Monday and Tuesday

Hello families,
Yesterday, I wasn't able to log on, but will try to catch up today. We left Montpon at 8:30 on Monday, and there were many tears. Some kids bounded well, and might become good friends. Yet some others, were happy to move on. I, personally, had a great time with my French colleagues, and will be happy to keep in touch.
We had our first stop at Futuroscope. We were lucky with the weather and mostly with the fact that hardly anyone was there (a Monday, and school still in session). Kids had fun, although they might have thought it was a French version of Disneyland, and in this case, might have been a bit disappointed. In any case, it was pleasant.
We then drove to Chenonceaux, and I had the best visit every in this castle. We got there kind of late (6ish), and the we had the castle pretty much to ourselves. The light was perfect, as the sun was beginning to set. As always, some kids took a long time visiting all parts, while other ran through it all, but it was a very nice way to end the day.
We drove to the little hotel, and had dinner just across.
Lights were out at 11:00 (at least mine!).

Today, we left at 8:30 to drive to Amboise were we had a 60 minute guided visit. It was very nice. Some kids had a hard time waking up, but overall, they were very good listeners. The guide had a few interesting anecdotes about queens and kings that lived there.

After we bought our picnic (that took some time!), we drove a short way to Chaumond-sur-loire to eat and visit unique gardens. I wish we had more time, as there were a lot of cool things to see, but we had to go to our next stop : Versailles!

We first went to the hotel where we found Dany as planned. We dropped our suitcase, and drove again for 15 minutes to go to Versailles. We walked across the gardens to get to our restaurant; la Flottille. The walk was quite pleasant, as again, the temperature was perfect, and it was not crowed at all. The castle was closed for the day, and we had about 2 hours before the gardens closed. The meal was alright (nice setting, but food was very ordinary), and the walk back to the bus was great (light, weather, quietness). Dani and I found our gate closed (we didn't realized we were that far from the group), and we had to run to the last open gate that was quite more a way from where the bus was parked. But we made it back, and got to the hotel at around 9:30. Although kids should be quite tired (I know I am), they are currently singing their favorite tunes in their room (time to go tell them to be quiet!!!).

Tomorrow, the castle, and more gardens, and then Paris!