Days 17, 18, & 19

So on friday, the day after futuroscope, we decided to take more of a rest day, just sitting around, and admiring the countryside all around us, until about two in the after

noon that is. That's when we went to one of the biggest castles around, Chantilly. The place is incredible. Just being in it gives you a real sense of the 1700's. It was super ornate (as a retreat for the former royalty of France should be), and had a great art collection, including 3 beautiful Rafael's, which, for the sake of the more modest readers could not be pictured here. Also, the gardens around were great, although we had more of a look at our earlier visit to the firework show, and the town of Chantilly, lightly bubbling with crowds, was a nice little break from all things 18th century.

The next day was much of the same, although instead of going to a chateau we went to the most scrumdiddlyumptious village in all of France. With roses lining every street and a thousand year old mansion overlooking the whole place. Most of our time was spent driving, because of course it takes time to get to amazing sites such as this.

The day after that, we drove with Bibi out to a castle. Yes, yes folks, we finally went to a castle, now calm down as I attempt to continue... It was called the Chateau De Pierrefonds, and although in the midst of a fair sized village, its white walls could be seen from a good distance. We initially walked right up to the castle, got tickets and went into a huge courtyard with entrances to a few diffent sections of the castle, in which first we entered into the main entrance to the higher levels, which displayed the most rooms in the castle including a giant fireplace, some very strange carved beings in the walls, long hallways, and more sculptures of important people. We even got to see the grave of one of the kings of France long ago. We walked back out into the courtyard and into the chapel where there were some more magnificent sculptures, plus a replica sculpture of Saint Michel from the top of Mont Saint Michel far away. We went back home to eat a nice dinner crash on our beds that night.