Day 3: Tours, France

Today we woke up early to leave for the city of Tours, France. The city was pretty small, but a central location within the Loire valley (a huge agricultural valley in France where the Loire river runs through). On the way to Tours, however, we stopped at the Palace of Versailles. The palace was built outside France (about 20 KM away) for royalty. It was the home of famous people such as Marie Antoinette and King Louie XIV. We toured the gardens outside of the palace beforehand and found them to be gorgeous! The backside of the palace was lined with a rocky courtyard and had gardens of various designs on each of it's sides. In the center was situated a huge fountain and various pathways that lead into the entry ways for the maze in the garden. We walked through the garden and saw it's various features and we were even able to make the "water" show towards the end of our tour where all the fountains turn on. After this, we headed inside to see the palace. It was also quite overwhelming. Not so much because of the building, but mainly because of the amount of people that were there touring at the time. The palace was decorated with elaborate details, paintings, and tapestries throughout each and every room. Impressive, to say the least. However, I could never describe in words the grandiosity that the palace portrayed firsthand. It was quite a site! After this, we finished our journey to Tours through the French countryside, passing by various wineries and beautiful Châteaus (castles) along the way. Upon our arrival in Tours, we were informed by our tour guide/instructor that the city had been bombed during the second world war, so many of its prized monuments (i.e. churches) were somewhat crumbled, but nonetheless preserved. We toured the city, had some great beer, and headed to bed for our long journey in the morning....to Angers!