Châteaux de la Loire

Warning: This post is very long. I had thought about splitting it into 3 days, but that's too much work. So grab a snack, get comfy, and get ready to come along with me as I tell you all about my incredible weekend!

DAY ONE


We left early Friday morning. This was the first castle we saw: Sully-sur-Loire. It's the oldest castle we saw, built in the early 16th century. It's a stronghold, built to protect wealthy landowners from jealous kings. The first view of it took my breath away.

This is the castle from across the river. The Loire is notoriously unpredictable. It's the longest river in the country (yes, even longer than the famous Seine that flows through Paris), but its height varies so much and so quickly that it's completely unsafe to travel. 

It has a moat! This is the first time I've ever seen a real moat. It's like something out of a Disney movie. Just awesome. 

A tiny guardhouse next to the moat. So pretty.

We had to walk across a drawbridge to enter. a freaking drawbridge! Wow. 

These timbers are over 600 years old! Builders would cut down trees and leave them to soak in a lake for anywhere from 10 to 100 years. The wood would cure, and now it's impossible for insects to eat it. These buildings were built to last. Makes me think of the way my dad builds things. Why do something when you can overdo it? 

Just in case you forgot you were on the banks of the Loire river...

The tomb of the last inhabitants of the castle. I don't remember their names any more. 

Me being a goof. 

Eventually I got tired of taking pictures of windy stone staircases, but not yet. 

An optical illusion of a statue. This is actually painted on the wall. Very convincing!

The King's bedroom (when he would visit, which wasn't often). Blue and gold are officially royal colours. The bed looks super comfy.

A reception hall. Fairly imposing. 

This desk was made of tiny pieces of different coloured wood all pieced together. 

This is the ceiling of one of the guard's rooms. It's meant to resemble the Arc from the Bible, to show that everyone is "in the same boat", so to speak. It blew my mind. 

I couldn't zoom out enough to really capture the enormity of this room. 

One of the corridors that leads into the guard's room. Under the boards on the right is a straight drop down into the river. More than a little scary. 

This is in a newer part of the castle. The bedrooms were a lot more comfortable, and there was gold and gorgeous tapestries everywhere. 

Me being a goof again. That tapestry behind me is over 500 year old. 

The Burgundian coat of arms. Burgundy was a strong partner to the families that lived here, so their coat of arms can be found in random places all over the castle. 

A ladies' sitting room. I bet my mom would be right at home here. :)

This is just begging for a lawsuit. Here! Buy your kid a crossbow! Or a wooden dagger! 

I thought this was pretty sweet. Full-on foam armour. To protect your child from the wooden daggers and crossbow bolts. Ha. 

One last look at the castle before we left. So incredible. 

The tiniest details make me so happy. 

A bridge from the castle grounds (across the MOAT!!!) to the city. 

This was stop #2. Orléans. This is the city where Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc, for my anglophone friends) made her famous stand against the invading English armies. The French flag is incredibly uncommon here, because of what it stands for. The blue and white stand for royalty, and the red is for the people. I've only seen the flag flying on governmental buildings. 

Dijon has Chouette, Orléans has... this guy. Not sure what he's all about, but he was all over the city. 

And in some places that seem incredibly difficult to reach. 

The cathedral at Orléans. Wow. I was speechless for one of the first times in a while. 

There wasn't a scheduled stop at this cathedral, but I went anyway. We had some free time after lunch. 

I believe that this is a gothic-stule cathedral. The gargoyles were awesome, and the finesse of some of the detail was like nothing I've ever seen before. 

Kind of makes me think of Notre Dame in Paris. 

An adorable little alley in Orléans. 

I believe this is a statue of the famous philosopher Pascale, though I may be wrong.

 I wonder what they sell here... 

All the cities we went to had cute little things embedded in the road, like the Chouette plaques in Dijon. This is supposed to represent Jeanne d'Arc rallying the French troops to victory.

This is the inside of the cathedral. It was enormous. 

This window was broken, but I still thought it was very pretty. 

Inside the cathedral. All of the windows depicted scenes from the life of Jeanne d'Arc. This shows the English burning her at the stake for heresy. 

The organ inside the church. Stunning. 

I can't even imagine the hours of work needed to make something this intricate. 

A sculpture made of ladders. We walked past a museum of modern art on the way back to the bus. 

