I See London, I see France......!: Continued...

So after spending the night in St-Malo, we drove to Angers, stopping on the way in Dinan to browse their open-air market. In Angers we visited the château that holds the incredibly long (I want to say 300 yards...) tapistry of the apocolypse. VERY cool. I definitely have to go back and read Revelations in the New Testament now. There used to be scriptures to go with the corresponding pictures in the tapistry, but some secular cynic went and painted over them, since the castle is a government building, therefore breaching the separation of Church and State. Uugggghh. The French are ridiculously laϊque (secular). They claim to be Catholic, but they're the Christmas/Easter Catholics. And I swear there's more cathedrals here than anywhere else in the world! Huh...what a waste. So anyway, in Angers we stayed at Le Bon Pasteur convent, where I miraculously found a nun who is a cousin of my Aunt Ru from Sri Lanka! Small world? Yes, I think so.

We then made our way to the Loire Valley, stopping at many a château: first Ussé, then Villandry, then Chenonceau, then Blois, then Chambord. Villandry was my favorite. A charming castle, yet not overbearing. The interior actually seemed lived in; and it was, not too long ago. The best part was that our group basically owned the place. I think I saw exactly one other tourist. The gardens were soooo beautiful and for at least 30 minutes I just sat in the grass and picked the flowers/weeds. Chenonceau was also quite incredible. Chambord was just large and in charge. Gorgeous, but vacant in the inside since it was too big to ever be lived in for more than a few months. Blois was dull, compared to the others, but they were filming a movie there! Doesn't look too promising though. Kind of like one of those corny Lifetime films that you get sucked into when you're bored and there's nothing else to watch on T.V. Chaîne 2 in France, if you get French T.V. Should be a real thriller.

The coolest part of the Loire Valley was Amboise, where we went to Leonardo da Vinci's house. When in France, GO HERE. It rocks. There are to-scale copies of a bunch of his inventions strewn about his "yard" (a forest, really), and huge blown up images of his paintings and sketches hanging from the trees.