Palace of Versailles

Alright if you're not up to date on my blog this is the 3rd post for my trip to Paris, so if you haven't read about the first 2 days and would like to, scroll down and enjoy 2 examples of extremely poor writing... ;)
Alrighty. Day 3. I've been on my computer procrastinating writing this for about an hour. Sandefur- thanks for complimenting me with my blogging, but PLEEEASE don't make me do it for the Singers tour!! Its exhausting, and I can't imagine how nice it would be to be able to do something else with the hour it takes me to blog every night! Haha. I'm glad I've done it because I don't want to forget all the experiences I'm having... but it has been slightly annoying at times. My blogging on this trip is directly related to my lack of sleep... Haha. June 11th puts an end to this study abroad (sadly :() and also an end to blogging (thank goodness!). :) Sorry Back to Day 3.

Day 3 started off going to the RER station to catch a train to take us to Versailles! I was pleasantly seated on the train, immersing myself in a guide book full of interesting information about the place, when all of the sudden my ears were met with the unexpected sounds of a saxophone and an accordion! Haha. Apparently they just go from car to car playing something and then picking up change from the passengers. It was pretty exciting; however, I'm glad they moved on to the next car after a few minutes. ;)
The train ride took about 30 minutes and then we arrived! I led the troops from the station to the Palace and then we just stopped and stared. Its pretty impressive. Its amazing to think that this HUUUUGE palace was all built to glorify ONE man- Louis XIV. There is a small chapel inside with an altar- the only reference to God in the entire place. Everything else is focused on "The Sun King" and his power. Ridiculous!
The inside was absolutely insane. I honestly have NEVER seen a place SO large and SO ornate. Every single foot of the room was lavishly decorated with gold or paintings or something else super expensive. The whole place was filled with incredibly detailed decorations, it almost grossed me out by the end! I can't even imagine having all that built for ME though. I feel really guilty by being on this trip- I'm just indulging myself with seeing all these great sights and enjoying Europe. I cannot even begin to imagine how ridiculously guilty I would feel having this gigantic palace built for me!!! There's no way I'd be able to live with myself! Holy COW he must have been SOOOO self-obsessed! Its so strange to me to think that one man can esteem himself so much higher than others. I guess he had a rude awakening when he found out Heavenly Father loves us all the same! That must have been a rough day. ;)
We toured the palace first, then the gardens, and then the mini-village thing where Marie Antionette like to go.
Here are a couple pictures from the palace. The Hall of Mirrors (mirrors on the left, windows on the right. sorry im not in it, we took one with me in it but I look weird), some random room, the chapel from the balcony area.



After the palace we walked through some of the gardens. I say "some" because it would take years to walk through all of it. 250 ACRES of GORGEOUS garden!!! Once again, I've never seen anything like this. Hyde Park is gorgeous, and this was like 10 times cooler! It seriously is the most massive place I've ever experienced. I can't even imagine how many people they have to employ to keep up 250 acres of gorgeousness! Madness. I'm sure glad they do it though. :) Another cool thing about the gardens is that on weekends they have the fountains going! There are like 20 fountains (which have been there since the time of Louis XIV) interspersed throughout the gardens and it was so pretty! We missed the finale, but what we saw was very beautiful. I seriously felt like I was in a movie the whole time we were there, all of it was just too amazing to be real. Isn't it terrible that when things are really great we compare it to the artificial life in movies? Thats awful. I should stop doing that. There is so much find joy in within our own REAL lives! Ok. I'll step off my soap box and stop preaching... to myself. Huh. Ok moving on.
Pictures of the gardens!
Keep in mind that these pictures do absolutely zero justice for what it actually looks like. Seas of green just keep going and going as far as the eye can see! GORGEOUS.




After the gardens we headed over to the smaller palaces. I guess these were just their "hang out" places or something like that. I actually like these better than the real deal, because they were more normal! The main palace is just so ridiculously overdone, that its a bit overpowering. These smaller palaces seemed incredibly simple and plain compared to the real deal (althought they were still 10 times nicer than anything I've ever lived in), but I just really enjoyed them. I guess they seemed more easily accessible. I could never feel comfortable living in a place like the main palace, but I think I could get used to one of the smaller ones. ;) Hahaha
Mom you would've like the "Grand Trianon." It had pink everywhere! I thought of you. :) K check it out!



After the mini-palaces (which weren't very mini), we headed on over to the small village thing. Apparently (according to the book) Marie Antionette always wanted to live the life of a peasant- not the hard work part of it, but she wanted the simplicity and serenity of country life, I guess. So she had this mini village thing built for her. It was an actual working farm, and they still have some animals there. It was SUPER cute and really really pretty. Everywhere I looked looked like a perfect picture to make a puzzle out of (thats better than comparing beautiful things to a movie, right? Wink wink.)! There were all these little cottages around and I was just in heaven! Also, there were gorgeous little patches of flower gardens around each of the little houses. Dad you would've absolutely loved it. It was just perfect! I can totally understand why Marie Antoinette would want to escape the overpowering palace and enjoy the serenity of this small village. Although it does seem inconsistent with everything else I've heard about her and the whole "let them eat cake" thing... hm. I need to read more. ;)
More pictures!




After a long day of walking around (7 hours I think), we made our way back to the train station. It took us 40 minutes walking at a brisk pace to get from the mini village back to the main palace! That just shows how huge it the whole place is! Crazy. We headed back, stopped at McDonald's for dinner, and got on the train. Oh I can't believe I forgot! Up to this point, pretty much all I had eaten in Paris was baguette sandwiches. I guess I deserved it- the one thing I really wanted when we went to Paris was a baguette sandwich. Now I never want one again! Haha. I had one for Thursday lunch, Thursday dinner, Friday lunch, Friday dinner, and Saturday lunch!!! McDonald's became my Savior. :) It really is the greatest thing to see those golden arches though! I'm a pretty healthy kid, and I usually just eat lots of fruits and vegetables, but when you're in a foreign country McDonald's is amazing. Something you can rely on. It always has 2 very important things- cheap food, and a BATHROOM! :D Love it. So yeah. I've had enough of baguette sandwiches!! No more!
Alrighty well I think thats it! I really should blog about today, I strongly dislike being behind, but we'll see. This post took me almost an hour and a half and I'm going a little crazy. As you can probably tell. ;)
Love you all!