A piece of art on an elementary school. 

I love this! This little guy is used to hold shutters open. 

Crossing the Loire to leave the city. Goodbye, Orléans! 

Hello Chambord.

I think this was my favourite stop all weekend. It was built and dedicated to hunting. It's surrounded by a huge walled forest. The kings that lived here brought in deer, boars, and other animals so that their guests could practise the noble art of hunting. 

A little chapel on the side of a hill beside the castle. 

There were some incredibly beautiful trees on the grounds. 

The outside of this castle was incredible, but there was very little on the inside. It was essentially built so that Louis XIV could spend 40 days there hunting. 

All the downspouts were carved to look like animals. I think this is a cat. 

One of the staircases in the courtyard. This castle was built in the Renaissance style, so it is completely symmetrical. Which was neat, but then we got lost. Not so great for finding one's way around. 

A crown and sceptre that belonged to one of the previous habitants of the castle. 

One of the master bedrooms. Oh, to live like this! 

This stairway is incredible. It was designed by Leonardo da Vinci. When one person goes up the stairs at the same time as someone else goes down, they can see each other, but they never meet! It was crazy. It's all because there are two sets of stairs! Blew my mind. 

Again, the little things make me happy. This weekend I learned the reason that the French kings used the fleur-de-lys as their symbol. In the Bible, when it describes visions that the prophets had of God, he carries a white fleur-de-lys as a symbol of peace. Neat. 

Most of the ceilings in the castle are just like this one. The squares are a salamander and the letter F repeating. King François I built the castle in the late 1400s. He chose the salamander for his symbol, though I can't remember why. Da Vinci designed a lot of the building, and died  months before it was finished in 1519. 

Here, again, the F and salamander on a door. 

The master bedroom, in red and royal gold. The tapestries around the bed are from the 16th century. 

I got a little lost, and stumbled on the room where people restore pieces for display. Very neat.

This was stunning. I have no idea where it came from, but it looks like it was being restored along with all the stuff in the other room. 

There was a huge hallway lined with a battle scene made from these little bronze tiles. 

I probably shouldn't be touching these ancient stones...

One of the huge halls. On the left you can see an enormous chimney. The rooms were so big that only one or two could be heated at a time, so most of the goings-on in a castle happened in one room: the bedroom, or chambre. This is how chamber music got started. Musicians would play in the bedroom of the master of the castle to keep warm. This is also where the expression "set the table" came from. The table was brought into (or "set" in) the bedroom so people could eat, and taken away later. 

The trophy room. All 4 walls were covered. 

Wolves and bears were hunted to extinction in France when hunting was at its peak of popularity. Sad. 

This was taken from the highest part of the castle that we could get to. We almost didn't make it here. We got there later than we had thought, and it closed about an hour after we got there. The caretakers were trying to rush us out, but Stephane took us up anyway. Thank goodness. 

Gorgeous.

The view of a smaller river that connects to the Loire, and some of the forest around the castle. 

37 kilometers of wall surrounds the forest. 

Of course, the gift shop was open later than the rest of the castle! 

The castle has 365 chimneys, one for each day of the year. Yet another feature of architecture from the Renaissance. One of my favourite playwrights, Molière, performed his first play for Louis XIV here. Molière wrote comedies, and he was very nervous to perform for the Sun King. The whole time he performed, the young king showed no emotion. At the end of the play, the king stood up and said "Monsieur, vous êtes un grand (Sir, you are one of the greats)". From then on, Molière was one of the favourite royal playwrights. 

Even though the day was chilly, I couldn't say no to blackcurrant gelato. Yum. 

Our first night in Tours. It rained. I got some intensely French photos. Like this one. 

The Smoking Rabbit. One of the restaurants in downtown Tours. Stephane ate there one night; calf head, cow tongue, and pig's feet. As far as I'm concerned, if it's not good enough to go into a hot dog, I want nothing to do with it. 

The Greedy Mouse. This restaurant served several different kinds of fondue. 

This old guy was in the restaurant where we ate dinner. I heard wierd noises coming from behind the bar, and when I looked, this is what I saw! He just wanted someone to talk to. 

The cathedral in Tours. Incredible.

I can't take any credit for the idea for this photo. Breanne took something like it in Prague, and it looked too neat not to try it. I like it a lot. 

