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To be honest, the taste of raw oysters is not as horrible as Mr. Bean described. First of all, they are very fresh, refreshing, smooth, cool and a little chewy. In short, they are really, really delicious!

There were so many red wine braised mussels! The pot was about 30 cm in diameter and 20 cm deep, full of mussels, served with thick French fries. An Qingju kept eating hard, and An Chuyu also helped, but they still didn't finish it.

The waiter recommended the white wine as a pairing. It didn't taste very good when drunk alone, very dry (just the sour taste that An Qingjue and An Chuyu mentioned), but when paired with oysters, it somehow tasted slightly sweet.

An Qingju and An Chuyu don’t know much about French seafood, and they are always worried about diarrhea, so they can only share so much information. Friends with strong stomachs should try it!

Fougères is the place that An Qingju and An Chuyu visited after leaving Pontorson. Going south from Fougères, you leave Brittany and go to the Loire Valley. In "Ninety-Three", the last battle between the Marquis of Landenac and the commander who suppressed the Vendée rebels, Viscount Guowen (also the Marquis of Landenac's great-nephew), took place in Fougères.

The novel says that the Marquis of Landernac and the remnants of the rebels retreated to the family's old fortress, which was a round tower with a 15-foot-thick foundation wall and a hole in the wall for the exit. The tower was connected to the high ground by a stone bridge, and there was a three-story castle on the bridge pier.

This castle, An Qingju and An Chuyu drove to Fougeres and saw it at a glance: At a glance, you can see that this castle is a defensive castle. The castle is overall trapezoidal in shape, with walls more than three meters thick. There are also 13 high towers forming a perfect defense system.

Standing on the corner tower and the high tower, you can overlook or see the entire town of Fougeres. The best viewing point is on a park platform opposite it, which looks even more gloomy on this rainy morning:

Today is Sunday. It was not until today that An Qingju and An Chuyu finally felt what "Sunday" means in France. It was really a day when they had no one to turn to.

Shops are closed, of course, and restaurants that serve locals are closed (except for tourist attractions). Small supermarkets are closed, and large supermarkets are open for half a day. The most difficult thing is refueling, as there is no manual service at gas stations on Sundays.

This really troubled An Qingjue and An Chuyu. The automatic gas station did not support the magnetic stripe credit cards and chip debit cards that An Qingjue and An Chuyu brought from China (I guess chip credit cards are supported. But An Qingjue and An Chuyu did not apply for them), so they could not refuel without manual service.

Just reading the French words "Your credit card cannot be recognized" on the gas pump took a lot of effort; we met an old man at the gas station (it was hard to meet people at the gas station on Sunday), and we went up to him to ask in English, but he didn't understand a word we said. He patiently explained French words to An Qingjue and An Chuyu, but poor An Qingjue and An Chuyu didn't understand a single word of French.

(I guess what the old man said was something like "east, south, west, north"). Finally, An Qingju and An Chuyu came to a large supermarket that was still open. Seeing a gas station outside, An Chuyu ran to the supermarket and asked a young cashier, "How can I get gas without a credit card?"

The girl listened to An Chuyu's English chatter with curiosity. She quickly called another girl to listen, and An Chuyu repeated his English chatter. The second girl called a young man, and finally he could understand An Chuyu's English. The young man was kind and offered to pay with his credit card and let An Chuyu pay him in cash, and that's how it was done.

Lesson: Fill up the tank before Sunday! After Fougères, An Qingju and An Chuyu had left Brittany. However, the "strange" (this is the only word I can use. Anything more would be a bit derogatory) atmosphere that Brittany brought to An Qingju and An Chuyu shocked them again in an unknown village near Rennes.

I don't know what this village is called. Today is Sunday. I guess there are worship activities. But there are a bunch of dummies standing in the small square outside the church. It's not the dummies that are scary, but the way they are made, they look like zombies, probably the craftsmanship of the villagers themselves.

There was a sign under each mannequin, explaining it in French, and I guessed at it. Some talked about things that happened in the town, some talked about religious stories, and some introduced characters from books.

Whatever they were, they looked strange, standing next to a village church where no one was seen. It was creepy. An Qingju looked at the scene for a long time and could tell that it was a bishop (or the pope), a butcher and three children.

Later, I looked it up online according to the French instructions on the outside of the barrel. It turned out to be a story about Bishop Saint Nicholas (who is actually the prototype of Santa Claus). It was about a butcher who killed three children. Later, Saint Nicholas enlightened him and resurrected the three children. Isn't it bloody?

