Alright, the official castle post.
So we're going to do a bulleted list, one photo per day rundown. Be prepared.
Saturday, February 24
- 7 hour car ride began at 3:00 p.m., destination Le Château Raysse, Cazoulès, Dordogne, Acquitane, France!
- Three cars, a Hyundai Tuscon, some boxy Mercedes, and a Renault Clio. Tall people and the manual transmission driver got the Tuscon, so my car was Brenna (driver), Will, Chris, Michael and me.
- Never use a French rest stop, find the next gas station instead because French rest stops only have Turkish toilets. Two hours into our drive I fell in one and had to be wet and germ-infested for the rest of the ride. I took a shower as soon as I could at the castle.
- Once into Cazoulès, It took us an hour to find the castle because it's in a part of France that doesn't do street signs. We found it, proceeded to run around screaming, then all convened in the study when the groundskeeper arrived.
- Willem (groundskeeper) came with two bottles of fancy champagne. Champagne reception begins! (Photo below.)
- The running around and screaming finally stop circa 2 a.m. The floors on the ground floor were heated! AAAHHHHH!!! Look at the shower head!!! AHHHHH!!!! The TV has cable!!!!! WE HAVE A TV!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Sunday, Febrary 25
- We all sleep in. Queen sized beds, our own bathrooms, it's heaven. Except that my roommate snores and the subpump is below our room.
- Some people got up early and went grocery shopping, banquet brunch was served at 1 p.m. (Photo below.)
- It rained all day, we stayed in and played board games and colored.
- Finally ventured outside to see the grounds and the town. Met the castle goats and donkeys!
- Our first banquet meal of lasagna, made by Michigan, amazing.
Monday, February 26
- More raining and more sleeping in.
- Around 1 p.m. we decide we should do something, so we picked a castle a bit of a ways off and took a drive. There's another beautiful little village every mile or so, we just oohed and aahed the entire drive. it's what we like to call "Beauty and the Beast France."
- Reached Château Beynac, this huge 12th century castle towering over a classic French village. They just let you roam around free, it was amazing. It finally stopped raining so we took a walk around town a bit. (Photo below.)
- Tonight's banquet, minestrone soup, brussels sprouts, and chocolate mousse for desert. Amazing.
- Brittany and Anke devised a scavenger hunt for us, so after dinner had settled we hid in Lindsey and Amber's room while they set it up. They finally let us loose in teams of four and we went NUTS. Once you found all the clues you put together the puzzle which had a photo on the back of where the treasure was located. The boys team won, jerks. So much fun.
Tuesday, February 27
- So, Chris is an anthropology major and he heard of this thing called PreHistoryPark. Those who had nothing better to do went along. It was a complete joke of a park, but we had a good time.
- I took a nap.
- Tonight's banquet: tartiflette and banoffee pie. AMAZING.
- Post-dinner entertainment: Charades. Even more amazing than the pie.
- There are no good photos from this day, so this is just a group photo of every except me and Laura. We were in the bathroom I think when they found someone to take this photo.
Wednesday, February 28
- We managed to get up early! It's a miracle!
- The caravan left the castle for this little town called Sarlat which is regionally known for having an incredible market on Wednesdays. We all run around tasting things, buying the cheapest truffle oil in the world, chocolate covered walnuts, walnut cake, foie gras, local wine, etc.
- Lunch in Sarlat was our one eat-out meal, so we didn't waste it. Chris, Brittany, Michael and I found this little bistro and attacked it. Foie gras to start, duck and sarladaise potatoes for the main dish, walnut cake for desert and topped off with a nice local red wine. I paid 20 euros for a meal that in Aix would probably be 40 euros. God love duck country.
- On the way home from Sarlat we needed to do something active to battle the duck fat settling in our stomaches. First attempt of mini-golf failed so instead we embarked on the Squirrel Forest!!
- Squirrel Forest : one of those high ropes places where they put you in a harness and let you roam around in the trees. It was us 14, like five 8 year olds, and the one supervisor. We made complete asses of ourselves, but it was so much fun. (Photo below, I'm the one on the rope, all my friends are down below.)
