France (Descartes)

After spending a week+ in the beautiful beach city of Les Sables-d'Olonne we rented a car and drove inland to the Loire Valley to see some chateaus (Castles) for a couple days.  After the Loire we are heading to Paris and will need to drop the car off there and I was shocked to find out that Europcar charges a 250 euro return fee for leaving the car at a different location.  We rented from Avis because they only charge a 75 euro return fee.  We also got a free upgrade from something slightly larger than a smart car to a nice Mercedes.   thanks guys.
     In the Loire we spent 3 days in Le Grand-Pressigny in a great little stone cottage which shared a wall with the town's castle.  Le Grand-Pressigny is a small town about 10 minutes from the town of Descartes.  Here's some photos.

Our stone cottage

The roof on the left is our cottage.

Our cottage is right around the corner here.

Me and Descartes hanging out.

In the spirit of Descartes (and in an attempt to think through some low blood sugar grumpiness I encountered), I did some thinking and a simple thought grew into the following Descartes related rambling.  Life is a lot more like a dream than we generally realize.  In a dream you typically don't know you are dreaming, regardless of the outrageous things you may be doing and how little sense it may make you are easily convinced it is reality.  I actually had a dream the other week where I asked myself in the middle of the dream if I was dreaming or if it was real.  Despite recognizing that I may be dreaming and stopping to think things through my mind told me that I was not dreaming and I accepted it.  The first thing I thought when I woke up was 'wholly shit my mind fooled me'.  It was strange, I have had many dreams before where I realize I'm dreaming and then continue on knowing it is a dream, but I've never been tricked like this.
     So how does this relate to low blood sugar and grumpiness?  In a later unrelated incident it occurred to me that some people tend to let how they are feeling affect how they act in a negative way.  More specifically, some people when they are grumpy tend to take it out on everyone and the extent of their consciousness may be to say 'yes I'm being a dick because I haven't eaten recently so fuck off'.  Other people tend to say to themselves 'I'm feeling irritable because I haven't eaten for a while, I'll have to make an effort to cope'.  It dawned on me that this consciousness of your own thoughts is what Descartes claims proves that you even exist.  So for everyone out there who thinks acting off their reptilian brain is an excuse for their actions, shape up or you won't really exist.

I will catch back up with Scotland, Ireland and our first couple weeks in France soon, but I wanted to catch up so I can do more regular posts.