Giant ridiculous castle #1 in Amboise, France. Did this split pic from my morning run… top view is one way, bottom view is after I hucked a 180 in place. #beautifuloldstuffeverywheeeeeerrre

#BucketList World Tour item: Eat a delicious French pastry while walking to a castle. Check. Oh, and this started the have-a-French-pastry-every-single-day thing that hasn’t quite stopped. I brought my skinny jeans to keep myself in check and even running every day I’m feeling them tighten up a little bit, hahaa, damn it! #morerunning #samenumberofpastries

Giant ridiculous castle #2: Villandry and all it’s incredible gardens. The Love Gardens were my favorite.. those are the intricate green ones you can see more toward the front/bottom of the picture. 🙂

Kinda looks like a hat.

Yeah, tree-lined path!

Yeah, different tree-lined path!

Giant ridiculous castle #3: Chenonceau. The coolest thing I thought about this place was actually in it’s more recent history… the River Cher (what it spans) was one of the lines set in World War II, and the owners used the castle to sneak people across the river to safety and freedom despite heavy Nazi German watch. #courage #bravery #doingtherightthingnomatterwhattherisks

Doors. My favorite one so far. The ornate shaping on the building is amazing and completely adds of course to the overall feeling, but the door itself is this truly incredible piece of art. #loveit

Same door from the inside. A perfect example of beauty in unsuspecting places. Things. This image.. yeah.. love it.

Children’s maze. Definitely played in it too. #goplay

FaceTime birthday wish for our beautiful Melissa! A giant ridiculous castle as a present, not bad.

And this is where I learned to drive a stick shift! :)) Chenonceau castle, France. This pic is my first time on a real road, ahhhhh!!!! #awesome :)) #WMFT

Not a giant ridiculous castle, but a pretty big ridiculous chateau… way awesome because it’s where Leonardo Da Vinci lived the last years of his life (and he is buried in the castle at Amboise). So cool to learn more about him and all his ideas and inventions. This one was one of his ideas for flying! :)) Funny, as much as I’ve flown in my life, both skydiving in freefall, flying parachutes, and flying in airplanes big and small, I am still so inspired by flight of all kinds.. and on this day, by Da Vinci and his dream of flight too.

Yeah, we’re cool.

Yeah, we’re cool again.

Giant ridiculous castle #4 (and my absolute favorite): Chambord. When we arrived here, oddly we couldn’t see this sucker from the parking lot. I had decided to go for a run before heading inside. As soon as I saw Chambord, and the free open grounds, wide open for me to just enjoy.. I felt so free. This run made me so happy, I literally didn’t want to stop, so I didn’t. Ran twice as long as I normally do. Classical music in the earbuds.. no joke, the first big Bolero crescendo hit just as I rounded the corner out of this perfectly pristine wooded path seeing the castle again. It was one of those moments where life whacks you up against the forehead in the most hilarious DUH way, and knocks away any resistance to accepting life as being totally f*cking awesome. A moment of LOOK AROUND YOU… THIS IS WHERE YOU ARE… THIS IS YOUR LIFE. It was such an obvious moment of clarity, I immediately started cracking up, seeing the comedy in there being ANY chance of not appreciating this moment. And every other moment, whether they have castles or not.

Up on top, just continuing to just ENJOY this place.

Sometimes I just have to be the dork I am. Word.

Obviously this was a critical shot. #GoProselfie

Chambord began as a hunting lodge for King Francis I.

Maybe it’s just me, but the more I learn about Louis XIV, the more I think he was just one big pompous ass.

Sometimes just standing in front of something is lame. #beridiculous #itswaymorefunandwaylessboring #WMFTtips

Then we had to stop at Montrichard………… Yes! The place from Catch Me If You Can.. where Frank Abagnale Jr. gets caught. Sweet. (**Although we did learn after that this isn’t actually where he got caught, AND the movie was actually shot somewhere in Canada hahahaa now that’s comedy.)

After an awesome time in the Loire Valley, we headed out for the Champagne region. On the way we hit a laundromat and I did a client call from my mobile office (i.e. the sweet rental car). Funny, how I can see the giant ridiculous castles by day and talk to my amazing engaging clients by night. Man… this is a crazy adventure, and I’m just grateful.