This weekend was a lot of fun. I woke up Saturday morning and met a group from CEA at the Bastille. We got on coach buses and went to Chantilly, about an hour outside of Paris. We first visited Chateau de Chantilly, which houses the Musée Condé (an amazing art museum, second to the Louvre in France) and was the Castle for a rival lineage of the King in the French Royal family.
It was pretty cool to see the battles that went on between the French Kings and this family throughout the years over who was more rich and powerful. We had a funny little French man as a tour guide who barely spoke English. It was painful...I wanted to tell him to speak in French but most of the CEA kids wouldn't understand. All the art was specifically chosen and placed by Honore Daumet, who had no heir and donated the Museum to the state, with the stipulation that the art not be moved around or changed. After the Chateau de Chantilly, we went to lunch at a restaurant in the town.
I don't think the French restaurants are used to cooking for 100 people but it was still, obviously, very good. I tried to drink the espresso at the end but I could only manage a sip or two. I really don't like coffee.After lunch, we took the bus to Royaumont Abbey. It was a 12th century abbey for monks and it was really cool. The entire place was very peaceful, and we saw the ruins of an old factory that they had and the complex that they used. The stain glass windows were gorgeous and the grounds were very cool. We wandered around there for a while and then came back to Paris.
After getting back to my apartment, I rested for a little and then met my friend Dana Bernstein who was in town from Granada, Spain. I went to her hostel and we went out to dinner with her, her roommate, and her roommate's cousins and brother. I was the translator...and I was definitely needed. The waitress kept making fun of the girls accents...which were pretty bad. The waitress was funny though and we all had a great time at dinner. After dinner, the 6 of us came back to my apartment, where we joined my roommate, some other CEA people, and a bunch of girls visiting from Barcelona. In all, there were about 20 people jammed into our apartment. It was crazy. We all took the Metro to the Champs-Elysée and went to this club called Showcase...very swanky. There was a group of 20-30 Americans and you could just see everyone staring at us. We ALL got turned away. I went up with Dana and her roommate Carly and the bouncer looked at our shoes and then said no. haha. If you go to places like that, you have to dress really nice and go in small groups and look like you're important.
So we walked to another club called Duplex. Everyone sort of got split off into different groups and all ended up in different clubs, but I was with Dana and her friends. This club asked us where we were from, I said "Les Etats Unis", then they checked our I.D.s and then let us in...very weird. It was a lot of fun though...besides the BO and creepy French guys that kept hitting on the girls...and sometimes the boys.
I woke up the next morning pretty late and went to a diner called the American Breakfast in Paris. It was so nice to get a burger and a milkshake! All the waiters were American and it was decorated with movie posters that had diner scenes...very fun. I did some homework that night and relaxed because I was just exhausted from the weekend. I went to bed early and slept great!
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