- Dinner: a soup bar. Black bean chili, potato and broccoli cream, and indian curry chicken. Mouth watering.
- I'm breaking my rule and putting two photos with this day. I'm hugging a goose in Goose Land!
Thursday, March 1
- We don't sleep in despite everyone being horribly sore from the ropes thing yesterday.
- This part of France is like, Pre-History land basically, full of caves with caveman drawings and artifacts and such and such. Today is cave day. I was bored.
- Nap.
- Dinner: spaghetti bake. Not impressed, but it was filling.
- After dinner, our groundskeeper invited us to the one bar in town, which happens to be an Irish bar run by real Irishmen! We played darts, French pool, and had the cheapest drinks ever since setting foot in France. And by cheap I mean 5 euro cocktails, which still isn't cheap, but we pay 8-9 euros for a cocktail in Aix.
- Anke and Michigan didn't go to the bar, they stayed home and made a fire in the fireplace so we could have s'mores! I don't think anyone went to bed before 2 a.m., we just sat there eating s'mores until the chocolate was all gone.
- I have no photo for today, so here's a photo of our kitchen in the castle since the food was probably my favorite part of the entire trip.
Friday, March 2
- The plan was vineyards, but no one wanted to be in the car for 2 hours each way. So, plans changed to Rocamadour, this village built into a cliff. (Photo below.)
- I bought foie gras and black wine.
- We had our last group meal, an omelette buffet hosted by me and Amber. I got the be the waitress! So much fun.
- We were all sad that it was our last night in the castle, so we played another game of Charades to raise our spirits.
Saturday, March 3
- We left the castle at 7:30 a.m. to get the cars back to the rental place on time.
- The drive was neverending, but the weather was so nice. I had forgotten what being in a car was like, the windows down, music up load, I miss it even more now.
- We park the car, grab our things, and wander home. The castle is over.
- Below is a photo of our caravan at some point along the way when we stopped for a photo op. No one checked how much mileage we put on them, I'd be curious to know.
Overall comments
- This may well have been the vacation of my life. I don't think they can get any better. And we were in a castle. How can you ever top that? Unless it wasn't raining, it rained every day while we were there.
Saturday, February 24
- 7 hour car ride began at 3:00 p.m., destination Le Château Raysse, Cazoulès, Dordogne, Acquitane, France!
- Three cars, a Hyundai Tuscon, some boxy Mercedes, and a Renault Clio. Tall people and the manual transmission driver got the Tuscon, so my car was Brenna (driver), Will, Chris, Michael and me.
- Never use a French rest stop, find the next gas station instead because French rest stops only have Turkish toilets. Two hours into our drive I fell in one and had to be wet and germ-infested for the rest of the ride. I took a shower as soon as I could at the castle.
- Once into Cazoulès, It took us an hour to find the castle because it's in a part of France that doesn't do street signs. We found it, proceeded to run around screaming, then all convened in the study when the groundskeeper arrived.
- Willem (groundskeeper) came with two bottles of fancy champagne. Champagne reception begins! (Photo below.)
- The running around and screaming finally stop circa 2 a.m. The floors on the ground floor were heated! AAAHHHHH!!! Look at the shower head!!! AHHHHH!!!! The TV has cable!!!!! WE HAVE A TV!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Sunday, Febrary 25
- We all sleep in. Queen sized beds, our own bathrooms, it's heaven. Except that my roommate snores and the subpump is below our room.
- Some people got up early and went grocery shopping, banquet brunch was served at 1 p.m. (Photo below.)
- It rained all day, we stayed in and played board games and colored.
- Finally ventured outside to see the grounds and the town. Met the castle goats and donkeys!
- Our first banquet meal of lasagna, made by Michigan, amazing.
Monday, February 26
- More raining and more sleeping in.
- Around 1 p.m. we decide we should do something, so we picked a castle a bit of a ways off and took a drive. There's another beautiful little village every mile or so, we just oohed and aahed the entire drive. it's what we like to call "Beauty and the Beast France."
- Reached Château Beynac, this huge 12th century castle towering over a classic French village. They just let you roam around free, it was amazing. It finally stopped raining so we took a walk around town a bit. (Photo below.)
