Day 4: Angers!

We all woke up this morning to head out to our journey across the French countryside to Angers. Along the way, however, we made some pretty exciting stops. First, we stopped at a Château inside the Loire valley. The Château was smaller than the palace we had been at the day before, but with more access throughout the location where visitors could  see firsthand each and every room. The Château was about three stories high with a basement. It was gorgeous and had lavender all along the gardens beside of it, so much so that you could smell it in the air before you walked in! The gardens from a bird's eye view were gorgeous, each with it's own design that was quite aesthetic. After touring this Château, we headed out to another. This other Château  was Château de Brézé, a small dry-moated castle in the Loire Valley. It actually has the biggest dry moat in all of France, dug 40 meters deep. What's really interesting about this Château is that it actually has another Château built beneath it dating from 1060 B.C.. It has also been, for hundreds of years, a main supplier of wine for the Kings and Queens of France. It multiple vineyards located around it and is still functioning today. Our tour group was nice enough to set up a wine tasting with the Château! We tried three different types of wine; a white, red, and sparkling. I learned that white wine does not necessary come from white grapes, but rather to get a red wine the producer will leave the skins of the red grapes with the flesh of the grape for a matter of time (24 hours for a Rose, up to one week for a dark, red wine). The wine was excellent and I even bought a bottle! After this, we headed to Angers. Upon our arrival, I met my host mom. She seems like a typical French woman that I would have expected to be a host mom. Her english is good, but she does have an accent. The Dad is also nice. He speaks english, but didn't talk too much when I arrived. The daughter speaks perfect english and without an accent, which was pretty interesting. The house is much smaller than anything in the U.S. (well, not everything, but what I'm used to). It's three stories and I've got the top floor all to myself, with my own shower. There's a washer for clothes and everything is dried outside on a clothes line. I'm headed down for dinner in a few minutes...so I hope I have something good to write about that for tomorrow!