That's it for day one. Take a potty break if you need one, because now we're on to:

DAY TWO

This is an enormous cedar tree in a park in Blois. Its branches almost span an entire city block!

A magnolia tree. It smelled incredible!

Our excellent group. 36 of us altogether. Man alive, do I ever stick out. 

Blois. It sounds funny when you say it. Try it. Blois. Like "blwa". 

Inside the courtyard of the castle. There are 4 buildings that stand inside the gates, each from a different time period. 

I don't know why, but I always expect the courtyards to be dirt. This was covered in cobblestone, but there were trees randomly scattered all over the place. Very pretty. 

A statue of François I in a niche in the wall over the door of the castle. 

The king that built this castle took the porcupine as his symbol. Unfortunately I don't remember who he was any more. I suck at this. 

Every downspout looked like this. Sea monsters. So cute!

This is the main building. Very empty and cold. 

This is the first part of the castle that was built. Very simple. 

More of the courtyard.

The gargoyles were terrifying, and incredibly well-sculpted. 

Behind that very old tree is the chapel. 

I was always surprised by the sheer size of these places. 

This is inside the main building. It was basically a reception hall. No rooms or fireplaces, just stairs and this gorgeous ceiling. I can imagine how guests to this castle would have been very impressed when they first showed up here. I know I was. 

The dome ceiling through the hole in the second floor. 

Epic moustache picture. 

Obligatory Japanese photo op. After the last picture, we lost the group. Terribly. They went out the door, and we went up the stairs for more pictures. By the time we got out of the building, the group was gone. I couldn't even hear the guide any more! Fortunately one of these guys had the presence of mind to call one of his friends, and we found the group again. I really enjoyed these guys. 

The ceiling in the throne room. Ornate and gorgeous. 

The staircase in the courtyard. 

Gargoyles. Normally they're animals or demons, but these poor souls must have done something particularly nasty.

One of the thrones in the throne room. All the furniture had to be portable, because the kings travelled with all their things. 

The ceiling and chimney in the throne room. 

The king's food cabinet. The story goes that any king that wanted to stick around for any period of time would have a food taster. This guy would taste every bit of food that would be served to the king or his family, to make sure that it wasn't poisoned. After he tasted it (and didn't die), he would put the food in this cupboard and lock it. Only he and the king himself had keys. 

The mantle over the fireplace. The salamander is for François I, and the ermine is his wife. 

This is the back of a chair. All the flowers are almost identical, and very small. Awesome craftsmanship.

Replicas of weapons used by the guards in the 16th century. 

One of the more official-looking thrones. Again, it had to be portable, so it's not super elaborate, but I feel it still makes a statement. 

Some of the incredibly fine detail on the mantle over the fireplace. 

A silver salamander. This was a gift to François I. 

These were in a ballroom. I doubt that they were ever played, but they're gorgeous. 

At first, I thought the thing at the top of the picture was a flute, but then I noticed that it has strings. It's a tiny violin! 

Me chillin' with François I. The Japanese students had a heyday with this. 

One of the bedrooms. The colour was awesome! 

This is the French version of wallpaper. An artist would paint a repeating pattern on a huge piece of canvas, and then it would be stuck to the wall. The initials at the bottom are interlocking H and C, for Henri II, son of François I, and his wife Catherine de Médicis. 

One of the door handles. 

Even the floors here were elaborate and colourful!

I almost didn't notice these hinges. They're for a secret door in one of the rooms we saw. 

This room, in fact. When all the doors were closed, all we could see were the repeating patterns in the picture on the right. Each panel, walls and ceiling, had a different pattern on it. No two were the same. 

One of the many fireplaces.

This was neat and creepy. We were getting close to a room where one of the Dukes was murdered, and these photographs were on the wall. 

Very interesting concept. Everyday items casting sinister shadows.

I think this was my favourite. 

Evan a simple table leg is a thing of beauty. 

This was interesting. Little dogs holding up a huge cabinet. 

More of the same cabinet. Lions and satyrs all around the edges...

... and more satyrs at the top. Even though the detail was exquisite, it made me uneasy. 

This is a painting of the murder of the Duke. It was hanging in the room that he was actually murdered in! Creepy as hell. 

The floor has been redone, but this is the room . You can see the painting of the murder on the right. 

