Trolls and Princesses

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we decided to explore the countryside of France. Sophia Page wanted to hang with her "Uncle Matthew", so the three of us started driving south. Our destination was a train bridge that was designed by the same man that designed the Eiffel Tower. The bridge is called the Viaduct de Garabit and it is just south of a town called Saint Flour. Sophia wanted to look for trolls under the bridge. The bridge was quite impressive, and it really does look like a horizontal version of the Eiffel Tower. After a quick stop at a McDonalds for lunch (I know, I know, not exactly a taste of France, but we had a 3 year old with us!), we followed signs for the Chateau d'Alleuze. The road we were following took us to the middle of nowhere! We were driving through cow pastures and every 5 minutes we had to pull over into the ditch to let a tractor pass. After 30 minutes of driving, we decided that we must have missed a turn somewhere, so I grabbed the ever trusty GPS and searched for area "attractions". Since we had already told Sophia we were going to find a castle (and the princess), we decided we better find another chateau. Being in France, the GPS said we were only about 3 km from another chateau. We easily found the Chateau des Ternes. We knocked on the door, but unfortunately the princess was not home. Right beside the chateau was a church. We walked around and explored a little and then started to head home. As we were driving through the town, we saw another sign for the Chateau d'Alleuze. Matthew was determined to find it, so again we turned down a road that quickly became an old country road, and once again we were driving through cow pastures, and once again we found ourselves pulling into ditches to allow tractors to pass. Finally, we saw another sign letting us know we were actually headed in the right direction. We turn a corner and find ourselves at the top of a mountain looking down at a river, and at the top of a bluff overlooking the river was the Chateau d'Alleuze (or atleast the remains of the chateau). We park the car at the bottom of the bluff and begin the treck up to the chateau. I am amazed that they ("they" being the ones that actually stayed in this chateau) were able to get anything (food, water, supplies, etc) to the top! The view was quite impressive at the top. And, since it was only the remains, we were free to explore. Again, no princess, but the chateau was worth the effort it took to find it!