Spent most of the day wandering at Versailles. For those of you who don't know, Versailles was essentially the French royal living center for nearly a century, starting with Louis XIV who moved all the courtiers out of Paris and to the chateau at Versailles. It is famous for the Hall of Mirrors and its massive gardens. The estate is made up of the main palace, the Trianon palaces, Marie-Antoinette's estate and the massive landscape garden/groves. It is gianormous! I don't know how else to put it.

Really...in order to enjoy it to the fullest, you need to dedicate an entire day (if not a little bit more) to explore everything. I don't know the size of the gardens off the top of my head but...it was a LONG bike ride around it and and an even LONGER walk to most of the larger areas of interest.

As a group we entered the palace together but then were free to go where ever we wanted because they do not allow lecturing from any outside guides. It was kind of nice to not take notes to be honest, but it also stunk not being able to hear some of the more interesting and not oft-told stories that Heather likes to share. She always has some really good ones!

The palace, like everything else at Versailles, is large, over-whelming and extremely decorative. The Hall of Mirrors is pretty awesome but...someone should really clean off the mirrors...they are not very sparkly at the moment. I won't bother going into details about any particular rooms, partly because it is all a blur to me and partly because they are all very similar. Picture gold, chandeliers and clearly expensive, large-scale paintings and that pretty much sums it up. It is really fantastic to see and experience but I really so not feel the need to verbally describe it.

Out in the gardens I wandered for a bit (I had gotten separated from the group inadvertently while exploring the palace), got a nice sandwich, and enjoyed it immensely whenever the sun would poke through the clouds for a moment.

I ended up running into a small group of people and together we explored Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet. This is a disgustingly adorable fake peasant town that Marie had built especially for her so that she could get the "peasant experience." I say DISGUSTINGLY adorable because it is a very pretty, very rustic little village with beautiful fields and ponds but it is a sickening display of excessive behavior associated with the wealthy. Marie would dress up in expensive village maiden costumes and go to a fantasy world in which she was not royal. Expect...her version of peasant life involved manicured fields, perfumed sheep, polished eggs and virtually no work. It was almost depressing to realize just how delusional (or how much in denial) this woman was! Crazy. But the village really was pretty (in a sick sort of way, hah). I kind of enjoyed how clearly unkept the animals now are and was moderately impressed by the amount and variety I saw (goats, ducks, dogs, sheep, chickens, donkeys, cows, etc.). While exploring the hamlet I once again got accidentally separated from my initial group. I ended up running into Nate and some others who had rented bikes to see more of the area in a shorter span of time. I thought that was brilliant and, after exploring a little more on my own, did the exact same thing. I would have joined them but their rental time was almost up and the bike place was a pretty decent walk from where we were.

Once I got a bike I enjoyed circumventing the main area around the Grad Canal. It was pretty romantic, if I do say so myself. I always kind of laughed at the idea of Europe and romance. I just found it so cliché. My tune has certainly changed. It really would be a great honeymoon location, or even just a random romantic get-away destination. I take back all my previous cynical comments ;) Which...actually, I never thought it would NOT be romantic...I assumed people had played it up so much that it wouldn't be as good as everyone made it sound. Does that make sense? Even if it doesn't, just know that Europe has my stamp of approval for future romantic excursions...not that my opinion really matters :P

On the way out of Versailles, I grabbed a freshly squeezed glass of orange juice that was delicious. These vendors are all over the grounds with their little carts and hand-squeeze the juice right in front of you so you know it is fresh. It was so good! I thought I was having a pretty good day, then suddenly I am siting on a lawn at Versailles, drinking OJ and realizing just how amazing my life has been. It was a nice feeling to say the least!

Next on my to-do list was to grab my last official crêpe from my favorite stand in Paris: Crossant Dore near the San Michel fountain. Delicious. While there I watched a musical group that contains the most energetic accordion player I have seen yet. He was quite the little dancer! Loved it. The bass player blew me a kiss when I threw a euro into their bag. I didn't have the heart to tell him I just needed to clear out all my coinage before I got to London since they will only exchange bills there :P

We made one last stop at the Louvre to finish one major room of paintings that we had not had the chance to complete. It was successful and a bit bitter-sweet since that was Heather's last lecture with us. She will be staying in Paris to do research while we move on to London in the morning.

Since it was getting late, I didn't think Crossant Dore would be open but Nate and I decided to try for it anyway since he hadn't gotten his last crêpe yet...okay, more because I just REALLY wanted one last one...again. We booked it through the rain and I was dancing with joy (just ask Nate) when we saw the lights still on and the brown awning still out. Victory!

And now...I need to sleep (yeah, right!) because we are taking the Chunnel to London in about...uh...five hours. Oops.

And...going...going...gone.