Another Week, Another Castle!

Bonsoir mes amis!

So this week has been a super busy week, culminated by- what else? a visit to another castle! But surely you didn't come to my blog to hear me rant about school work, so let's get right to it!

Wednesday I went to see the last Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 which came out a full 2 days before it did in North America (ahhh, the privileges of living la vie européen). Unfortunately (or fortunately?) it was only available in la version française which ended up alright because Twilight in French is about the extent of my dismal French comprehension abilities. I did feel rather international seeing an American movie in French with some German friends. Très chic.




Friday afternoon our CUEFEE prof (basically French for foreigners) took our class rock climbing, which was awesome. I was fearful with the instructions being in French that I would misunderstand and end up dropping someone from the ceiling but miraculously we all survived. I ended up scaling the 12.5 meter wall thrice and I can say that my arms were definitely a tad sore today!

Finally, today was our International Relations trip to see Château de Chambord! Chambord is the largest castle in the Loire Valley and also served as the inspiration for Beast's castle in the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast. It's an elaborate Renaissance castle built by King François I but never completed, a fact I personally find alluring and mysterious. It was constructed between 1515 and 1547 and was meant to be a hunting lodge (as the king had a number of other royal residences nearby) which makes sense as the property is massive (13,000 acres!) and is in the middle of nowhere. Despite the large fireplaces, it's also bloody cold, so I pity whoever had to sleep there. In addition to the spectacular roofline, the center of the château features a double helix staircase, which I must admit was pretty neat.

A la prochaine fois!
Z <3