I had a chateau-trip to Blois, Chambord and Cheverny last weekend. My main destination is Chambord, which is the most beautiful architecture in France in my eyes. Nowadays, with the google map, giving you the name of the place is enough, pictures worth thousands of words.
To have a relaxed trip, I chose to stay at Blois over night. In the evening, before sunset, I joined a horse carriage tour. It is quite a big carriage with about 15 seats, driven by two beautiful white horses. I sat on the first row waiting for the rest of the tourists to join. Suddenly, I saw one horse kissed the other. [You might ask, are you sure that was a kiss? Dana: Yes. I am sure.] Aha! One is taller than the other and the smaller one looks more gentle. They must be one female and one male. I looked around. There were four such carraiges and each was driven by two horses that one is taller than the other -- four couples. In the past, when a horse carriage was a main form of transport, a good horse carriage used two horses of the same height to achieve speed and better balancing. Now, these factors are not so important to tourists and I am happy that they take care of horses' welfare. It makes the carriage tour more romantic.
Trip started, we passed by ancient buildings, river and bridge; rode on ancient lanes as well as modern streets. When I was capturing these beautiful moments, the carriage stopped. I looked at the front. Oh, it was because of the red traffic light, [Yes. Horses also follow traffic light.], which took me from the fairyland back to the reality.
After my chateau-trip, my first feeling is that I do not want to live in any of them as it does not seem to be a place that gives you much privacy. But it is quite pleasant to walk in the royal gardens being companied by these nice architectures. My second feeling is that my French seems improving. Although I only know a few sentences, it seems that they are good enough for me to travel around in France. Local people are quite happy to meet a Chinese tourist speaking some French. Some of them also speak some Chinese back to me, quite a friendly atmosphere in general. My third feeling is ... Must I have the third feeling? Maybe not.
