Versailles and the wall of love

When I left you guys last time, I was on a train from London back to Paris. I was going to go to Père Lachaise, but I was tired and ended up just having a long lunch while people-watching. After lunch, I was going to make my way down to the Latin Quarter to sip on some coffee to pass the time before I could go back to the hostel, get a shower, and take a nap before Angela and Maddie got into the city that night.

Well, the best laid plans were meant to be interrupted. Maddie ended up showing up without Angela. I get a frantic call from Angie since Maddie can't get a hold of me and needs to find me. So, eventually things work out and Maddie and I meet to drop her things off at the hostel before going on a wild goose chase to find some store one of her friends told her about. I did get to go back to the hostel to shower before we went to collect Angela from the train station, but all-in-all, it was not exactly the calm, relaxing day I had envisioned.

Friday was pretty awesome since we went to Versailles. I'll be honest though, you guys: to me, a castle is a castle, is a castle. From the inside, anyway. The outside was beautiful. But as soon as I walk into a castle, my mind pretty much goes "Oh look, a wall, some more walls, some carpet, an old bed, some posh furniture....painting, painting, painting...". Don't get me wrong, I'm always impressed by the amount of work that goes into building the castles, and the Hall of Mirrors was impressive. But... meh. I guess I just don't find the inside all that fascinating. It was kind of cool to see some of the famous paintings that I'd seen in art classes and French history classes, but other than that I was just like, "room, room, bigger room, OH MIRRORS, room, room, lots of people, room, room, room."

Paris of Versailles

Golden Gate, lol

Hall of Mirrors

The gardens, however, are a totally different story. I wish we had more time (and that my feet didn't hurt so much) to explore around the gardens. Luckily, we did get to Marie-Antoinette's hamlet and farm which was absolutely adorable. We only got to see the outside of the Grand Trianon, and I was a little disappointed that we didn't go in (though I'm never really impressed by the inside, I'm always curious).

Flowers in the garden

Statue with the palace in the background.

These gardens are seriously HUGE

Goats at Marie-Antoinette's farm

Big fat piggy!

The hamlet

Ajouter une légende

Broken down stairs

This will be beautiful when there's more flowers

Saturday we went to the wall of love, and then pretty much went home. All in all it was a good time in Paris, but I have to say--I prefer traveling alone. Having two trips back to back--one by myself, one with other people really opened up my eyes to how much more freedom I have by myself. Not to say that I don't enjoy Maddie and Angela's company, but sometimes I just need to be by myself.

Love. <3

Je t'aime

Sign language

Now I'm home for a few days while my host family is on vacation. My parents arrive Wednesday morning, so I'll be meeting them in Paris and staying there with them for a couple days. Then it's back to Orléans for theatre, and out to Normandy before my parents return to the States. Busy busy busy!