Versailles and More

Cachan (South of Paris). 12:30am. La salle de sejour.

Wow, so much has happened in the past few days! Please let me catch you up.

On our first day after arriving in Paris we decided to leave Paris and visit Versailles. We had originally planned on the Louvre, but it’s free for students on Sunday, so that got rescheduled. So, we woke up at the early hour of 8 and didn’t get our Reunion-paced butts out of Andrew’s apartment until 10:30am. It’s okay, though. We kept giggling and nudging each other knowingly. “Hey,” we’d say, in a low voice, kind of like a car salesman who’s going to give you an extra 5% off because he’s in a good mood. “We’re in Paris right now. Seriously.” Endless entertainment for American girls.

Meghan, a friend of Stephanie’s, who is studying in Dresden this semester, met up with us to do Paris. It adds a fun dynamic to what has been a pretty static 4 month old group. Since Meghan doesn’t speak of lick of French, we’re having fun translating and ordering for her. It’s a huge ego boost, actually. Meghan keeps joking about how the tables will turn once she, Katie, and Steph go to Germany with Meghan next week. I’ll stick with French.

Anyways, Versailles was, to use one word, EPIC. But of course, everyone knows that. We spent the morning wandering through the gardens, making fun of Greek gods and goddesses (Man, it must be cold! hehehee), and pretending like we were in the fourth Harry Potter book. We had lunch (baguette sandwiches, cherries, and a bottle of white wine) and ventured to see the fountains and the King’s Garden, and the Grand Canal. You can’t even appreciate the scale of Versailles, even when you’re there. It’s just that big. The palace itself was enormous; our tour took at least 3 hours and we only saw three wings on two floors, but the gardens are about twenty-five times the size of the palace. No joke. Not all of it is thirty foot high perfectly manicured walls of trees and geometric topiaries, but much of it is. Farther in are the Trialons, which was the mini-palace that Marie-Antoinette built “to escape” life in the big palace (a fifteen minute walk away). It must have been so stressful, being so consistently oppressive. Anyway, it was a site to respect. The gardens themselves are actually public; free to enter, utilized by runners and lunchers and the youthful on dates. You should Google a map of the grounds, and you’ll see how they really are. I think my favorite part was the Orangerie. It’s on the side of the palace, and it has completely even swirly patterns of grass and gravel paths, bordered by hundreds of kinds of trees (orange trees included, clearly). It had its own canal/pond, too. You know, in case you really couldn’t wait to walk five minutes to your other enormous pond. It’s summertime, so the grass and tree are verdant and the flowers are bright, and it’s just very impressive.

I have to say that I’ve always wanted to visit Versailles, ever since I learned about it. I couldn’t believe I was actually there, and it was just so cool. Being at a place of such cultural significance for France (nineteen royals were born there, for example), and even the world (the Treaty of Vesailles was hammered out there. No kidding!!!) was a very neat feeling. Foreign dignitaries are still greeted there, and if France votes to negotiate constitutional changes, they meet there too. I mean, the walls that bordered the gardens are older than my country. My nation. Bizarre. France 1, USA 0. Story of our lives, right?

Now, here’s a confession, for those who don’t know the degree of my nerdiness. I love museums. I love being a tourist, and I love asking questions about completely obscure things, and blogging about them as if no one else would know or ever bother to ask for themselves. Love it. I’m a total nerd, and I have no shame asking a random stranger if this place has good coffee or how to get someplace, or why something is a certain way. So, as you can imagine, me being in Paris is kind of how a botanist would feel in Reunion, or a fat kid would act in a sweet shop.

Regarding the inside of the castle, I could go on forever. Really. The entire first floor was full of galleries of paintings. Royals, bishops, archbishops, royal babies, royal baby mommas, random royal cousins, and even a room dedicated to royal painters. Because Versailles needed so many. Not even kidding. We went upstairs (one of the seventy plus staircases in the palace) and visited the “important” rooms. There were drawing rooms, and visiting rooms, and the Peace Room and the War Room, the queen’s rooms, and the king’s rooms, the Hall of Mirrors, and the Hall of Battles (when I saw hall I mean 140 feet by 35 feet)…. it was all so overwhelming. Versailles was mainly built by Louis the XIV (The Sun King), and was a dedication to his right to rule France by “divine right.” Basically he thought he was entitled to everything and anything because he was born to someone with a title. His extravagant and pompous attitude made for an interesting époque in France, and one that didn’t end so well for the royals, but it makes for excellent interior design. The entire palace is full of statues and paintings and carvings and tapestries and motifs of Greek mythology. There’s a lot of Bacchus in the gardens (the God of partying, basically), and Mars (God of War) is painted on the ceiling in the War room, etc. My conclusion (and I think the 18th century bourgeoisie of Paris would agree) is that the French royals were pretentious snobs (“Let them eat brioche!”), but man did they have that gilding thing on lock.

That was also an interesting day for me culturally. Not only was my American self totally humbled by the history and cultural significance of one of the greatest structures in the world, but it was the first time in a long time that I was around so much English. It’s true that they say that everyone in Paris speaks English. I’ve heard more American English in the past two days than I have in months, and it really weirds me out, as bizarre as it is to admit. If it’s not coming from Katie or Steph’s mouth, it’s like my brain doesn’t recognize it. It sounds cruder and foreign. Never thought I’d say that. It’s almost ridiculous. You hear it on the streets, most signs on things remotely touristy are translated into English (and sometimes Spanish), and if you give even the slightest indication that French is not your native tongue, folks immediately switch to English. It’s frustrating, since all I want to do is speak French. I know they’re trying to help, but I don’t want it. I learned though, that if you just keep speaking in French to them and ignoring their English replies, they eventually get the picture.

I know this is wicked long, but I have so much to say. I will leave out what we did today, and try to catch up tomorrow. I shall leave with a list and hopefully inspire you to Google and Wikipedia for further knowledge:

- The queen gave birth in public to prove the legitimacy of her children as royals (whaaa?)
- I’m really freaked out by the fact that I’ve gone from winter to summer; it’s actually colder here, and I’m rather unprepared for that, but also, there’s so much dang light! The sun doesn’t go down until 10:30pm. In Reunion, it is DARK at 6:30pm. It’s really hard to get used to.
- The bread here is outrageously good. The French know what’s up.
- They don’t cut their pizzas before selling/delivery. For reals?
- The fashion here makes me feel like a hobo. I have been taking mental notes all day.
- I still love the French language; speaking, listening, translating… but I have a long ways to go.

Okay, more to come. Sorry for the length, but my brain is so stimulated here!

Love and croissants,
Chelsea