France Roadtrip (Lots of Pictures!)

So finally an update!

We left Paris about two weeks ago and made our way to the South of France. First, we received our new car in Paris.....

Isn't she pretty??

.....so we took advantage of the situtation to drive to Cannes and visit different cities along the way.

Our first stop lead us to the city of Blois. Yes, it's the same...."Blwaaah" my sister visited during here stay in France. Blois was a good city to stop in because not only is the city itself cute, but the has two very famous castles close by. The first castle we visited was Chambord.

Surrounded by forest, this was a perfect resident for King Francois I because he loved to hunt. However, the he stayed at this castle, probably only about seven weeks total and he never saw the castle complete. Not to worry, many kings and noblemen down the road of history loved to hunt and was willing to complete and expand the castle.

The architecture was very interesting, built in the renaissance style, some people attribute the original design to Leonardo da
 Vinci. The center of the castle features a double spiral staircase with the idea that two people can cross paths, but never actually meet.

This castle was very fairytale-like in our opinion. A little like Beauty in the Beast castle; renaissance style, in the middle of the forest, endless rooms and wings. ^_^

The back of the castle

Spiral staircase at the wing of the castle

The center double spiral staircase

The throne.....doesn't actually look very comfortable =P

The front of the castle

The next day we drove a little further away from Blois and visited another castle; Chateau de Chenonceau. What's interesting about this castle is that it is completely surrounded by water. Can you imagine how difficult it must have been to build this?!

However, it's quite impressive tho. You first cross a path surrounded by trees before you reach the actual castle. On the two sides of the castle are french gardens. Built in the 11th century, this castle has been built, destroyed and built again several times. 

Long pathway to the castle

Pretty tower

Butchering table!

Very room had a huge, beautiful bouquet

Interesting room who belonged to the widow of King HenryII (I think) It was a much more sober room with dark walls and dark furniture....completely different from the rest of the castle.

The castle from the gardens

See how it's completely surrounded by water?

 Next, we visited an old mansion that housed Leonardo da Vinci when he lived in France; le Chateau du Clos Luce. Let me tell you....it was pretty fancy. Huge garden and tons of space. The King of France at the time (Francis I) provided this mansion to da Vince when he invited da Vinci over from Italy.

Pretty bridge (not actually in the mansion)

Fancy chair

They built little models of da Vinci's sketches of his inventions. This man was a genius!

The chateau

 Finally, we, of course, walked around the city of Blois. Blois, in itself, is a very cute little city with a castle of their own and several churches. However, we started exploring the town too late and visiting hours were closed for most of the places already. Nonetheless, it was a nice walk, and then it was a nice drive afterwards (in our new car ^_^)

one of the cathedrals in Blois

The castle of Blois

Cute building

Hot air balloons in an open field. Very pretty

The city across from the Loire River

There were many fields of sunflowers. Hard to show, but it was sooo pretty!

Next stop, Grenoble. Although there's not much to do in Grenoble, we stopped for one night to visit Nicolas and his new wife, Frederique. They moved there about a year ago so we've only seen then once since then. It was nice to spend some time with them.

They took us up to the mountain for a sunset picnic. It was a beautiful view of the city and the surrounding mountain, but boy was the hike up tough! We hiked uphill for over an hour and a half and back down for another hour. I don't think we've exercised like that in a longg time!

The view. Sometimes you can see Mont Blanc!

Setting up the picnic

The view at night

Finally, our last stop. Before heading over to Cannes, we made a last stop in Lyon. This is actually the city where Germain was born and where he spend two years of his studies.

A pretty fountain by the city hall.

One of the cathedrals located by the old town

It was under renovation so we didn't see much, but I still really enjoyed the ceiling architecture

The basilica on top of the hill. My sister visited it too!

Very impressive. Huge and greatly decorated. Lyon was a rich city!

Finally, back to the building where Germain use to go to school....over 10 years later!

Well....that's our roadtrip. It was a busy couple of days (not to mention HOT!) but it was definitely worth stopping by these places since we were on our way and we had the time.

Until next trip~