Versailles

Versailles was amazing today. I woke up early and took the train with my roommate, Justin, and two other girls, Emily and Mary. The town of Versailles is about 1 hour from Paris on a train that reminded me a lot of the Metra in Chicago. It's called the RER and it's how people get to Paris from the suburbs or outskirts of town.

The Chatêau de Versailles is about 5 minutes from the train station but we stopped at a Starbucks first. I got hot chocolate...yeahh, I know, Starbucks in France. But we didn't want to sit and have a relaxing café. It was like we walked back into America for 5 minutes! The castle was unbelievable! You walk up to these huge golden gates and it's just gorgeous. We got the audio tour, which was necessary because the place is so big and there is so much backstory. The Chatêau de Versailles was used for so many different things and lived in by so many different people...many Kings of France, the French Government for a time, Napoleon, etc.

There is a gorgeous chapel that King Louis XIV built, so many rooms for the King, Queen, and their subjects, and of course the amazing Hall of Mirrors and the Hall of Battles. The Hall of Mirrors was basically the hallway that the King walked down and met lots of dignitaries. They had official functions there. The Hall of Battles is more museum-like, with amazing paintings of many important French war victories, dating from the 11oo's.

The gardens look amazing but it's winter. I will 100% have to come back in the spring to really appreciate the extravengce of the Versailles gardens.

Here are some pictures:


We ate lunch somewhere cheap before getting back on the train for Paris. Cheap is 5 euro, which is about $7.00 - but it was good. I like all the people I've been hanging out with and there are still people in Paris that I have to see but haven't had a chance to yet. One of the girls, Mary, told us about teaching in Africa for a summer and climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. It made me really miss camp and hiking, and made me really want to go to Africa!

Now I'm just hanging some posters, etc. up in my apartment (Michigan Flag - GO BLUE!) and I'll probably meet some people for drinks in a little. I am still getting the apartment set up...the little things like organizing random toiletries and hanging stuff up. I had some bread with jam (la confiture - NOT preservatif (which means condom)) and le fromage chevre (goat's cheese).

I am going to plan out my class schedule soon and then I need to start planning travel. I think I'm going to arrange it so that I am done with class by 12:00 p.m. on Fridays so I can get out of town and visit places over the weekends. I'll spend a lot of time in Paris because I'll actually have homework and our program has already arranged a bunch of excursions that we don't have to pay extra for, but I do want to visit some places: Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Venice, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and who knows where else. My dad will be here Friday and Saturday and it will be nice to see him - he is in Germany for business right now. Class starts
Tuesday and there are still so many places in Paris I need to see! But I have 4 months and when people visit, we can hit a lot of the touristy spots.