My academics are drawing to a close here in France, and I will be taking my last final exam this Wednesday over 18th Century Literature (as you can imagine this is not my favorite topic, and I have to read an entire play before then and remind myself about the plot of two others) but I think I should do fine. At this point I am ready to begin my vacation!! Before we leave we will try to send out the itinerary to the family so that all of you will know where we are in our travels. To give you the general idea, we leave Chambéry the 23rd of May (less than three weeks!) and we go to Venice for 6 days, via Paris. Then from Venice visit my family in Denmark for 5 days. After Denmark we spend a week in Barcelona, and after Spain we return to France. In France, the first thing we do is a 2-day tour of Normandy (its beaches from WWII) and the Mont Saint Michel. Then we spend 8 days in the Loire Valley doing an extended bike trip between the chateaux. After the Loire, we head to Paris where we have between 5-6 days, depending on if we can bump our flight time a little earlier, to explore the numerous sights to see in the country's capital. It should be a great time!
But back to Chambéry. On Friday David and I did a smaller bike-hike trip, only 24km round trip. We went to the local vineyards of Chignin, where as a "historical enigma" (according to the tourism information sign) 7 medieval towers were constructed. Today there are only the remains of 5 towers, at least that we saw, but they were really cool. Unfortunately the weather turned a little sour while we were out on our hike so our pictures show a very cloudy sky, but we were lucky enough to only feel the occasional drop of rain.
We took a pause on our way up the hill to take a picture with the approaching towers. You can see the cool ancient church on the left and one of the most preserved towers on the right. Also you can probably see the telephone pole. Everywhere we went on our way to Chignin had telephone poles so we couldn't get a good "far off" picture. Oh well.
Here are the same too buildings from a closer viewpoint. We were all excited about checking out that old looking church, but when we got there we saw that it was gated... and not 5 seconds later a car drove up an entered the private property! So yeah, someone lives there with that cool church.
This is the only tower which is in good enough condition that they will let you inside it to explore (see the picture below). Though the others were cool to look at.
This is David and I in the sweet tower. Sorry about the crooked picture though... there were only so many outcroppings on which to balance the camera!
A view back at the tower from the other direction.
I took this picture specifically because it is almost the exact picture that was taken in my hiking tourism book. I will show all of you who are interested when I am back in the US. The only difference between my photo and theirs? They took it in the fall so the vines were filled out and there was more sun. But still, I was pretty proud of the photo!
David and I with the tower and the Col du Granier (the massive mountain behind us) which I am sure you recognize from our other photos.
Ok well I am back to vacation planning, moving out preparation, and final exam cramming! I'll update you soon! Also, I send a special shout-out to Mom, Dad, Karen, Grammy, and Grampy who are all visiting at this time, to soon be joined by Mormor and Opa... love to the family!
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