Yesterday was our first group excursion to Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte. I had to be at the dorm at 9 am and tried really hard to go to bed early Friday. Obviously that didn't happen. I was chatting on Skype with Casey Jane and then I had to watch Project Runway. I ended up going to bed at 12:30 and then got up at 6:50 to get ready for the day. I was so tired in the morning. I was hoping a shower was going to wake me up but it didn't. It takes me 25-30 minutes to get to the dorm metro stop from the apartment so I left at 8:15 and hoped that all the trains would be on time. There weren't a lot of people in the metro, which I thought was kinda weird. There were a lot of people with suit cases (because you can take RER B to CDG...the airport). Anyways, I made it to the dorm and it was like 8:45 ish. I walked to the corner that we were supposed to meet at and of course no one's there. I didn't expect them to be. I saw this giant bus drive down the street and park at the dorm. I thought there is no way that coach bus can be for us...there are only 9 of us including Dr. Costello, 10 if you want to include the driver. I walked over to the bus and the driver asked me if I was with the group. I told him yes and he let me on the bus because it was raining. People started showing up at 9, which was when we were supposed to leave. On the schedule we were given it said to make sure that you're there at 9 because we have to be on time. If you weren't there at 9 you weren't coming. Someone didn't show up until 9:15...she ended up taking a cab to the dorm. We waited for her because we're nice.
The ride to Fontainebleau was about an hour. It was nice having all the room we wanted in the bus. Some people sat in back and talked and others just passed out in their seats. I tried not to fall asleep because Fran.JPG)
ce looks so different when you get out of the city. There were actually corn fields...it was like being home...kinda. We got to Fontainebleau and it was raining. Dr. .JPG)
Costello had us walk all around the outside of the chateau to tell us the history. Why he made us walk around for an hour in the rain I don't know. But it was interesting. I really liked the chateau. I liked it obviously because it's called Fontainebleau which is pronounced "fountain blow"and my last name is Fontaine and that's just awesome....but it was really pretty. It was kinda dark in the chateau, and flash wasn't allowed so I really don't have many pictures of it. There was this weird modern art exhibit going on in the chateau. In the grand room...I think that's what it was, there were all of these chairs (photo on the right) This one had faces on it. There also was this one that was made out of stuffed animals. It was funny. The picture below and to the left is the front of the chateau...I liked the stairs, they were cool. I wanted to take a picture on them but it was raining and I really didn't feel like sitting in the rain. 
I think I would have liked it a lot more if it wasn't raining and cold...but oh well. The town of Fontainebleau is really cute. I like it better than Paris. It just seems more relaxed. We got an audio tour of the chateau and mine w
as in French so I had no idea what it was saying. The commentary seemed pretty boring, from the few things that I did understand. I bought some postcards from the chateau and then left for the bus. The ride from Fontainebleau to Vaux-le-Vicomte was about 30 minutes. The bus parked and we got out to eat lunch. Some people already ate on the bus but they sat with us anyways when we ate. I had this chicken thing with potatoes, bread, a chocolate dessert and a diet coke. It ended up costing me 10.50. I thought the price was outrageous but it was really good. As we were eating we talked to Dr. Costello about food in France. It took us an hour to eat. When we were done we walked up the main stairs to the chateau. I think the coolest thing about Vaux-le-Vicomte is that it wasn't built for royalty. Some rich guy just wanted it built and people built it for him. Kings have stayed there but it was not built for them. I loved Vaux-le-Vicomte much more than Fontainebleau. I liked the architectural style a lot better.
This is the back of the chateau. It looks a lot better from the back. We didn't have an audio tour of the chateau. When we walked in, after another explanation from Dr. Costello, it really wasn't clear where the tour started. Some people in the group crossed over this roped off section and when I did, this guy stopped me. I showed him my ticket and he said oh okay, the tour starts here....if it was clearly marked I wouldn't have crossed the rope so there! We got to tour a lot more rooms than we did in Fontainebleau. In this one room there were a bunch or letters and really old books. It was so sweet. In this other room there were arms coming out of the walls that held candles. .JPG)
It was so bizarre. It reminded me of the movie we watched last week in my cinema class. All the girls I was touring with said the same thing because we're all in the same class. Before I walked into this other room I heard talking. I really didn't think anything of it. Then I walked in the room and saw this guy with a squirrel on his shoulder. It was seriously the creepiest thing ever. It made me jump because it scared me. 
They also had people talking and their lips moved....also very weird. The gardens of the chateau were the best thing. They were about a mile long. The tour of the chateau took us longer than expected, so we didn't have as much time in the gardens as we wanted. There is this huge statue at the end of the gardens but there was no way we were going to have enough time to walk all the way down and all the way back in 30 minutes. From the picture above we were standing outside of the dome on top of the chateau. The stairs going up the dome were so scary. There is no way those were up to fire codes.
There were a lot of geometric designs in the grass. I thought that they were flat and were just cut that way but they weren't, they were grown like that...it was pretty sweet. This last picture on the left is me on the balcony overlooking the gardens. The day turned out really nice. I'm glad that it stopped raining when we went to Vaux-le-Victome because the gardens wouldn't have been the same in the rain. After walking around in the gardens for a little bit we headed to the gift shop. I bought some postcards and then we got back on the bus and waited for everyone else to come back. The ride back to Paris was about 45 minutes. We didn't hit a lot of traffic until we got back into the city. When we pulled up to the dorm everyone got out and went their separate ways. I got on the metro and came back to the apartment. I was so tired but knew that I shouldn't sleep because I had a lot of homework to do. I started on my history homework, ate dinner (my spaghetti again) and then finished about 1/3 of the history homework. I watched part of Superbad and then went to bed. I didn't get up this morning until 10am. I'm so lazy. I bought this eclair yesterday and meant to have it for dessert last night but I wasn't very hungry after dinner, so I ate it this morning for breakfast. It was delish. I did all of my history homework. After I took the time to type it one my computer, I went to go and figure out how to use the printer that's in my room. After messing around with it for a while I finally figured it out and started to print my 2 papers. I waited and the paper came out blank...she doesn't have any black ink. There was no way I was turning in a bright yellow paper so I had to hand write both of them after I spent all that time writing them on the computer. I did my homework for Tuesday as well. The rest of the day today I'm going to talk to microsoft and have them help me fix my computer and then probably take it easy the rest of the night.
