On Sunday we woke up around 7:30 a.m. to get breakfast. It was the most scrumptious food. I had two croissants with strawberry and cherry jam, a wedge of cheese, a kiwi, and a bit of pound cake. Do not judge me. It was free, and I was in France.
We then hopped on the coach again and drove to the Chateau de Versailles. We didn't get to go inside the actual palace, as we didn't have that much time and it is ginormous. But we did get to explore the massive gardens. Louis XIV really knew how to decorate. (And how to put France into debt. He and his wife Marie Antoinette were beheaded during the French Revolution because the people hated them and their purses so much).
It was a beautiful day to be in a garden for sure. Here are some of my favorite pictures.
King Louis XIV was known as the Sun King, because of his love for gold. It was very evident throughout the park and on the actual Chateau itself.
Here are some pictures of the Chateau. I think you'll see what I mean.
After Versailles, we took the coach to Mont Martre, where Le Sacre Coeur is located. It is kind of known as the artist district, and is really lovely. We had lunch up there, I had crepe with red sauce, cheese, and ham ( I know. I don't even like ham. But it was le jambon is cheaper than le poulet, or chicken). It was delicious nonetheless. And I also had an orangina, which is a delicious french orange drink. I was in heaven. I was actually pretty much in heaven this entire trip. Don't let me kid you.
The pictures in the middle are the view of Paris from Sacre Coeur, the highest point in Paris.
Also, I should talk about the ice cream. This picture is from Saturday, but I didn't get picture of my Sunday cone. I had Mango on Saturday and Raspberry on Sunday. They were the best ice cream cones I have had in my entire life, so fruity and light and tasty. Thank you Bethany, for telling me to get it!
And that, friends and family, was one of the best weekends of my life. I was dragging my feet by the time we got to the dorm around 11:30 on Sunday night, but it was very worth it. The girls that went came into our room and we ordered two pizzas, cheese sticks, potatoe wedges, a bottle of coke, and garlic bread. It was devoured, and then I'm sure we all slept very well. I know I did.
After walking across Le Pont Neuf, which in French means news bridge (ironic, as it is the oldest standing bridge in Paris) I found Sainte Chapelle. I waited to get through security for half an hour, and then I waited another fifteen minutes to buy my ticket to even get into the cathedral.
A little background for you, Sainte Chapelle is a gothic cathedral built by King Louis IX of France. Said King Louis is, SAINT LOUIS (wooooo). He is the only canonized king of France, and he erected the cathedral as a shrine for the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the Holy Cross that he secured in his crusading. I'd say he's a pretty great guy. Sainte Chapelle is located on the Ile de la Cite, inside the Palace of Justice.
Here is the Palace of Justice.
Inside the columns are the three words that the French hold as their motto,"Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite." I think you can guess, but that means Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood. Pretty nice concepts.
So then I was waiting outside for a long time. And I kid you not, I probably looked so strange because I am sure I was shaking. But here are some pictures of the outside of the Cathedral.
And when I finally got inside, I feel like I simply spun in circles. It was beautiful. The chapel down stairs was ornately decorated on the ceiling with blue and gold paint. There was a statue in the altar of Saint Louis, and the crown of thorns used to sit exactly there (it's now in Notre Dame).
I then climbed up the twisty stone stairs to the upper chapel, where fifteen stained glass windows make you feel like you're in a kaleidoscope. Each window tells a story, from an entire book, in the bible. The rose window in the back of the chapel was also breath taking. The sun shining through the windows made little patterns of light. And then there was Joselyn, the lone little American francophile spinning in circles snapping photos like it was the only thing keeping her alive. Whatever. I am so thankful I got to see this. Pictures don't do it any justice.
P.S. Here are some pictures of the outside of the Louvre. If you have seen the DaVinci Code, you recoignize the pyramid ya?
So, it was a busy, tiring, fun filled, remarkable day. I won't forget it till I die. I literally cannot wait to go back to France again, sometime in my life, and spend more time looking at everything and absorbing the culture.
