le 4 juillet: Versailles

Saturday was our first excursion. We went to Versailles. We met with everyone in the program at 9:30 am and were going to take a SNCF train but they were on strike (a common occurance here in France) and so we had to take a different train and ride the metro basically backtracking for Brittany and I lol but it was ok. The trains are nice but I think the frontrunner is nicer. At least with the tables and available wifi going on. The seats on the trains here were more comfortable. It was fun to be able to see parts of Paris and then going out into the suburbs. It looks pretty similar to inner Paris just less shops and things on the street level from what I could see and a little more variation in the ground levels, like little hills and such.

So we arrived at Versailles and just walked a little ways from the train station to the palace. It is GIGANTIC and overwhelming. The walls inside are covered in huge paintings, portaits of various royal family members, big vases decorated with Louis' face with sun rays going out around him.

Example:

There was gold all over the exterior and in a lot of the furnishings. It was very grand and beautiful. There was a great chapel in the middle of the palace but it was unfortunately blocked off so we couldn't go in.

There were statues everywhere, too. Like big grand ones and a lot that you see in art history books but whose names I don't remember. I recognized some paintings as well. There were a couple of David's and a really really really really big painting of the last supper (sorry, can't remember the artist) but like super super big.

C'est moi dans le courtyard lol:

All the cielings were very high, at least 20 feet probably more like 50 lol I am a bad judge of distance. And most were elaborately painted like the Cistine Chapel. There were representations of many greek and roman gods and goddesses. Mercury was painted in the cielings of the receiving rooms were the king and queen would sit to get messages and receive inquiries.

We of course saw the Hall of Mirrors, we were lucky because it had just reopened after being restored. There was another great hall where ginormous romantic paintings of all the wars of Paris' past were hung. There was an amazing painting of Joan of Arc there. For the modern wars there were displays of photographs and more modern works in front of the paintings.

After we saw the main palace, we went out to the gardens which were again overwhelming. It was funny, they played classical music out in the gardens and apparently there was a concert somwhere in the garden, but you couldn't see it really, we just heard some of the music.

I don't think we saw even a quarter of the gardins. It was very hot and we were all getting tired so we found little cafes like hidden in the garden bushes that were almost like a labyrinth. I bought a big ice cream cone and it was the most delicious ice cream of my life. Strawberry and vanilla swirled. Unbelievably good.

After lunch, we went to the pond and sat under the trees to rest for a while.I took a couple snapshots of the girls. This is Brittany sleeping lol. She falls asleep everywhere and all the time. It's like she is narcileptic (sp?) but she's not (she's been tested for it ha ha).

The ISA group went back to Paris at 4 but we decided to stay longer so we could go to the Queen's domain and her hameau/hamlet? Can't remember what it was called. It was a ways off and took a little while to walk over there. The domain was pretty. A lot less extravagant than the main palace but still glittering with high ceilings and big spaces and fancy wood carvings and painted panellings on the walls.

The hameau was SO adorable. It was like every girls dream playland I swear. It was like disneyland or something. Like there were little cottage houses and a pond and this tower like out of a Repunzel storybook. All the girls we were with were dying lol. They all liked it even better than the palace. It would be so fun to play in.

There are like five more buildings like this but each is unique and had little flower pots on the steps and everything cute.

We decided to go back after a while but by time we made it back to the main gardens, they had closed so we weren't able to walk back to the main entrance. So we had to walk out this odd way and walk FOREVER around the estate. Our feet were so tired! It was horrible but we eventually made it back to the train station and home. We had dinner via grocery store which was lame o but all that was open really. We ate at the dorms with our friends. (When I say 'we' I am referring to Brittany and me). We found out that there was a fourth of July bbq going on for the American students so we went and checked it out. The hotdogs were cold by time we got there and they had gross buns so we didn't really eat anything. We weren't there long because we were tired. The American Embassy had fireworks but we didn't want to risk missing the metro and we were pooped.

I hope everyone had a good 4th!