Chambord, Cheverny, and the French healthcare system

Saturday, as stated, was a free field trip. We got to campus around 8h10, bought delicious pain au chocolat from our favorite little café, and waited to board our coach buses (there were two of them, both full). It was pretty cold out that morning and I was quite happy to get on the bus finally. Around 8h45 we actually left. It took about an hour to get there, so of course the three of us passed out.


Our first chateau was that of Chambord, and it was big. The parking lot is actually behind it, so our first views were of the back. That doesn't really matter though because it's big and beautiful no matter what angle you're viewing it from. Most of the other people went in the same general direction, but they were slow s we said no and went off to be exclusive once more. We had a great time with it too. Chambord is huge, and is kind of in two parts. There's the center, square part, and the outer wall. in the front the surrounding wall is only one story high and that's where the entrance and gift shop are. On the backside it's four floors high, accessible by a stone spiral staircase in each corner. The center square, also the oldest part, is also four floors high, with a terrace on top. In the center is a big double spiral staircase. I believe we explored almost every explorable room in the place. It took hours and about 50 pictures to do so. The architecture, especially on top, is gorgeous (as you can see on facebook and photobucket). It's kind of hard to describe the chateau or what we did, so I won't. Feel free to give yourself a personal tour via the many pictures; I have no qualms about you living vicariously through me

After lunch (some not-so-great pizza and 1+1/2 cones of delicious ice cream -ask Dee about the half) we got back on our buses and took a 20 minute drive to the much smaller chateau of Cheverny. While still pretty, we were unfortunately not quite as impressed with this one. Maybe our standards were too high. One reason for that is you can only visit about a third of the rooms. The family still actually lives there...I would've liked to see what they've done with their part of it. The big seller for Cheverny is the grounds. Again, not huge like Chambord's, but the open part is beautiful. A biiig lawn spotted with trees and rolling mini-hills. There's also a stream/mini-river that runs through the grounds and separates the open part from the private part. Again, my pictures can paint a better picture than I can. The gift shop pretty much sucked, except for one thing. They had a photo booth were you could take your picture and put it on a background of a view of Cheverny. The three of us each bought one, with all three of us in it, and we each have different scenes. On the back it's like a postcard. Dee sent hers but Kay and I still have ours. Once I come back I'll see about scanning mine to get it online somewhere.

Then finally the ride back, and almost everyone fell asleep. A kid in the row in front and across from us fell asleep half on his friend with his mouth wide open. Then he started snoring, and the three of us and his three friends starting laughing. Then he started snoring louder and everyone within three rows turned around to look at him until he finally woke himself up with it. I think Kay got a picture of him.

We arrived on campus a little before 18h. Perfect. I wanted to go to the infirmière, which opened again at 18h (their hours are 10h-12h30 and 18h-19h30). I had gone to the medecin preventative on campus, to inquire about my allergy shots. They directed me to this infirmière. So I go and I ask her if she can do them. This is when I find out that my doses are in cc's and their needles are in ml's: Problem 1. Problem 2 was that I needed an 'ordnance' from a doctor because she technically didn't have the right to do it even if she knew how much to give me. So I had to go to a doctor. I asked her where one was abound there, and she said they wouldn't be open this late on a Saturday. I wish I knew how to politely say 'no shit' in French. I asked again if she knew where one was. She said if I wanted to I could go to a hospital. So I left shotless and disappointed. But it didn't cost me a thing!