Day 5 - Castles!

Isla slept through the entire night again! I actually woke up before her which felt amazing so I wandered outside our chateau to be greeted by the neighbor cows. The setting here was absolutely gorgeous. We were basically out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and old stone farmhouses.  

We left our hotel for Chateau de Chenonceau, a beautiful 11th century castle a short drive from our hotel. It is crazy how we could just be driving and spot a random castle on the hill. Castle after castle...it seemed like such a fairy tale! This one in particular seemed very Walt Disney to me but let's not debate who copied who. There was a lot of "my castle's better than your castle" kind of stuff going around back in the day so everyone tried to make their place of residence bigger and better. This one in particular was owned by a number of different mistresses. The long "bridge" portion that extends across the river on the left was a giant hall that hosted fancy balls; in WWII, it was turned into a hospital ward in WWII and was a means to pass over from the Nazi-occupied land on one side of the river to the "free" land on the other.

We grabbed vending machine cappuccinos (not bad!) and chocolate croissants and a jambon and cheese sandwich for later from the little castle food booth. Graham's allergies made their nasty appearance starting today (and continuing for pretty much the entire rest of the trip). On the really bad days, I spent the good first portion of the day doing lots of thinking to myself as Graham gets really spacey and loopy when he takes allergy meds. They would finally wear off around 3 PM and I would get my Graham back. 

The grounds even boasted an Alice in Wonderland-style bush maze, along with these gorgeous, tree-lined roads.

After our castle tour, we sat at a table to enjoy our sandwich picnic (strictly forbidden as you were supposed to only buy food from their cafeteria). I nursed Isla using my Hooter Hider but all the while a strange man kept glancing my way. As it turned out, I guess he was waiting for Isla to be done because he wanted to see her. There was probably some degree of a language barrier going on, but our conversation basically began with him asking me "So, you're still giving her milk?" And then somehow it came out that he was a dairy farmer from Germany and was here researching French dairy farms. It was just weird. It felt like we were comparing my dairy and his with the whole milking thing. Oh yeah, and to top it all off, he was wearing the most gigantic, hand-painted (by his wife) wooden shoes, one painted like the French flag, the other like the German. If only Isla had given him "the look," we could have ended the awkward conversation a lot sooner!

We had a hard time deciding which castle to visit next because there are just so many. We opted to make our way to Chevery, a chateau well-known for its beautifully preserved furnishings. Before entering, we stopped at a restaurant, Le Pinnochio, across the street as our sandwich did not fill us up. It was an Italian place so we ordered Pasta Bolognese with mushrooms and a salad with sun dried tomatoes and olives to share. By this time, all hopes at sanitary eating for Isla had been thrown out the window (not having a high chair will do that to you!) and we'd resorted to putting cut of pieces of food directly on the bare table or chair and letting her pick at them. This plan backfired as we were seated under a lovely flowering vine that was gradually showering us with its petals. Because Isla had learned anything on the table was fair game, we had to pull numerous flower petals from her grip and mouth as we just couldn't keep up. Anyway, so this meal sticks out to me as our first, true French dining experience (and by that I mean more the experience of trying to get the bill than the experience of eating). We kept asking for the bill (a new waitress would come to our table every time). Pretty soon, all the other diners had left, we saw one of our waitresses leaving and we still didn't have the bill. Isla was getting fussy so I left with her and Graham had to deal with the bill. He said that he easily could have walked out of there without paying because no one seemed to know what we had ordered. When they finally came up with a bill, it was all wrong.

The mess was soon sorted out and we headed back towards the Chateau. But, we happened upon a free wine tasting so we stopped in. Graham really liked the Rose (Pinot/Gamay blend). I don't recall anything in particular standing out to me but this leads me to another point. I'd like to give a little shout out to French Rose wines. They are nothing like the Rose we drink over here. I know it tends to have a bad rap in the states for being, well, shall we say, trashy. But seriously, if you even have the chance to get your hands on a French one, don't judge, try it! They are quite delicious and refreshing chilled.