On a lighter note, this is one of the other enormous reception halls. 

The Japanese students goofing around on the stairs.

Some clover on one of the pillars holding up the roof. 

These guys really were a hoot. 

En garde! More potentially dangerous toys in the gift shop.

I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but the toilet situation here is sketchy at best. Most toilets I've seen are missing the seats altogether, and most of the ones that do have seats are nasty. I was delighted to find that, not only did this toilet have a seat, but I could clean it too! One of the better moments of this trip. 

Back to the grand hall. Even a simple doorway was an opportunity to show wealth. I love it. 

I like to think that I'd rule with an iron fist. 

This little guy was adorable, and I nearly bought him, but if you look at the little screen above him, he cost almost 14€! I had to pass. I hope he finds a good home. 

There wer little tapestry bags, pillowcases, and wall hangings everywhere. This was cute, but terribly expensive. Stupid gift shop prices. 

Adorable bunny tapestry wall hanging. 

Right across the street from the castle is the House of Magic. This was Harry Houdini's home in France. In the summer, dragons come out of the windows every half hour! Click here to see a video of the show. 

Houdini's real name was Robert Houdin. His statue stands outside the house. 

This is Sarah from Toronto. She's tasting boudin, or blood sausage. She wasn't a fan. 

These are thimble-sized goat cheeses in 5 different flavours. Yum!

Saturday was market day in Blois. Unfortunately, we finished our castle tour just as most of the merchants were closing up for the weekend. 

Little porcupine medallions embedded in the sidewalk. 

Our little group. From the left: Angela, Sarah, Sarah, Isabelle, and myself. 

There were little salamanders painted on the stairs. Cute. 

The castle at Blois from the outside. 

Even though the day was chilly and windy, the gardens were very pretty. 

A pretty view of Blois from a lookout point. 

I told Izzy to pretend she was a fountain. 

Spring has sprung here. 

Me and the Loire. 

Ornamental cherry? I think. 

This was really neat. This little guy was fishing. We got to watch him catch and eat a fish, and then fly away. I guess herons are fairly common here. 

The mighty Loire. Goodbye, Blois!

This was our next stop. Villandry. 

More gargoyles. This guy didn't look impressed. 

This castle was built in the early 1500s, by one of François I's finance ministers, in the Renaissance style. In the 1700s it was purchased and completely remodelled. It's quite a lot more comfortable than the other castles we'd seen to this point. 

Pictures of the family that used to live here. The Carvallo family purchased the castle in the early 1900s, and has been taking care of it since. 

The oven in the kitchen, the warmest room in the house. 

The kitchen. 

This made me giggle. Jason and I use something like this to keep the cold out. They sit along the bottom of the door to keep the house warm. Ours is a crocheted snake. This is quite a lot more elegant. 

A chandelier in the dining room. 

The ceiling in one of the bedrooms. 

I thought this was a neat perspective. 

A painting extolling the dangers of the vanity of knowledge. Everything crumbles away. 

One of my first glimpses of the famous gardens at Villandry. 

What a cutie. I had wanted to get a picture of the stairway, and she jumped right in. 

The ceiling in the "Oriental Room". The shells represent beauty and faith. 

This was in the middle of the ceiling. 

3600 pieces of wood, and a year of work. Wow. 

The chapel, as seen from the roof. 

The gardens were incredible, and huge. In the summer, they're bursting with colour and fragrance. 

This keep is almost all that remains of the original castle. 

Crazy spiral staircase leading down. 

My feet, and the cobblestones that tried to kill me. They're large, sharp, and uneven. Not a healthy combination. They were everywhere. 

A couple of swans chilling in the lake at the castle. 

More garden. The gardens at Villandry are in the French style. Everything is straight and even, representing man's direct connection with God. English gardens are wild and unkempt, representing the fact that man is lost and needs to work to find his way back to God. 

A charming little stairway leading up into the forest that surrounds the castle. 

Strolling under these trellises, I could just imagine myself in a powdered wig and poofy dress, wandering through the garden with some handsome young suitor on my arm. It was so calm. 

This sign talks about the differences in sacred and profane mazes. The one at Villandry is a sacred maze, all straight lines. I didn't have time to do the maze, unfortunately. By the time I found it, it was almost time to go. 

