Excursion 1 - Les Châteaux de la Loire

Hello everyone!
We hope all of you had a good start to the week!
As promised last time, here's an update on our first excursion to the beautiful castles of the Loire valley. On Friday, June 14, the students along with Martin and myself headed out to visit 3 incredible castles. Our bus came to pick us all up at the school at 7.15am and off we went.
First on our itinerary was the Château de Chambord, a 500 year old château from the Renaissance period.

 

Of all the castles in the Loire region (and there are lots) this one is the most vast. We entered the castle together and then the students got about 2 hours to explore the castle by themselves in groups. 

Once done, we headed to the second château of the day. Before entering the grounds of the castle, we did a little picnic right by a small stream with ducks. The students ate the lunches their host families had packed and enjoyed feeding bread to the ducks. It was a perfect day for a picnic!

 
 
                               

The second château we visited was the Château de Chenonceau. The students really enjoyed exploring the beautiful interiors of this castle but what they enjoyed the most was exploring the gardens and the maze. Remember to ask them to show you photos they clicked of the maze! Here are a few photos we took. Here too, they got about 2 hours to explore the castle and the grounds in groups. 

                        

This castle was constructed on the bridge spanning the river cher and the students really enjoyed this breathtaking view of the castle from its gardens. From here we went to a smaller castle with an intriguing past. We headed to Château du Clos Lucé. This famous castle has known many famous owners but the most intriguing for the students was Leonardo Da Vinci, who spent the last 3 years of his life here.
    
                    

The students really enjoyed exploring Da Vinci's house because even though it was simple from within but they could see his sketches and they also got to see and play with his inventions which have been recreated and placed in the house and all around the garden. Since it was a hot day, many students took a break from exploring and had some ice-cream and some even had crêpes.




              

Here's a short video of some of the students exploring Leonardo Da Vinci's version of the Archimedes screw.

After a long journey of taking in a lot of history and culture, we got back to the school by 8pm where we were greeted by host parents waiting to pick up the students.
... And this was the end of our incredible first excursion at the Castles of the Loire Valley!
Hope you enjoyed this journey with us. Stay tuned for how this week's going for our 'stagiaires'!