Life in Switzerland: More Castles, More Wine

My second weekend in Tours we said goodbye to Barbara, Yuichiro, and Volker, so there were lots of going away drinks to attend to Friday night before heading out to more castles on Saturday. My "real" hosts, Annick and Johny, also returned on Friday night in time for dinner so I finally got to meet them (briefly) before heading out. I don't think Yuichiro had many (or any) friends, so I invited him out with us for his last night. For the first time since I'd lived with him, he actually spoke, and actually seemed like he didn't mind talking. Of course, he never volunteered conversation, but when asked a question he responded in complete sentences. Although there is some diversity in Tours, it is still a mostly Caucasian, western European, homogenous town. At one point in the night a French guy at the table next to us, white as can be with fashion forward scruffy hair, beard, and hat that screamed "look at me" turned around, tapped Yuichiro on the shoulder, and began speaking to him in Japanese. The rest of us looked at each other with gaping mouths and nothing to say.

Saturday Karin, Gregor and I headed out on the train again, bikes in tow, to visit chateaus Chaumont and Blois. I didn't know much about either one because once again I didn't do the planning, but in the end I was blown away by Chaumont and could take or leave Blois. Chaumont looked like it was straight out of a fairy tale, with big round towers, pretty green grass, and a cute little drawbridge just slightly too big to jump over. The inside was quaint, with typical "castley" things like knights' armor, big wooden tables, tapestries, and a 10-lock trunk (straight out of Harry Potter).

After Chaumont we biked to Blois and toured its castle, but after such a beautiful one earlier in the day it didn't impress quite as much. In the late afternoon we sat in the sun at an outdoor cafe and drank wine with castle Blois in the background and chatted about topics from all parts of our lives. Gregor told me about his service in Afghanistan and the friends he'd lost, and I talked about the recent changes in my work and private life and what the future holds.

Late in the evening we wobbled to the train station with our bikes, fell onto a train, and barely made it back to our houses in Tours before sleep came.

Sunday was another train ride with the bikes (by this time we were pros at popping them on and off the train in under 30 seconds) back to Amboise, to finally see the castle, and to buy more chocolates. It was definitely a neat castle, built into a hill, that looked more like a fortress armed for defense than any of the others. It's also where Leonardo da Vinci is buried, a fact that is not publicized nearly as much as I expected it would be.

On that beautiful sunny day the town of Amboise itself was enormously cute, the views amazing and the chocolate out of this world, while the castle loomed sternly in the background.

Sunday concluded with an early night in to study and do homework before class bright and early Monday morning.