This is the stairs at the centre of the maze. 

One long last look at Villandry. Our last castle for day 2. 

Back at Tours, we did some exploring on our last night. This is a bicycle bridge that's near the Pont Mirabeau, a bridge made famous by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire. 

That's the Mirabeau Bridge on the right. Apollinaire talks about the Seine running under the bridge, but he was wrong. It's the Loire. Silly poet. 

This bridge was eerie and very cool. It shook when we were walking on it. 

Our little group again. 

The castle at Tours. 

This made me giggle. We found a really neat window display, and you could go to the window to look through a smaller pair of 3-D glasses. All 3 girls tried it at once. 

City Hall. I love the way the buildings are illuminated at night. 

Little brass leaves embedded in the sidewalk around city hall. 

One of the Sarahs was craving ice cream, so we wandered for about an hour until we found some. I had chocolate and mint. Little umbrellas make everything better. 

A lovely surprise on Sunday morning. Some jerk tagged our bus. On the plus side, it was really easy to find the bus after that! 

The last castle on our list: Chenonceau. This is the moat that surrounds the gardens. 

Chenonceau is the "Ladies' Castle". Royal families would move here, the king would die, and his wife would take over the castle. Some kings were murdered, one died in a joust, etc. Not a lucky place for men, but a woman's paradise. 

The path leading up to the castle. Like something out of a movie. 

The little bridge across the moat. We crossed it to get into the grounds. 

A lonely little gargoyle.

Part of the original castle. I'm learning that a lot of these castles have been torn down and rebuilt, or renovated, or what have you, and that not a lot of the original walls are still standing. That makes me sad, but castles like this and Blois, that have parts that remain untouched, make me rally happy. It's very neat to be able to see the progression of the changes that happen. 

The castle at Chenonceau spans the river Cher. It's not the Loire, but it's close. 

This carving is part of the main door.

A painting of Catherine de Médicis. There are a lot of paintings of her like this, dressed all in black with a severe look on her face. 

Chenonceau and Chambord were the only castles that actually had fires going in the hearths. Because the rooms were so huge, these tiny fires didn't accomplish much. 

This is one of the only castles that has the chapel inside the castle itself, not just as a separate building. It was small, but still very pretty. 

Yet again, small details like this make me very happy. 

One of the bedrooms. The tapestries on the walls are over 600 years old. 

The monogram of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis. It was everywhere. 

This corridor was very modern. Catherine has this built when she owned the castle. There are busts of  famous writers and philosophers carved into the walls. 

I found this in one of the fireplaces. I love the fact that even everyday objects were made beautiful. Nothing was overlooked. 

A bell system in the kitchen. This made me think of Cinderella. The more important guests would have strings in their bedrooms that, when pulled, would sound a bell in the kitchen. This would let the housekeepers know that the person in the room wanted breakfast. 

The bread oven. Mmm, bread. On the wall to the right are some ceramic loaf pans. Go big or go home. 

Sanglier, or wild boar. Apparently there are some of these bad boys in the park behind our house in Dijon. I hear them late at night and early in the morning, but I've never seen one. 

The kitchen. I though of Sharon when I saw this. Pots and pans on all the walls, kitchen gadgets everywhere. Heaven. 

An old (and very shiny) keg. 

I love that every spout I saw was some kind of animal. This is the spout on the keg.

A cow's head embedded in the butcher's block. It looked incredibly well-used.

Because this was the ladies' castle, there were fresh bouquets everywhere. Very pretty and fragrant.

More kitchen. Beautiful copper cookware everywhere. 

The oven. I can't imagine how hot that kitchen must have been!

A water pump, again with a gorgeous animal-head spout. 

A very delicate keyhole. 

More incredibly old tapestries.

Very ornate and colourful ceilings. 

One of the only good stamps I found in the floor. All the other ones have been worn down by thousands of visitors' feet. 

The royal monogram again. It was everywhere. This is on the walls and ceiling of the hallway in the next picture. 

Another enormous hallway. Again, this was made to look like the inside of an enormous boat. 

Another very pretty floral arrangement. 

The stairs that led the way to one of the most famous rooms in the castle. Louise of Lorraine's bedroom. When her husband, Henry III was murdered, she dedicated her life to mourning his death. 

