Castle + winery

Voici an explanatory post for my whiny parents! So zee castle...a coach bus picked us up in front the the train station in Tours.  While waiting for the bus I started talking to a girl, and it turns out she is from the Sunshine Coast in BC, and is doing a French degree at SFU.  She wants to be a French teacher like : ) If I do end up doing teaching at SFU we might start at the same time.  We're both in our third year of our BAs.  It would be nice to know someone before starting that crazy program.  It was so nice to talk to someone who knew exactly what I was talking about.  It's so funny when a "Vancouverite" meets another "Vancouverite" you always get the, "ok, so where are you really from?" haha.  Because when you go abroad if you are from BC you pretty much just say you are from Vancouver because no one will no what you are talking about otherwise lol.  Right so the castle, it was quite lovely, there were pretty typical French gardens and a labyrinth! Rebecca and I got to the middle in about 2 seconds though haha.  I always seem to go to castles around this time of year before everything in the gardens is in bloom though, I went to Versailles in March too.  I think I am going to Villandry at the end of April, hopefully the weather will be nice and I will get to see some pretty flowers.  The iPod audio guide was so cool, each room was numbered and you just went into the menu and selected whatever room you wandered into.  After the castle we went to an organic winery.  The owners talked to us about making wine and why they decided to be an organic winery.  Then they took us to the wine caves and we got to taste 4 different wines.  I actually liked them all! Turns out it's not that I don't like wine, it's just that I have a very refined palate haha. Only organic wine for me hehe.  We tried a naturally sparkling wine, a dry white, a semi-dry (demi-sec), and a naturally sparkling rosé.  I may or may not have purchased aformentioned whiny parents a bottle!

When I got home Claire met me at my place and we went and got Pizza Hut and watched Glee.  It's becoming somewhat of a habit of ours haha.  We also booked the Fat Tire bike tour (the daytime one) and a hotel for the night of April 3rd close to Paris Orly airport.  It has a shuttle that starts at 5am on weekends so perfect as our flight leave for Athens at 7:20am!

Today I didn't do much.  All of Tours (I don't know about the rest of France) is closed on Sundays and most of it doesn't open until 2pm on Mondays.  So frustrating! I started reading an article that I have to do an oral presentation on with two other girls.  Tomorrow I am going to do laundry and do a bit of grocery shopping.  I think I will go to the carrefour (the big grocery store that I have to take the bus to) as  it is a bit cheaper and has a better selection obviously.  I think I will get some little quiche lorraines and chicken breasts to have with the sidekicks the awesome Suzanne sent me.

The end!