- Tonight's banquet, minestrone soup, brussels sprouts, and chocolate mousse for desert. Amazing.
- Brittany and Anke devised a scavenger hunt for us, so after dinner had settled we hid in Lindsey and Amber's room while they set it up. They finally let us loose in teams of four and we went NUTS. Once you found all the clues you put together the puzzle which had a photo on the back of where the treasure was located. The boys team won, jerks. So much fun.
Tuesday, February 27
- So, Chris is an anthropology major and he heard of this thing called PreHistoryPark. Those who had nothing better to do went along. It was a complete joke of a park, but we had a good time.
- I took a nap.
- Tonight's banquet: tartiflette and banoffee pie. AMAZING.
- Post-dinner entertainment: Charades. Even more amazing than the pie.
- There are no good photos from this day, so this is just a group photo of every except me and Laura. We were in the bathroom I think when they found someone to take this photo.
Wednesday, February 28
- We managed to get up early! It's a miracle!
- The caravan left the castle for this little town called Sarlat which is regionally known for having an incredible market on Wednesdays. We all run around tasting things, buying the cheapest truffle oil in the world, chocolate covered walnuts, walnut cake, foie gras, local wine, etc.
- Lunch in Sarlat was our one eat-out meal, so we didn't waste it. Chris, Brittany, Michael and I found this little bistro and attacked it. Foie gras to start, duck and sarladaise potatoes for the main dish, walnut cake for desert and topped off with a nice local red wine. I paid 20 euros for a meal that in Aix would probably be 40 euros. God love duck country.
- On the way home from Sarlat we needed to do something active to battle the duck fat settling in our stomaches. First attempt of mini-golf failed so instead we embarked on the Squirrel Forest!!
- Squirrel Forest : one of those high ropes places where they put you in a harness and let you roam around in the trees. It was us 14, like five 8 year olds, and the one supervisor. We made complete asses of ourselves, but it was so much fun. (Photo below, I'm the one on the rope, all my friends are down below.)
- Dinner: a soup bar. Black bean chili, potato and broccoli cream, and indian curry chicken. Mouth watering.
- I'm breaking my rule and putting two photos with this day. I'm hugging a goose in Goose Land!
Thursday, March 1
- We don't sleep in despite everyone being horribly sore from the ropes thing yesterday.
- This part of France is like, Pre-History land basically, full of caves with caveman drawings and artifacts and such and such. Today is cave day. I was bored.
- Nap.
- Dinner: spaghetti bake. Not impressed, but it was filling.
- After dinner, our groundskeeper invited us to the one bar in town, which happens to be an Irish bar run by real Irishmen! We played darts, French pool, and had the cheapest drinks ever since setting foot in France. And by cheap I mean 5 euro cocktails, which still isn't cheap, but we pay 8-9 euros for a cocktail in Aix.
- Anke and Michigan didn't go to the bar, they stayed home and made a fire in the fireplace so we could have s'mores! I don't think anyone went to bed before 2 a.m., we just sat there eating s'mores until the chocolate was all gone.
- I have no photo for today, so here's a photo of our kitchen in the castle since the food was probably my favorite part of the entire trip.
Friday, March 2
- The plan was vineyards, but no one wanted to be in the car for 2 hours each way. So, plans changed to Rocamadour, this village built into a cliff. (Photo below.)
- I bought foie gras and black wine.
- We had our last group meal, an omelette buffet hosted by me and Amber. I got the be the waitress! So much fun.
- We were all sad that it was our last night in the castle, so we played another game of Charades to raise our spirits.
Saturday, March 3
- We left the castle at 7:30 a.m. to get the cars back to the rental place on time.
- The drive was neverending, but the weather was so nice. I had forgotten what being in a car was like, the windows down, music up load, I miss it even more now.
- We park the car, grab our things, and wander home. The castle is over.
- Below is a photo of our caravan at some point along the way when we stopped for a photo op. No one checked how much mileage we put on them, I'd be curious to know.
Overall comments
- This may well have been the vacation of my life. I don't think they can get any better. And we were in a castle. How can you ever top that? Unless it wasn't raining, it rained every day while we were there.
posted by Adrienne Dye at 11:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home