I stayed in a castle this weekend!

Yes, somewhat ridiculous to throw that out there right away, but I have to. When else in my life am I going to be able to say that? Probably never. So there it is. And let me tell you, I damn well deserved a castle this weekend. Last week kind of sucked. I won't bore you with the details. I just had real work to do, serious work, and it totally was not fun. I'm not in Paris to work!

We did actually have one fantastic adventure last week. Madame Bing sent us all to the ballet, which was lots of fun -- Prokofiev's Cendrillon (Cinderella) in the Opéra Garnier, the famously ornate opera house that inspired The Phantom of the Opera (the real version of that notorious crashing chandelier was right over our heads!). I've never seen a ballet before (besides The Nutcracker) and I enjoyed it more than I thought I might... the music was elegant and evocative, and the story, though confusing (why is the fairy godmother a movie director / pilot? why are there 12 men in red thongs running around?), was surprisingly entertaining. Also, the Opéra Garnier is an extremely satisfying place to see and be seen. Just sweeping down the grand staircase in our evening finery was fun.

Beyond that, though, it was just a matter of waiting for the interminable week to finish and our fun adventures to begin. This weekend was our Bing trip (if anyone doesn't know, Madame Bing pays for every overseas program to take some crazy trip each quarter) and we went to the Loire Valley region of France, a flat and garden-like region filled with calm rivers and yellow flowers, as well as the kind of villages you expect France to have (I felt like Belle in Beauty and the Beast! Little town... it's a quiet village....). The region is also the heart of France's château country, where the nobles all built their elaborate palaces as the Italian Renaissance drifted northward.

We stayed in one of these châteaux, and it was by far the coolest place I have ever stayed. It really was a castle, perched up on top of a hill, with wisteria draped all over its gray walls. Being a castle, each room was unique -- one was in the former stables; one was a former outbuilding; one was literally in a cave where the chateau's wine must have been aged at one point; and ours was pretty much the penthouse suite, a grand antechamber looking out over the entire Loire Valley and the beds in a round turret room. I can't even believe I slept in a turret. And somehow this is school....

Anyhow, that was the first of several châteaux we visited. Each one was absolutely ridiculous in its ornateness; I feel like I understand why the French Revolution happened when the wealthy were rich like this. Each one has some outrageous gimmick. Chenonceau straddles a river; Amboise contains, for some reason, the grave of Leonardo da Vinci; Chambord is the largest of all and yet was only inhabited for five weeks before the king grew bored with it. They are lovely, but somewhat exhausting; they are such a strange blend of opulence and discomfort that I find them hard to take. But I am glad I got to see them. My favorite part of the châteaux visits, however, came with our free afternoon at Chambord. That château occupies a huge estate with lots of rivers and forests and other natural wonders. For a treat, we got to go rowing on the river. It was so patrician, but so wonderful! Imagine a warm afternoon, sitting on a rowboat, lazily rowing, with one of France's largest castles there in the background, slipping in for a quick swim and then drying in the comfortable sun... I can't even tell you how lovely it was.

Bing trips are supposed to have delicious meals, but only one of ours was really great, a Saturday night dinner we had at our château. (Vegetarian menu: asparagus almond soup, pasta with fresh vegetables, and an astonishing dessert including wine sorbet and white chocolate mousse, all accompanied by fresh bread and local wines). But we got to go to a cave for wine and cheese tasting on Saturday afternoon, which was amazing. The Loire Valley is known for its wine, and Madame Bing chose a pretty classy place for us... the cheese was prize-winning and the wines were too, I think. At any rate, I felt like I became a better smarmy person because this visit actually did increase my appreciation for wine. We had three glasses each, but they were all the "same" wine, just from different years (one was forty years old!). I couldn't believe how different they were! I also discovered that Comte cheese is unutterably delicious. We were encouraged to take this seriously and try all three kinds of cheese with all three kinds of wine to discover the best combinations, which was as fun as it sounds.

As classy as that was, we had a totally unclassy experience to balance it out on Saturday night. During the day some people had walked to the river by our château for a swim and said it was nice; for some reason, Vicky, Nafis, Silvia, and I convinced ourselves that going to the river in the middle of the night would be even better. Imagine the scene... the totally dark countryside, more stars overhead than I've ever seen, and us picking our way through paths, gravel, roads, and railroad tracks, pretty much in total darkness, and scaring ourselves senseless when some dog started barking at us. It was kind of a dumb decision. But we did make it, and hacked open the bottle of wine we'd brought with a hotel key (don't judge, I forgot my beloved corkscrew) and enjoyed it. We also tried to go swimming. Now imagine that scene... total darkness, a steep bank, slippery rocks underfoot, uncertainly-dirty mud squishing between our toes as we try to pick our way into this river. And because we were near a bridge the water was only ankle-deep! So no swimming for us. But we waded, at least, and all got stabbed by some ferocious stinging plant on the way out of the water. It was a good adventure.

But now I am back in Paris. It's been a weird day... I will spare everyone the details, but let's just say it involved a crazy man accosting us in the garden, being robbed by the school for deaf-mutes, a stressful project involving interviewing the French about the election (which has actually been really interesting to observe! But not to ask people about), our host school somehow transforming into a 1920's Chicago speakeasy in décor (this doesn't make any sense even with the whole story), and me getting the start of a cold. But I did go the Louvre and stumble around a little with my pass, which was nice -- I only saw a teeny corner of it, French Neoclassical sculpture, but enjoyed it a lot. As strange as this may sound it gave me a new appreciation of feet. I hate feet and think they're awful, but the marble feet on every statue, with their veins and supple cruves, were surprisingly elegant.

And now I'm here, having just gone grocery shopping, and ready for some dinner. So, with that, I will bid you adieu! I feel like this was an excessively long entry as always, so thanks if you trudged through to the end.