Anyway, back to our tour of Cheverny. The owners actually still live on the top floor which is just crazy to me. Meanwhile, we tourists are constantly milling the grounds and wandering through the lower floors. I don't know, that just seems like too much of a breech of privacy to me.

I had to get a picture of the castle's birthing room. I was a bit surprised that there was an entire room dedicated to this but I guess there was a lot of birthing going on back then. The bed "linens" are made of silk and everything was pretty fancy smancy.

Isla spent a lot of time on our fronts or backs or in the stroller and got pretty good at sleeping on the go.

Enjoying the gardens. What I didn't get a picture of was the cage of hundreds of hunting dogs that are fed daily on the premises (apparently people time their visits to witness this). I do not tend to be much of an animal rights person in general but this got to me. I don't know how many dogs were in that tiny cage other than FAR. TOO. MANY. The stench was absolutely horrible that we had to leave. Ick. Poor puppies!

On our way back to the hotel, Graham spotted some people swimming in the river and he felt the sudden urge to swim. He went in search of a good place to jump in (the river ran along the back side of our lodging) while Isla and I hung out on the hotel grounds. One of the many things that stood out to me on this trip was the sound of the birds in France. Maybe it was because we spent so much time in the countryside, but I couldn't get over how beautiful it was. We shot a few videos so you can hear it for yourself.

Hmmm. Dinner. I have good memories of this meal. Because of our poor dining experience in Amboise the night before, we decided to try out our own hotel's menu as it had been written up on our guidebook. It still amazes me how such small places can come up with incredible, multi-course meals. Not only was the food amazing, but so was the ambiance. We ate in a large open-air gazebo overlooking the pond/fountain featured in the video above. AND, check out the colors of the decor/chair coverings (oh and my handsome hubby's shirt)!! How perfect!

The whole menu was in French and our waiter didn't speak a lick of English. Graham was super weirded out by him as he just seemed to hover awkwardly nearby. I think he just wasn't used to people taking so incredibly long to make up their mind about what they wanted. Not understanding the menu along with indecisiveness was an almost lethal combination. I had read that the French place their orders very quickly when dining out and sometimes get frustrated with slow Americans so I was more relaxed about it and figured it was a cultural difference. Thankfully, our waiter wasn't frustrated, he just stayed very close until we gave him our order.

In France, the "Entree" is actually the starter which makes a lot of sense if you ask me. Graham ordered a rabbit terrine (pictured above) that came with some random accoutrements. I had a green salad with mushrooms that were stuffed with fresh, creamy goat cheese.

Both of our main dishes made it in our Top 5 food favorites. Graham had delicious lamb with honey sauce-it was so tender! I had beef with foie gras sauce that was also super tasty. We let Isla eat the steak and she loved it and kept wanting more. I'm pretty sure she ate half of my steak! I had to wonder if fellow diners thought we were "wasting" gourmet food on our baby as it felt like people were looking at us funny. We had a hard time deciding what wine to try and finally decided on one that we didn't recognize with a name similar to "champagne." We assumed we'd be drinking bubbly but it turned out to be a Cabernet which we were happy about as it paired wonderfully with our meaty meals. Again, I couldn't get over how different it was from American cabs but I really liked it. Graham had ordered Brioche bread pudding with ice cream for dessert but our waiter brought him wine poached pear which was the one dessert on the menu he didn't want. He was really hesitant to tell the waiter since he freaked him out so much but finally did when I mentioned that we'd never see him again. :) I had a yummy apple tart, a regional specialty.

This was one of the few restaurants we ate in that had a high chair. The chair didn't have a safety belt but it did have a nifty built-in wooden bead toy that kept Isla entertained for a while. Just as she started to get bored, the hotel dog showed up and became very interested in her (or maybe it was all the food beneath her that she'd been dropping) which provided in a great distraction while Graham and I enjoyed our leisurely meal.

Isla closed out the meal by working on her French kissing skills.

It was so nice to be able to just walk back to our room after we finished eating. I had brought a book of food memoirs by Ruth Reichl that I ended up reading aloud to Graham. We'd read a couple books aloud to each other in the past but it had been a long while. It felt so good to have the time and energy to do it again.