An Qingjue and An Chuyu felt a chill on their necks, and in broad daylight, they had goose bumps all over their bodies. An Qingjue was so shocked by what he saw... After leaving Fougères and that strange village, An Qingjue and An Chuyu officially entered the Loire Valley.

People say that to fully appreciate the French style, you only need to go to two places, one is Paris, and the other is the Loire Valley. In An Qingju's opinion, the Loire Valley is a bit like Henan to China compared to France.

When foreigners look at Chinese culture (note, it’s culture, not civilization), it’s ultimately Central Plains culture, and its birthplace is Henan; when others like An Qingju and An Chuyu see French culture, its birthplace is in the Loire Valley.

Strictly speaking, the history of France can only be traced back to 400 AD, before which it was ruled by the Roman Empire. After that, it went through the Merovingian Dynasty, the Carolingian Dynasty, and the Capetian Dynasty. But in the eyes of outsiders like An Qingju and An Chuyu, how do they define French culture and "French style"?

Of course, this definition can be very broad, but in the eyes of many people, the French style is composed of these keywords: exquisite, romantic, elegant gardens, complex architecture and decorative arts, elegant artistic taste... If this is also your opinion, then the Loire Valley is the birthplace of "French culture" composed of these keywords.

It was here that the French royal family that An Qingjue and An Chuyu saw now came into being, and it was also here that one began to see the castle complex decorated with golden lilies, the symbol of the French royal family.

Before going to France, An Qingju and An Chuyu considered the trip to the Loire Valley as an important stop in France, so they naturally did some research. They visited the official website of the Loire Valley, carefully read several travel guides, and also read a lot of travel notes online.

But the result is that I can't remember anything! I wonder if you feel the same way? I just can't remember which castle to visit.

However, when An Qingjue and An Chuyu came back from France and were writing this travelogue, An Qingjue suddenly found that she could really talk about those castles.

Once you personally experience and come to a place, you establish a certain connection with it, and the probability of your wave function in this place is greater. When you see this place again on TV or in the newspaper, the image in your mind will be completely different.

Humans are creatures that permeate the universe, not only in the physical realm, but also in the realm of consciousness - this is what people mean when they say "forever live in the hearts of An Qingju and An Chuyu"...

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

Having gone off topic, let’s get back to the route taken by An Qingju and An Chuyu: Look at the green dots on the picture. An Qingju and An Chuyu have both been to these dots, and together they form the castle complex in the Loire Valley.

An Qingju and An Chuyu stayed in the Loire Valley for four nights, staying in one place (a village near Amboise) for the first three days and in another place (a village near Meung-sur-Loire) for the last day.

What you can see in the Loire Valley are mainly cities, towns and castles. Some cities are suitable for a closer look, while some towns are suitable for passing through; some castles are earth-shattering and worth admiring, while some castles only need to be seen from the outside.

You can visit the city for free, but you need to pay a ticket to visit each castle, ranging from 6 to 12 euros per castle. From a budget perspective, you don't have to go into every castle, just choose the ones that are most worth seeing according to your preferences.

There is one more thing: because of the inconsistency of transliteration, Chinese people who travel to the Loire Valley for the first time will probably be completely confused by the different translations of the castle names in different versions of travel books.

When writing this travelogue, An Qingjue fixed the Chinese transliteration and added the French name to avoid confusion. In the table below, An Qingjue listed all the castles and towns he visited in order from west to east.

Because we stayed in two places, we had to go back and forth sometimes. However, An Chuyu and his friends had planned as much as possible and divided all the visits into three parts (with notes in the table): the first part was on the way to Amboise to check in; the second part was around Amboise; and the third part was on the way to Meung-sur-Loire.

In the table, what to see in which place, where An Qingjue and An Chuyu bought tickets to enter, and why they paid for it are all marked: no more gossip, let's take a look at the pictures. The pictures below are the castles that An Qingjue and An Chuyu bought tickets to visit. The courtyard of Villardry in the upper left.

The lower left side overlooks the Château d'Amboise, overlooking the Loire River; the lower right side shows the eerie Château de Meung-sur-Loire on the Loire River. (The novel "He Came from the End of the World" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 100% lucky draw gift for everyone! Open WeChat now, click the "+" sign "Add Friends" in the upper right corner, search for the public account "dd" and follow it, hurry up!) (To be continued..)