She had her bedroom painted all black. The only ornamentation she allowed was a cord (to represent fidelity to her head husband), his initials, and silver tears. 

She dressed herself in white, which was the royal colour of mourning, and spent at least 8 hours every day in this room, thinking about her husband. 

She spent the last nine years of her life like this. She died in this room.

This room made a huge impression on me. 

Back out in the garden, the day was finally getting nice. The sun came out for our last day. I thought this little garden house was adorable. 

A view of the tower from the garden. 

Another obligatory Japanese photo. 

What a beautiful day! Everyone was in a better mood once the sun came out. 

The garden here was lovely. 

I loved the little designs that the tiny plants make in the middle of the grass. 

I don't know when this was added, but it didn't fit with the rest of the garden at all. 

Oh noes! A labyrinth?! I hope David Bowie is nowhere near here! Haha. 

This little trio followed me all around the garden. I think they think I had snacks. Once I explained that I didn't, they wandered off. 

After we left the castle, we had some free time in the market in Amboise. Chicken doesn't get much more fresh than this. There are even ducks in the cage on the top right!

This sleepy little fellow was guarding kiwis. 

Apparently the paella was very popular! This was all that was left when we got there. It smelled wonderful. 

For Dad. This was supercool. 

We tried to go to the castle at Amboise, but it was very expensive and we didn't have a lot of time. This is the castle's doorbell. 

Our little group wandering down the incredibly steep hill back to the street. 

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but the legs on the left side of the picture are longer than those on the right! The bench is flat, but the hill slopes so steeply that the legs have to be uneven to compensate. 

Amboise Castle. 

This is another example of the older, stronghold style. 

While we wandered around the city, we saw some very neat things. I can't imagine how pretty this must be in the spring. 

I had the feeling we were being watched. I was right! This little guy was keeping an eye on us. Can you find him in the picture just above this one?

Amboise is home to one of the most famous patisseries in the country. Patisserie Bigot. This is one of their many display windows. 

Some of the most amazing gelato I've ever had. Raspberry and blackcurrant. Even the cone itself was to die for. 

After our snack, we decided to find Leonardo da Vinci's house. We took the long way. 

Nice hat, Sarah! 

We got worried that we were going the wrong way when we started to see some very run-down houses. 

Then we found some newer ones. This looks amazing! it's literally cut into the side of the hill. 

What an interesting neigbourhood. 

We did a lot of climbing, but it was so worth it. 

I would love to know more about the history of this city. 

Success! He became a French citizen, and changed his name a bit. 

This is the house that he died in. Now it's a very expensive museum, and all the rooms are full of models of his inventions. I wish we had time to go inside. 

Even the garden had models of his inventions scattered around. This is one of his flying machines. 

A sundial that de Vinci designed. 

What a beautiful garden! In the background you can see the castle. 

One of the towers, and the wall that surrounds the garden. Gorgeous. 

More of the garden. I can just imagine the famous inventor wandering around, gathering ideas for some new contraption. 

The house itself. Not enormous, but very nice. 

The castle again, on our way back to the bus. 

A little gazebo. In summer, I imagine, it'll be covered with little vines and flowers. 

This was too cute. A little house carved into the hill, flying two little flags. How quaint. 

A few last photos before we left Amboise. What a beautiful day!

Looking up the river...

This little old man was so nice! He gave a gift to one of the Sarahs: a little bird painted on a slice of a tree. It was very pretty. He is very talented.

With a view like this, it's hard not to get inspired. You can see the castle on the far right. 

Sarah, Sarah, and Izzy, enjoying the sunshine. 

Our guide, Stephane. This guy was a hoot! He has his "serious face" on because he's talking about grammar. Our bus rides were interesting, to say the least. 

One last castle through the trees. 

There are over 1000 castles in the Loire valley. I'm so glad I got to see the five that I did! I got back late Sunday evening, exhausted, and with far fewer camera batteries than I packed. I'm sick as a dog now, but this trip was worth it. 

The thing that struck me the most about this weekend was the incredible richness of the history that I got to experience. I've walked the same hallways and gardens as kings, queens, dukes, and assassins. I've seen places where kings were born and killed, and I've stood in halls that witnessed decisions being made that changed this country. This is a weekend that I won't soon forget. 

Thanks for coming along with me on this crazy weekend! I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

À bientôt!