Provins, Champagne: No I don't drink, sheesh!

I promise. I swear. This is it. This is the end of France.

You know people that go to medieval fesivals? And love that time period, etc? Well, I feel a little guilty telling you that I could kind of care less about medieval times. I had to google how to spell it, if that tells you anything. So, when I tell you how totally cool this town of Provins was, you better know how serious I am. (Don't confuse this with the region of Provence, France) This is in the region of Champagne, just south of Ile de'France, where we were.

These buildings on the right have seriosuly been here for well over a thousand years. Impressive, I'd say.

Giant city walls surround the city.

This is the main castle. It was started in 999 a.d. If I'm this impressed with Europe, I need to get to Egypt. I've heard they have some really old triangular things there.

A view from a castle window.

I'll tell you. This place would have been hard to live in. It was cold, dark and damp. The rooms were drafty, the floor really uneven, the staircases rediculous. I couldn't even imagine traipsing up and down this place in bad shoes and extra long dresses. Don't even get me started on the sanitation issues - clean water, toilets, cooking, etc. Heaven help me.

This was the time of serfs and peasants. And this place was where their local leader lived. He was an English man named Henry I. This place was famous for it's fair of goods, a central marketplace, I think. Here is Chach sitting in, I'll call him 'The Lords', bedroom. Not very impressive to me, but I imagine it was a lot better than the cold, rainy, muddy thatched roofed huts that most people lived in.

We kept noticing how tiny the the doorways were. Basically, I'm big for the states, I would be a giant here.

The main gathering rooms of the castle, there were two on top of each other, were surrounded by other small rooms. The whole place was a lot smaller than I would have thought. In one of the 'family rooms' there was a display going all the time. It was computerized, projected on the wall, and has music and sound effects. Really cool.

The veiw was pretty good too.

This is the church across the way from the castle.

I love the French houses.

Tower on the outside of the interior wall.

The city's exterior wall. Beautiful.

The town of Provins is a UNESCO world heritage site, and so amazing to see. It was another little place we came across by accident. I love wonderful accidents. This was our last day in France, and a beautiful sunset to bid us farewell. It's hard not to want to come back to the exact same places, because we have such great times. So, hopefully I will be back here again - but there's a lot more of the world to see. So who knows?

Hope you enjoyed your trip with us. It was great. I hope you'll come again!