Wednesday's excursion was indeed heavy on castles, bringing the final FREX16 count to seven. But as we told the kids, this is what the Loire Valley is known for, and you there's no such thing as complaining about seeing too many castles. 

Our first stop on the day was at Chenonceau, widely known as the Loire Valley's most beautiful as it straddles not the Loire but the Cher river. This château is one of the rare ones that's actually furnished as it would've been in the XVI century, and tells the story of the rivaly between Catherine de Médicis and Diane de Poitiers. It's also known for its beautiful floral bouquets that add a nice touch to the faded tapestries and such. We ended the visit with a picnic lunch on the castle grounds, then pushed onto the castle the Diane ended with, Chaumont.

Just 20kms north of Chenonceau is Chaumont which was a new addition to the regulary French Exchange itinerary. The castle ground are very striking and are approached first by walking to the stables and such. The interior of the castle is remarkably less interesting and at the time contained a modern art installation which was not very popular among our group. The students were eager to move on to the final castle visit of the trip, the Clos Lucé in Amboise. 

The Clos Lucé is generally known as Leonardo da Vinci's castle. The architecture isn't very spectacular; in fact, it's dwarfed by the imposing Amboise castle which is really a fortress overlooking the Loire. Instead, da Vinci lived the last four years of his life in a hôtel particulier (mansion) that now contains sketches, mock-ups, and (new since I was last there) video and 3D recreations of his most fantastic innovations. It was quite amazing to see how this man imagined the world 500 years ago. In the end, though, some students were more eager for coffee and ice cream in the town center, while others stayed back to stroll through the da Vinci sculpture garden. 

Our final excursion of the 2016 edition of this trip was to the troglodyte cave dwellings that are typical of the region due to the sandstone bedroom. 30kms outside of town, a guide gave us a 30 minute overview of how farming communities had dug their dwellings into the small caves of the area and used the surrounding land to raise animals and grow grapes and other crops. Then the site provided us with a short worksheet to guide us through the other rooms and chambers making them look carefully at farming tools or other artifacts that described how life was up until 1962 when the last "cave dwellers" left the troglodytes. 

On the way home, we took a quick detour to step inside our last Romanesque cathedral fo the tour, Notre-Dame de Cunault. It's an enormous and beautiful cathedral in the town square of the smallest and quaintest French village. What's great about this church is that it seems to be manned by no one, and we're always the only visitors inside. It was a very nice way to end our sight-seeing in the Loire Valley.

As I write this, the students (and teachers) are all at home beginning to say their goodbyes and furiously trying to figure out how to jam everything into their suitcases while staying under the weight limit!

As they say in France, à demain!

On Tuesday afternoon the kids divided into groups and three as we asked them to prove to us that they knew their way around Angers. They had two hours to complete a 36-question scavenger in which they were asked about local landmarks and trivia. By design the kids had to ask around for directions, interview locals, etc. And it all had to be captured on film, at least to gain the maximum amount of points. In the end, the scores were very close among the top five teams, but Bailey, Rianna and Simone squeaked out a win one point victory over Jake, Elena and Paget who were half a point ahead of Kerimal, Sofi M. and Dani. 

Saturday: Most of our exchange students took us out shopping in downtown Angers or in the main shopping mall, Atoll. Most shopping areas here have some stores that are also found in the US, but with different merchandise  Three students' correspondants had basketball games so they attended their matches. By the end of the day, the French students had organized a ''petite soirée'' for us, with dancing and all. 


Sunday: We took a rest day from the busy week we had. It was a sunny day so most of it was spent outside. Also most people went out to eat with their families for lunch or dinner. In France, eating out is lengthy. Each course is brought out separately and is appreciated with time. A lot of time is left between courses to properly digest and socialize. There was also a comic book convention that a few students attended with their families. Also, Kerimal went ice skating. We are having a great time.