Chateau no.2

Today we went to another chateau called Valencay, this chateau was owned by Talleyrand who was the foreign minster for Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of france. It had a free jumping castle and a great mini zoo. Also an amazing maze with codes regarding Napoleon which needed to be solved to open gates through the maze, as a family we successfully conquered the maze, there was also a playground with a spinning thing that was powered by pedaling, there was also a smell garden that had things that you squeezed to get a smell. Inside they had a great audio guide about Talleyrand and the history of the chateau that did not go too fast. Here are some photos:

Chtaue no.1

Today we went to Chaumont-sur-Loire which is a chateau or castle in English. We had a look in some strange gardens that were on display around the chateau, one had this heart beat sound that slowed when you opened the door, it was really cool. After that we actually went into the chateau and the stables, there were some nice paintings and interesting facts, the chateau was built hundreds of years ago and had a lot of French royal history. In the stables the horses even got their own kitchen. Oh and there was this sculpture I really liked in the gardens  which had pillows that inflated and deflated. Here are some photos:

Train to Loire valley

Today we got on a train from Paris to the Loire valley, we got off at Orléans then we got a hire car to drive to the medieval village of Saint Aignan where we are staying. Saint Aignan is very old and has a chateau, which is french for castle. We checked out our village there are several bakeries and also two supermarkets we went to one and looked at lots of french food. We are staying in an old bakery called La Boulangerie,  dad and Joe and I visited the information center where they had lots of maps and brochures. Here are some photos:

Shopping & eating day! :)

This morning we went on the metro to a large department store split into two buildings the first one we visted was called the La Grande Épicerie De Paris translated that means "the big food store of Paris," Inside is heaven, there are cakes, chocolates, biscuits, macaroons, the list goes on and on, there is a whole section of american/canadian foods and Ben or Max if you are reading this yes there where corn dogs on the shelf. After we had looked around that we moved on to building number two, Le Bon Marché which was built by the same man who made the Eiffel Tower, we looked at home accessories, fountain pens and other sorts of things like interesting lamps. After that Joe and dad went off to the army museum to see the tomb of Napoleon and other military things and me and mum went home and then did some more shopping near our house to get some gifts.
Here are some photos:

 The Metro

The tomb of Napoleon

Les Jardins de Tuilieres & arch de Triomphe

Today we went to the Tuilieres gardens (for those of you who don't speak French that's what that gibberish at the start of my title means) where we went on a playground and then we found out that the place that makes the best hot chocolate in Paris was just across the road. For breakfast we had already had a chocolate donut, beignet au chocolat in French, and after that we visited l'Arc de Triomphe where Joe & dad climbed to the top and joe got an arc de Triomphe model and he also got me an Eiffel tower model we took the metro home. At dinner time we met up with Joseph's parents who are also in Paris, it was interesting that they where staying here at the same time and I had another croque monsieur ( a toasted ham and cheese sandwich) I have eaten a ton of these now and french people can make a mean hamburger. Here are some photos:

Market & Efilltower & Luxmburg gardens & Rodin museum

Ok today we got up and went to the bread and cake shop aka. Pattisereie aka. Boulangerie and we got a baguette and I got a flat chocolate croissant like thing NOT pain au chocolat but something else just as yummy. Next we went to a market and got some great macaroons from a little stall but there where also lots of  cheese stalls,  more bakeries and other things like sausage shops and dried fruit stalls. After that we went to the luxembourg gardens which are very beautiful and watched some remote controlled (R.C) boaters show off there skills around the fountain, we ate all the baguette and went on a big high swing wich was fun. After that we went to the Rodin museum where there are all these sculptures, the most famous is called the thinker(le Penseur in French) it is a big person who is sitting with his head on his hand and really looks like he is thinking. After that we had a quick look at the Eiffel tower it's a lot bigger than you might think and then we went home.
Here are some photos:

Eurostar

Today we got on a train called the Eurostar and went to Paris where we are staying in a hotel called Villa D'estrees. It is really nice and has a good range of neighboring shops. For dinner we went to cáfe Latin I had a delicious cheese burger but before that we had a walk around and went to a rather large island and had ice cream it was really nice and was made of really rich luiuquidey dark chocolate. Ok now back to dinner the chesse burger was nice so I give it 7.5/10. Here are some photos: