The Palace of Gold

Friday, May 10th 2013

Ok, Take 2 with class. On day 2 I did not get lost, conned out of money or otherwise taken advantage of. This day we got to class early (a little too early actually) and never got lost. After our lesson, our professors took us to go see the Jewish quarter of Paris and we all ate falafel. It was my first falafel and it was pretty good. Then we walked over to the Vaux de Viscontes, which is essentially the "house" (insert mansion/palace here) that inspired Versailles. And by inspired, I mean Louis XIV got jealous his house wasn't as big and so built Versailles. So then of course we went and saw Versailles!

Unfortunately, the weather was not that nice. Overcast and windy. And the line was like a 40 minute wait. However, it went quick with all the girls chatting and admiring the outside of the palace. If I could choose one word to describe Versailles I'd probably say.... over the top. It is simply astounding and overwhelming the amount of decor and pomp and grandeur that Versailles has. It outdoes elegance. It overdoes luxury. It is insane and simply mindblowing how much money went into this palace - and imagining actually living here. My favorite place was the hall of mirrors. It is soo cool. It has this black and white marble flooring and these beautiful large crystal chandeliers every six feet - and of course - all these gold framed mirrors. I could see myself walking down that hallway in a large dress and even larger wig with my ladies in waiting. Now that I could see. That would certainly be the life. I've always been intrigued by the stories of Versailles and the French Kings who lived there - which just a side note Marie Antoinette never said her infamous phrase "Let Them Eat Cake". Never.

Unfortunately after the large crowds and long hours of standing on my feet, I was too tired to explore the gardens - plus the weather sucked. Fortunately, I can go back on any free day/afternoon and give it a second go :) Too be honest, sometimes it's so exhausting to do all of these museums and see all of these places in one go and so you really can't appreciate it or take it all in. At least that's how I've felt for most of the trip! Versailles was a pretty long trip, so afterward we caught the train back to Paris and then to home. Another one of the girls and I stopped at the store to buy some things for dinner and settled on pasta and spaghetti sauce. Don't underestimate the difficulty of shopping in another country, not only is it difficult because you don't understand all the labels but all the brands are different! I wanted to get Bertolli but alas, all sorts of different French brands. I also had to pick up some conditioner - you see that morning I was excited to use the new shampoo and conditioner I had gotten from the store the day before. The first step went well, I got my hair all lathered up and clean then I rinsed it out. Clean hair, yay! Then, I was ready to moisturize with my conditioner - gave myself a good sized amount on my palm and began to distribute...until I realized that it was also lathering up...and therefore was also shampoo. Shoot! What's even more frustrating is that the word for shampoo is "shampoo"! It's not even hard and the word for conditioner is "après-shampoo" which means "after shampoo" so I really just didn't pay enough attention to the labels, ha! So I made sure to get the right product this time. The store we went to is called a "Monoprix" which in French literally means "one price" - though that's not the case. But it's the closest thing they have to a Walmart because it has food, some jewelry, some make-up, some hair stuff and probably even some clothes - but it's very small. It's like the size of the food section in a super Walmart - yeah the whole store = food section only. So we came back to my place and made our pasta and that night some of the girls went and explored the nightlife of Paris. All in all a pretty good day. And a much better start to school :)

Also I realize my pictures are not the best quality - for that I both apologize and note that most likely you can find pretty great photos online if you really want to see the splendor that my point and shoot camera and shaky hand can't capture!