After seeing the Eiffel Tower, we took the Paris Metro to Notre Dame. The cathedral is famous for it's beauty, as well as Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Disney did a fantastic job of making the cartoon look accurate. I could have been Esmerelda on Satuday. We went inside the cathedral, and I was amazed. There was a choir singing, candles were lit for prayer, I made the sign of the cross with holy water. It was unreal.
This last window is the rose window in Notre Dame. I wanted to lay down on the floor and just soak up the whole cathedral. It was so neat, especially being raised Catholic, so see such a brilliant Cathedral with so much history and so much Catholic tradition seeped into it.
So, it is Saturday at about 12:00 at this point. My friends and I are starving. So we walk down the street a bit, we have about a half hour to an hour before our tour guide will be leaving for the Louvre. We find this little pattisserie/ boulangerie, like a deli bakery. And Holy Delicious Smell, I think my nose lead the way to it. It smelled like heaven. If heaven doesn't smell like that bakery, I maybe don't want to go.
I ordered in French, and got a piece of leek quiche and a nice little raisin roll. The quiche didn't last long enough for me to take a picture, but I did stop to capture the roll. Plus it was pretty.
These poofy colorful things are meringues. And that man right there, is a glorious French dude drinking coffee.
After eating we took the Metro again, this time to the Louvre. Let me talk for one minute about the French Metro. I feel like after two weeks in London (I can't believe it has only been two weeks!), I am pretty experienced when it comes to figuring out the subway, not falling over on the train, holding on to the bars. Oh man. The French Metro was an experience. Those doors do not wait for you to get on, they just close. And when the train starts, you will fall over. I was even holding on tight. The London Tube is much smoother and more calm. You can walk leisurely onto it, hold onto a bar, and be fine. I fell on a French woman in the Paris Metro. Oopies. Je suis desolee, madame!
At the Louvre, I was getting very very tired. We had been up all night, we hadn't showered, we were getting crabby. But we saw the basics, the Mona Lisa (I never really understood the hype about her. She's so small!), Aphrodite, I saw a painting we has discussed in my art class last year. But I knew that what I really really wanted to see was a cathedral on the same island in the middle of the city, Sainte Chapelle. Sainte Chappelle sits adjacent to Notre Dame, and is maybe a ten minute walk from the Louvre.
Ok, so now we can get into the good stuff. As you all know, I went to Paris on Friday, and I got back to London late last night. How did I get there, you ask? Oh. It was quite an adventure. A twelve hour adventure, mind you.
My group of seven girls, Caitlin, Alex, Katie, Hazel, Erin, Jessa, and me, got onto the Tube at the Baker Street station close to school at around 6:00 p.m. We took the Tube to Victoria Train Station, where we got on a train that took us to Brighton, UK. From Brighton, we got onto a coach, or charter bus. That bus drove for two hours, where it then pulled inside a cargo train car, that went into the the Chunnel to France. Holy claustrophobia. If it wasn't for the fact that I was exhausted by this point, I would have been freaking out. But once we got out of the Chunnel (it only took about 35 minutes of actual traveling in the tunnel itself), we had a bit of a wait in the terminal place. We got some water, ate a bit of a snack, and waited. Then we got back on the bus, which drove us the rest of the way to Paris. I tried to stay awake a bit so that I could see the French countryside, but it was impossible. And also, it was about 2:00 a.m.
We stopped at a rest stop at around 4:00, where I changed my clothes and freshened up as best as I could. The next time I woke up, I was greeted by L'Arc de Triomphe. Not a bad wake up call, if I do say so myself. It was built by Napoleon in 1806, but took thirty years to complete. I was shaking in my boots, I was so excited. Mind you, I am the only one of the seven girls that went that spoke a lick of French, or knew anything really about French history. So I was dying of excitement the whole day, and they probably wanted to kill me.
We then got back on the bus and drove down Le Champs Elysees, which is comparable to Rodeo Drive. The shops are pricey, you shop there if you have beacoup d'argent!
After this we took a little drive, catching the Paris Opera and L'Obelisk. We stopped to take a quick picture of Les Invalides, which was originally built as a hospital and retirement home for French war veterans. Today it serves as a museum for military history, and houses the tomb of Napoleon.
