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Chambord Chateau was the site of our next landmark. This place was breathtaking: As soon as we saw the chateau from the bus, several of us looked at each other gasping the words "My God" in unison.
This castle was built by Francois the 1st, and was his primary hunting chateau. The whole place is covered in paintings of animals, and the total land area of the chateau is roughly the same size as the immediate city of Paris limits! Chambord is most famous for its double helix staircase, thought to be designed by Leonardo Da Vinci.
After Chambord, we were off to the town of Blois, a beautiful place with the chateau in the middle of the town, raised on a hill. This place was a lot better for site-seeing, and there were many things to see. Outside the chateau, some of us got to see a strange building with mechanical reptiles hanging out of the window, dancing at the top of the hour. When one of us asked a local why they did that, the locals told her with a laugh that, "They are going to eat you." So, the building is still a mystery.
The chateau in Blois, however, is not a mystery at all. There are four sections, all from different periods of architecture, and all from different rulers. The first section is from the Gothic period, the second from the flamboyant, the third from the Renaissance, and the last is Classicism.
After waiting almost an hour and a half for our bus, we finally set out for Mont St. Michel and the town of Bayeux today. Mont St. Michel was founded in 708 AD, and is located in the middle of a tiny island. The location is key to the place's original purpose, a monastery. It was easy for us to see why the place was chosen for this purpose, even without knowing that the monastery was built because the Bishop at that time had a vision of Michael the Arcangel, who told him to "build me a shrine." Mt. St. Michel is even mentioned on the Bayeux Tapestry, which we are going to see later.
We climbed 280 steps in order to get to the top of Mt. St. Michel, and we could only imagine what that must have been like for the hundreds of pilgrims who traveled to the area in its first years. We had a great guide, who told us many legends and stories, but the one that stuck out the most was that former astronaut Alan Shepard gave the monks of Mt. St. Michel a rosary because after going to the moon, he found it one of the three most inspiring places on Earth. If this is true, we most certainly would not argue that with Mr. Shepard! Is it a mere coincidence that Mt. St. Michel is located exactly 7 km from the shore? We may never know...
After Mt. St. Michel, we rode the bus for a few hours to the town of Bayeux. Our hotel, the Churchill, is utterly surreal!!! The place is covered in chandeliers and the people are very nice. There are also LOTS of American tourists here, because of the area's history with WWII.
À demain!
— Kathy Gardner |
