Spring has arrived! (sort of)

      This last week has seen true signs of spring peaking out around the city.  I woke up the other day to find that the bare sycamores lining the streets below my window had gone from winter brown to young leaf green.  Trees I didn't even know bloomed are heavy with bunches of pink, white, and purple flowers thicker than I've ever seen.  Truly lovely and a welcome break from the drab colors of winter.  

      Today was unusually sunny and thus was perfect for your group trip down to Giverny to visit Monet's house and gardens.  There were flowers everywhere, but apparently what we saw was a "sparse" showing of what it will be in a few weeks time.   

The variety of bulb plants was just stunning, and in the bright sun the colors were spectacularly intense.

Daffodils by the lily pond

These bunches of little flowers smelled so sweet when you walked by that 

only the spines kept us from burying our faces in the plants.  

      After we finished touring the waterlily pond, gardens, and house, it was time for lunch.  I had packed my lunch, a lovely fresh fruit, goat cheese sandwich, and Perrier affair, so I headed off to find a place to eat while the others scattered to the various sandwich shops.  I ended up finding a bench under some flowering trees and sat down next to an elderly British lady having her coffee.  We soon struck up a conversation and an hour later we practically knew each other's life stories.  I got to hear all about her daughter who is a elementary school teacher in Spain, her dislike for driving on roads larger than one lane, her late husband's cooking skills, her sister and reclusive brother-in-law, her lack of general computer skills but mastery of Skype, and of course, her opinions of the Impressionists.  

      Dear Florence, what a kind soul.  She was quite encouraging of my pursuit of Art History and in general just seemed to be full of good advice and dry humor.  Our lovely chat was one of the highlights of the trip as no matter what new and interesting things you see, the new and interesting people that you meet are the part that you actually remember.  

All of these flowering trees with the bright sun and blue sky behind them made me 

think of Van Gogh and his paintings of cherry blossoms.

      After parting ways with Florence, I found a few folks from our group and we walked around for a while up the narrow streets before settling into some thick green grass on the side of a little hill all surrounded with stone fences and flower.  Carefree times in the sun, making daisy chains, rolling down the hill, and of course, a rowdy game of Would You Rather all topped off with a scoop of pistachio ice cream made for a lovely afternoon.

little blue flowers near Monet's tomb

This church had the coolest windows ever!  As you can see, they were in shades of 

blue and the whole interior was covered in blue speckles of light.  

      Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the bus for the short drive back to Paris.  Another lovely, sunny day with old friends and new friends successfully completed.  Unfortunately for us, it is supposed to drop below freezing next week, so be crossing your fingers that it doesn't kill the flowers or young buds.  I forgot to add that somewhere along the way I visited the Musee des Impressionists where they were having an exhibit of Signac's paintings and sketches.  I had no idea I liked Signac so much, and now he is one of my favorites!  Truly inspiring stuff.

All my love always,

Kate Alice

Valle de la Loire

      What an epically wonderful weekend!  It was non-stop castles, fresh springiness, good friends, good food, countless portraits of Catherine de Medici, and one weird French movie about a disco competition for the bus ride home.

      We started off at Chateau de Blois which was a fascinating bit of architecture.  The buildings on each side of the courtyard were all done, and some left uncompleted, by different kings or wannabe kings of France throughout time so on one side was Early Gothic, then Flamboyant Gothic, then a melange of Renaissance and Gothic, and then full on Renaissance.  As an art history student, it was a true gem and a lovely example of how styles change fluidly and not abruptly as they appear to do on paper.  

      This was the most gorgeous staircase, and I wish I would have taken the time to take a better photo.  Every little facet was covered in delicate carvings.  Apparently this area is predominately limestone which is quite easy to carve, and thus it was used extensively in the creation of these castles. 

      Little signs of spring were everywhere and all of the trees were just about to bloom, like this one.  

The courtyard of the castle led further up a little hill where there was a panorama 

view of the rest of Blois and this church.

rooftops of Blois

      After the tour of the castle we walked down to the main town center to look for something to eat.  There was a lovely weekend market as usual and we ended up having some kebab sandwiches which were surprisingly good.  No sooner had we finished lunch then it was time to hastily walk back to the bus to head to a wine tasting.  Eight wines down the hatch later, the day only improved :)  My wine sniffing and swirling skills have definitely gotten better since I arrived here, but beyond "this tastes good" and "this is different from the last one", my wine commentary skills have remained rather rudimentary.  How am I supposed to tell the difference between pear flavors and apple flavors?  Also, I learned that "dirt" is a wine flavor.  Who knew?

