Welcome to the Country

This past weekend I was lucky enough to travel a little bit south to the Loire Valley with two wonderful companions and see what life in the French Countryside is really like. Let me tell you what, it couldn't get anymore opposite of Paris and I loved every second of it (and not just becuase I ate like a champ all weekend with homemade quiche, pasta, roasted chicken, pizza, omlets and desserts like you would not believe). After taking the TGV only 1 hour south it was like we entered an entirely new world. It looked different, smelled different and the people were totally different (by different I mean super friendly, they offered directions, said hello with a smile and even the man making the crepes at a street side stand refused to let me go without having a crepe sucre "on the house"!!!!). Everything about it had my head turning to look here and there, I really did not want to miss a single thing. Although on a side note - I did try out the local Monoprix becuase some genius packer (c'est moi!)  forgot something really important - pajamas!! Upon our arrival we explored the town of Tours and then picked up the rental car to make our way to our final destination. Once we realised that GPS is not always the smartest thing ever, we made our way out of the city and ended up in Amboise, a sleepy little town where Da Vinici is buried...Where we were lucky enough to stay with two gracious hosts at their newly renovated country home. It was a three story, charming house that was built in the 1800's, a complete transition from the tiny cramped apartments of Paris. Being in this type of atmosphere just reinforced the fact that I am a country girl through and through at heart... I felt just a bit more at home being surrounded by trees and flowers and dirt roads. There were no cars honking and it just smelled fresh (and I don't mean fresh in that gross garbage been sitting in the sun all day fresh, I mean the fresh bread ad laundry drying in the sun fresh!)  You can take the girl out of the country but not the country out of the girl...  Even though the weather wasn't incredibly gorgeous (I think that Spring has gone on vacation and Winter is earning some serious time and half overtime pay because it has been gray, cold and rainy for weeks now...) we had a few brief moments of blue skies and sunshine and managed to stay dry enough to enjoy 3 Chateaus, an awesome little market place, a donkey park, a vineyard, a traditional French lunch in the middle of nowhere in a long house built next to an asparagus farm  and some very breathtaking scenery. Walking through these castles and little towns brought an entirely new appreciation for France and made me realise what a young litte country the US is. The stories that have been made on these tiny country streets and within the castle walls are older than anyplace I have ever experienced. Of course the Asian Tourist part of me came out and I clicked away like these castles and towns were going to dissapear and I needed to have proof they once existed. So for your viewing pleasure, here is a SMALL sampling of the weekend...

DISCLAIMER: there are no wine tasting/vineyard photos because I think that deserves an entire post dedicated just to that!!!!

Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours

The view from the house where we stayed. Simple, quiet and delightful!

 


Chateau Chenonceau



<3

 

Chateau Cheverny

The lunch crew at La Coudraie - a delightful m eal, wonderful conversation and even a little sunshine!

I wish I was back here right now...

Chateau Chambord

Sleepy street in Amboise.

I'll take two, toasted with fresh strawberry preserves, please & thanks!

Radishes, radishes everywhere!!

Every good French girl needs a weaved basket to take to the market...

DINNER!!! QUACK!!!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack

OK. So I know, I know, I know… it has been two months since my last confession.. ummmmm I mean blog post… so here I am to make amends. But I have to throw a few excuses out there as to why I had not posted – the first being; things became so normal and day to day here in Paris that I found it hard to share anything exciting. The shopping, the food, even the unreal crazy folk on the metro became just ordinary. That was until I realised that it is slowly creeping up on the end of my contract for my job here in Paris and I needed to spice it up a bit because well I just have no idea what my life is going to throw at me in the near future and I want every single memory I make before my return to the US absolutely amazing (maybe that is a high expectation but a feel it is a totally worthwhile expectation). So I can be totally honest and say that over the past few weeks I have done much more than I normally would have during a regular week in Paris. After spending almost a month back in the states – with no real leads as to what I am going to be doing next – I thought it would be really hard to return to the City of Lights and my life here, but I was dead wrong. It all fell back into place seamlessly and now to be honest I find myself questioning what the hell am I doing?!?!!? Now many of you know that I also made the same kind of comment about wanting to stay here knowing that my family and friends are back in New England and that there is a huge draw to want to be back, but why oh why can’t I just mash the two up? I mean is it so much to ask for a job that would allow me to spend 75% of my time in the US travelling and the other 25% back here in Paris? So if any of you have a brilliant idea or two about how to make that happen, I am all ears, literally, spill them. I feel it would be the perfect solution for me. But enough waaaaaahhhhhh about having to move and real life choices, let’s get to the nitty gritty – which include all of my adventures since I returned to Paris at the beginning of April. Let’s see – I have seen street dancing, Science Museums, been to my favourite Vietnamese restaurant with my two favourite children and the partner in crime, spent an entire day reading in front of my favourite window in my apartment while drinking REAL espresso (I had no idea how much I missed that liquid sunshine until I had my first sip when I returned), finally managed to bake up a tasty treat with all of the conversions done in French (did you know they don’t have measuring spoons here, just use a soup spoon or coffee spoon?),  eaten falafel with the best spicy green chilli  sauce ever, travelled on the TGV to the Loire Valley, visited my first real winery, four castles, saw the French countryside and was asked to be on a tv show… and those are only the things I can remember right now as I type. As always there are LOADS of photos and I plan on taking sometime this week to share my favorites and tell you (if anyone is still reading this silly little thing) about all of my adventures. Actually for the first time in a while I am incredibly excited to write about these little tid bits and share them… so I hope you are ready for this :)