Day 11: Final day in France

Well as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. It's been almost two weeks since Spiritus touched down in France to begin its first international tour and now we're counting down the hours before we fly back across the pond. But one last blog entry from me...

Chateau Chenonceau

Chateau Chenonceau from the front

The chateau from a glorious vantage point off the
garden of Diane de Poitiers

On the way back to Paris from Tours, we took a little detour to visit an incredible chateau called Chenonceau. Richly steeped in French history, the chateau figures quite prominently in the history of Henry II, his wife Catherine de Medici and his mistress Diane of Poitiers. Here's the Coles notes version:

Diane of Poitiers was Henry II's favourite mistress and so he gave Chenonceau to her. The chateau was well known for its lavish parties and walking through its halls and rooms, it's easy to imagine. After Henry II died, Catherine de Medici demanded Chenonceau as compensation - and she could demand it because her son, the future Henry III, was still too young to assume the throne so she pretty much ruled France anyway. To make a long story short, while Diane of Poitiers lived in Chenonceau, she created a breathtaking garden. When Catherine de Medici took Chenonceau over, she created a garden on the other side of the chateau. Personally, I thought Diane's garden better, but that's just my humble opinion.

From Diane de Poitier's garden

From Catherine de Medici's garden

Anyway, Spiritus spent its morning trolling about the grounds, taking the guided tour of Chenonceau and enjoying the lavish grounds. I will post some pictures when I get a spare moment. For now, it is off to Paris for our farewell dinner.

Montparnasse: The Final Destination

Our final night in France is at Montparnasse, which is in a rather bustling commercial area of Paris. The tower of Montparnasse is nearby, which allows you a 360° view of Paris (I had planned on checking it out before dinner before discovering that the attraction was not all it was cracked up to be). That evening, we had a farewell tour dinner nearby in a quaint restaurant called Montparnasse 1600. There we toasted everyone who made the trip such a success. After that, we were pretty much free, and with the prospect of a long travel day ahead, some people made their last night in Paris an epic one.

Justin, Anna Marie and Aaron enjoying our farewell dinner

Oliver and Marian at dinner

Montparnasse 1600 is a pretty amazing-looking place

Marian, Bernie and Boyd at dinner

I'm still trying to figure out what
Montparnasse 1600 used to be

That's it, that's all

And with that, I'll bid thee all adieu (although I'll update the previous section with some pictures). Special thanks to Cathy Klopoushak for helping organize this trip for Spiritus, to Timothy Shantz for his artistic leadership, his vision and for getting us prepared for competition, to our courier Marianne for her fantastic work, and our legion of bus drivers, particularly Angelique, who took us from Paris and beyond.

It's been fun maintaining this blog and I hope you all had fun reading it. I'm staying on in Paris for the next few days but haven't yet decided if I'm going to blog about it... If I do, check out my musings at http://formerjourno.blogspot.com/.



Thanks for reading, everyone!