn't turn out to be as interesting as we expected. The restoration business is actually a very good line of work in Europe. Apparently there's a lot of opportunities and it pays well. It's hard for us to imagine because we live in a part of the world with very few old historical structures left, but in Europe there's old stuff left and right. In fact, my aunt's sister-in-law wanted to go into the restoration business, but she decided that she wasn't going to be able
to make it since she didn't have good enough connections. Crazy!
Now THAT'S ornate.
View of Lyon from tag Basilica Notre Dame
That was pretty much all we did in Lyon. The next day we had to leave and we all packed up the car and headed for the Loire Valley. We noticed on the way that there were huge fields with vibrant yellow flowers growing. And I mean vibrant; it looked like someone had just grabbed a giant highlighter and drawn lines across the field until it was filled with color! In fact kind of like some school aged kids that I've met… ;) It was amazing, and later we figured out that it was a flower called "rapeseed," whose seeds are used to make canolla oil. Very interesting.
We finally arrived to the place where we were staying, and I instantly fell in love with it. It actaually reminded me a bit of Sonoma, just because of the heat and the woods. We were staying in a cute little cottage in the countryside which was owned by a British woman and her French husband. (We never met him.) The surrounding area was beautiful, and we got to enjoy it while we played ping pong outside. The only shortcoming was the mosquitos; they got in everywhere and we were on a constant violent campaign against them. In the end I think we won, though, because we killed a ton of them and their bites were only itchy for about ten minutes before fading away. Ha-ha!
Anyway, the next day we headed out to our first château! If you aren't already aware, the Loire Valley is famous for its lavish palaces built by the French aristocracy, because for a long time having a Loire Valley summer mansion/palace was extremely fashionable. These palaces are called chateaux. (Yes, yes, the plural of château is chateaux, the French are insane, let's move on.) The first château we saw was called Chambord, and was built during the Renaissance and possibly designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. Ooooooh, enticed any? ;)
The most remarkable thing about the château was its symmetry, and in particular its staircase. The central "keep" (even though keeps are reserved for defensive castles and forts and there was nothing even remotely defensive about Chambord) was square, with a plus sign-shaped hallway in the middle and four towers, one jutting out of each corner.
At the center of the plus sign was a central spiral staircase. Now, here's where it gets interesting. The staircase is a double helix (like DNA) so that there is not one staircase, but two, with their entrances across from each other. However because it is a double helix (if you don't know what one looks like you should look it up) two people could begin climbing the stairs from opposite sides and look across the center and be able to see each other, but never meet.
Anyway, the château was overall very fun and we enjoyed it both architectually and historically (it was supposed to have housed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette but their visit was cancelled becaue of, predictably, the French Revolution). That night we had a delicious dinner in a cave restaurant (this one rivaled even Cappadocia) and then after continuing our endless campaign against the mosquitos went to bed.
The next day we visited another château, this one called Villandry, which was particularly remarkable for its French gardens. They included an amazingly aesthetic kitchen garden which was more creatively designed than most flower beds, an herb garden, a maze, a pond with swans, a flower garden, and a group of woods in the back of the château. Amazing. We were especially excited about the maze because (believe it or not) we had never actually been to a legitimate one before. I mean for starters, not very many public parks have mazes in the first place, especially not in the United States, and even if they do they're generally only hedges that are waist high and can be easily seen over. LAME. This one, thankfully, was a completely legitimate maze, although it was almost disappointingly easy to figure out. But it's still cool, right? We definitely enjoyed it regardless. Another interesting thing about the château is that it was renovated by a couple during the early 20th century—she was from Pennsylvania and he from Spain. How they had the money to renovate an entire French château I do not know, but they did it and the result was pretty spectacular. We ended up spending a lot of time in the gardens and in the building itself and overall enjoyed it a lot.
Later on we headed to another château, this one called Azay-le-Rideau, which was built during the Renaissance. Unfortunately it was under restoration, but it was a beautiful island château, built in a split in a river (which was probably redirected to do that, 'cause these wealthy people were insane and were not beyond redesigning nature in accordance to their whims) and was a beautiful example of Renaissance architecture.
Anyway, that was our last day in the Loire Valley! I am still not caught up on my posting, but again, for the sake of my titles I am ending this post here. (After all, my "Naked David" title only covered the first day of, like, three weeks or something crazy like that.)
I like your Beautiful pictures I'm very proud of you I'm looking forward to meeting up with you in Sicily this summer love grandma
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