Today was a fantastic day. BTW, thanks for all your mother's day wishes (and cards!). Our hotel is so cute! We open the windows and the smell of the roses comes in the room. We had the best bread at breakfast (found out it's brioche) with homemade jelly that the owners make. There are about 50 varieties that they make. And we eat goat cheese with honey and walnuts that we shell ourselves and put it on the bread. And the croissants are THE best I've ever eaten. Good thing we're walking off all these carbs. Today was supposed to be a two people day, but it was definitely a four people day before it was over. Even I was tired. We went to another chateau, Chenancou, but it was way better than yesterday. I definitely wouldn't have minded living here except there was not a bathroom in the whole place. And Ann found her House Hunter's International, believe it or not, at the chateau! She liked this chateau a lot. The place she picked was actually the farmhouse, but it really was awesome. Afterwards, we went th Amboise where we chose to take a tour of the house in which Leonardo da Vinci spent his last three years. They had a wonderful display there. They took the plans for all his inventions and built them--a plane, a car, ball bearings, etc. It was fascinating, and the gardens were beautiful. And the best part, Ann says their restroom was 4-Star! This evening we had a wine tasting at the hotel which was so, so fun. The owner of the hotel is a wine expert, and we learned so much. Well, not that much apparently, because he gave us a quiz, and I came in way near the bottom. One thing I learned was that in France they do not irrigate the vineyards.  The grapes "have to find their own water."  That's why it makes such a difference from year to year whether the wine is good or not.  You've heard people say that it was such a good year?  That's why.  We both ate pate. Can you believe it? I think I ate it because I was a little tipsy after five glasses of wine, so I probably would have even eaten the horsemeat! (Ann thinks you don't believe she ate horsemeat. Do you?) Afterwards, I wanted to take a walk on the ramparts, which probably wasn't a good idea after all that wine, but I had company. Four of us ended up going. The ramparts are the stone wall which was built around the whole town for protection, and the views were awesome. Ann wisely chose just to head off for dinner with other members of the group. We joined them later, and it was a really great evening. I had been wanting to try a tart tatin (upside down apple pie), and I had that after dinner. It was great! We came home after 10 o'clock, so we all had to use our keys to get in the back way. Kind of like sneaking in after curfew. We held up OK in spite of all our stair climbing today, but tomorrow is the real test. It's about a million stairs up Mont St. Michel, so we can't even take our suitcases, just a small bag. Alissa, we haven't found any French princes, but we have had an awful lot of cute waiters. Your grandmother wanted me to take a picture of the one tonight, but I couldn't do it without being too obvious. Actually, the guy who came into our hotel room in Paris was even cuter. I mean--he was REALLY cute. He unlocked the door and came in unannounced (your grandmother was in her PJ's already). He didn't speak English very well, and I kept asking him what he was doing there! Finally I figured out he was there to adjust the A/C. He apologized that his English wasn't so good. I thought with looks like that, even his French didn't have to be good! You wouldn't believe how teeny, tiny our shower is. And the light in the bathroom is over the shower. I saw Ann putting her makeup on in the shower this morning. Time to pack for tomorrow. I'll put a few new pictures on tonight, but I don't think I'll drag my laptop up Mont St. Michel tomorrow.