      Our next stop was the Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau.  

I especially loved how this castle had much more woodwork and less stone than the other ones we visited.  It made it much more inviting and some of the delicate woodwork was rather impressive.

Who could not love stained glass squirrels?

The grounds were small, but so beautiful and lovely for an afternoon, post-wine-tasting stroll.

Spring leaves!

I'm not sure what this plant was, but it was fluffy and fantastical. 

From far away the whole bush looked like a pile of gray pompoms.

Everywhere we went this past weekend there were trees everywhere in 

bloom with little pink, white, and yellow flowers.  

The group scattered a bit for the castle tour, but we all managed to find our way back together near the water.  Laughing, talking, creating new inside jokes, taking silly photos, telling stories, and speaking bad Franglish cannot be underestimated in regards to their positive affects on one's state of mind.  

The moat that surrounded the castle was so still except for a little waterfall 

under the bridge and made for some wonderful reflections.

This little lady followed us around on our walk and just wanted to be petted.

The moss that has been dormant all winter was just starting to peak its 

head up again with the slightly warmer weather.

      After we packed back into the bus, we headed to where we would be staying the night.  It was a surprisingly nice place that was a little, two story, stone "chateau" with a sun porch and fully stocked little reading room filled with stacks of old French mysteries and war novels.  Dinner was a lovely and interesting affair.  Never underestimate the amount of bread and wine that a group of 20 college students can go through after they learn that both are bottomless and free.  I can proudly say that my wonderful roommate and I were the only ones do drink with enough moderation to be able to finish our homework that night, and wake up alert and without a pounding headache the next morning.  The number of people wearing sunglasses while slowly eating a bowl of soggy cornflakes was both sad and hysterical.  

After breakfast we headed just a short ways over to Chateau de Chenonceau.  It was a mild and misty morning, so we decided to walk the grounds before heading into the castle.

It had rained recently and all around the ground was covered in mirror-like ponds of a few inches of water.

Ethereal morning green.

We soon rounded the corner and were met with the absolutely picture perfect chateau.  We stood speechless for a bit before launching into a frenzy of silly photos and saying "whoa, that's cool", for lack of anything more intelligent to say. 

      The inside of the castle was very nice and all, but we spent most of our time outside.  This is the west garden that was one of the only ones that was in bloom.  It "warmed up" nicely and put us all in a great mood.  We had separated into groups of 2-4, but somehow in the course of about twenty minutes we all stumbled upon this little walled-in playground area with a giant willow tree and sunshine.  I could write on forever about all of the crazy antics that went on in that playground, but you really would have had to have been there.  

      From there we headed off to lunch at this little auberge/restaurant for a fresh, local lunch.  The majority of the ingredients came from this couple's farm and they specialized in goat products, so everything was filled, covered, and paired with more types of goat cheese than I thought possible for the same goat to make!  From the starter to the dessert it took almost three hours and was one of the highlights of the trip.

      Next stop was Chateau de Chambord which was once the home of Da Vinci and a bunch of other famous people whom I forget.  It is most famous for the double staircase that Da Vinci designed himself.  It is completely ingenious and is made of two staircases that spiral in opposite directions around each other so that they never meet.  This photo is looking up through the column of space in between the two staircases.

Fancy molding :) 

There is currently an art exhibit on the second floor that, while in a style completely anachronistic with the rest of the castle, somehow seemed to fit.

I'm not sure what style architecture this would be classified as, but it was pretty cool!

      All too soon the weekend came to an end and before I knew it we were back in Paris and back to the day to day responsibilities.  At the end of each of these trips I am always left with an extreme thankfulness for the wonderful people that are my friends here and dread the day we must go our different ways once again.  I've been doing fairly good at keeping in touch with my friends from last semester, and that is nice.  For as wonderful as all of the places were that we went, none of them would have been the same without someone to share it with.  For that reason, I can't wait for you folks to come visit!  

All of my love always,

Kate Alice

p.s. yes, I somehow managed to go the entire weekend with only one photo of myself and it is only about a fourth of the side of my head on the edge of the photo at that.  I got some great pics of my friends though!