The ride to Fontainebleau was about an hour. It was nice having all the room we wanted in the bus. Some people sat in back and talked and others just passed out in their seats. I tried not to fall asleep because Fran
.JPG)
ce looks so different when you get out of the city. There were actually corn fields...it was like being home...kinda. We got to Fontainebleau and it was raining. Dr. .JPG)
Costello had us walk all around the outside of the chateau to tell us the history. Why he made us walk around for an hour in the rain I don't know. But it was interesting. I really liked the chateau. I liked it obviously because it's called Fontainebleau which is pronounced "fountain blow"and my last name is Fontaine and that's just awesome....but it was really pretty. It was kinda dark in the chateau, and flash wasn't allowed so I really don't have many pictures of it. There was this weird modern art exhibit going on in the chateau. In the grand room...I think that's what it was, there were all of these chairs (photo on the right) This one had faces on it. There also was this one that was made out of stuffed animals. It was funny. The picture below and to the left is the front of the chateau...I liked the stairs, they were cool. I wanted to take a picture on them but it was raining and I really didn't feel like sitting in the rain. 
I think I would have liked it a lot more if it wasn't raining and cold...but oh well. The town of Fontainebleau is really cute. I like it better than Paris. It just seems more relaxed. We got an audio tour of the chateau and mine w
as in French so I had no idea what it was saying. The commentary seemed pretty boring, from the few things that I did understand. I bought some postcards from the chateau and then left for the bus. The ride from Fontainebleau to Vaux-le-Vicomte was about 30 minutes. The bus parked and we got out to eat lunch. Some people already ate on the bus but they sat with us anyways when we ate. I had this chicken thing with potatoes, bread, a chocolate dessert and a diet coke. It ended up costing me 10.50. I thought the price was outrageous but it was really good. As we were eating we talked to Dr. Costello about food in France. It took us an hour to eat. When we were done we walked up the main stairs to the chateau. I think the coolest thing about Vaux-le-Vicomte is that it wasn't built for royalty. Some rich guy just wanted it built and people built it for him. Kings have stayed there but it was not built for them. I loved Vaux-le-Vicomte much more than Fontainebleau. I liked the architectural style a lot better.
This is the back of the chateau. It looks a lot better from the back. We didn't have an audio tour of the chateau. When we walked in, after another explanation from Dr. Costello, it really wasn't clear where the tour started. Some people in the group crossed over this roped off section and when I did, this guy stopped me. I showed him my ticket and he said oh okay, the tour starts here....if it was clearly marked I wouldn't have crossed the rope so there! We got to tour a lot more rooms than we did in Fontainebleau. In this one room there were a bunch or letters and really old books. It was so sweet. In this other room there were arms coming out of the walls that held candles. .JPG)
It was so bizarre. It reminded me of the movie we watched last week in my cinema class. All the girls I was touring with said the same thing because we're all in the same class. Before I walked into this other room I heard talking. I really didn't think anything of it. Then I walked in the room and saw this guy with a squirrel on his shoulder. It was seriously the creepiest thing ever. It made me jump because it scared me. 
They also had people talking and their lips moved....also very weird. The gardens of the chateau were the best thing. They were about a mile long. The tour of the chateau took us longer than expected, so we didn't have as much time in the gardens as we wanted. There is this huge statue at the end of the gardens but there was no way we were going to have enough time to walk all the way down and all the way back in 30 minutes. From the picture above we were standing outside of the dome on top of the chateau. The stairs going up the dome were so scary. There is no way those were up to fire codes.
There were a lot of geometric designs in the grass. I thought that they were flat and were just cut that way but they weren't, they were grown like that...it was pretty sweet. This last picture on the left is me on the balcony overlooking the gardens. The day turned out really nice. I'm glad that it stopped raining when we went to Vaux-le-Victome because the gardens wouldn't have been the same in the rain. After walking around in the gardens for a little bit we headed to the gift shop. I bought some postcards and then we got back on the bus and waited for everyone else to come back. The ride back to Paris was about 45 minutes. We didn't hit a lot of traffic until we got back into the city. When we pulled up to the dorm everyone got out and went their separate ways. I got on the metro and came back to the apartment. I was so tired but knew that I shouldn't sleep because I had a lot of homework to do. I started on my history homework, ate dinner (my spaghetti again) and then finished about 1/3 of the history homework. I watched part of Superbad and then went to bed. I didn't get up this morning until 10am. I'm so lazy. I bought this eclair yesterday and meant to have it for dessert last night but I wasn't very hungry after dinner, so I ate it this morning for breakfast. It was delish. I did all of my history homework. After I took the time to type it one my computer, I went to go and figure out how to use the printer that's in my room. After messing around with it for a while I finally figured it out and started to print my 2 papers. I waited and the paper came out blank...she doesn't have any black ink. There was no way I was turning in a bright yellow paper so I had to hand write both of them after I spent all that time writing them on the computer. I did my homework for Tuesday as well. The rest of the day today I'm going to talk to microsoft and have them help me fix my computer and then probably take it easy the rest of the night.A bientot
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