Don't worry, they really don't slaughter you at Versailles.....
As you can tell, I went to Versailles today. I've been there before but it was a lot more interesting going during late summer/early fall. When I went it was early spring and none of the fountains were running and the gardens looked horrible. But today was beautiful. We took the train out to Versailles and it is a short 10 minute walk from the train station to the chateau. There were so many people there it was horrible. I really did feel like a cow being herded into a room to be killed. People there seriously were taking pictures of everything. I really do mean everything...paintings, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, beds, chairs....all that jazz. It is a very pretty place but I really don't find it necessary to take hundreds of photos of Marie Antoinette's bedroom or Louis XIV's bed where he died. It took us an hour and a half to get though the few rooms that you get to see. We had an audio tour and it wasn't that good. The things that they told you were not that interesting and they were clearly obvious. For example, when we were in Louis XIV's bedroom it literally said "this is louis XIV's bedroom. This is where he slept" I'm not even joking. There were way too many people there and it was so hot in the rooms (probably because of all the slow moving cattle) I felt like passing out. My favorite room out of the entire chateau is the Hall of Mirrors. If you didn't know, it's where the Treaty of Versailles was signed that ended WWII. It is very pretty and when I was there last time it was being re-finished so you really couldn't see anything. But it's finished now and it's amazing. There are 17 sections of mirrors on the walls to mirror the 17 windows.
The funniest thing today was there was this older Asian man leaning on this table and the sign on the table clearly said (in 3 languages) "Do not lean on table" I took a picture of him disobeying the rules because it was just too funny.
After the tour we went out into the gardens which are so pretty. There are many fountains (Fontaine, en francais) and for 2 hours some of the fountains are going with the water while the other ones are off and classical music plays. It's a really big spectacle. It was really neat to see. As we were walking down the long walkway that goes from the steps of the chateau all the way down the grounds we heard this announcement that in order to conserve water, one of the fountains was not going to be going off. Of course, it ended up being the fountain that we went to go see, the fountain that is the furthest away from everything.....go figure. We sat there staring at this huge fountain waiting for the show to start and it never did. I was pretty bummed because we missed all the other ones. That's a lie, we did see the shows but I really wanted to see one from start to end. Oh well.
We left Versailles and headed back to the train station. We missed the train and had to wait for the next one. We made it back to the dorm around 8ish and headed up to the terrace to catch the rest of the sunset. I was starving so we all left and I went and bought a sandwich (again) and a crepe (again....but that's okay because they're awesome). We ate dinner on the terrace and it was really nice.
Tomorrow I move in with my host mom and I'm pretty nervous. I don't get to move in until 7pm which really sucks because I would've liked more time to finally unpack and get settled. Now I have to rush so I can get a good nights sleep for the first day of school on Monday. I also have to figure out how to get to school from my new home. I'm scared to go on the metro by myself, but I have a map and as long as I plan my route before going I'm sure I'll be okay. I want to get to school early to try to pick up my id...because I still don't have it. My luck I'll get there and the place where I have to pick up my id won't be open.
I guess that's all for now. I probably won't blog tomorrow, unless I unpack really fast or something but we'll see.
a bientot
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