Finally exhausted...
That sounds about right. After 4 days of non-stop activity, I'm finally taking a day to myself. It kind of feels like a waste of time in Paris, and is driving me a little bit insane. But I think I need it. At least the morning and early afternoon off. I'll be back out on the streets of Paris tonight, but for now, sitting and typing out on the beautiful terrace of my hostel is good.
Sorry I haven't blogged in the past couple days, I've been busy.
After my last blog, the whole group of us here in Paris went out to dinner at Le Geueze. We all tried something new, pretty much. I got a cheese plate with four new cheeses. I was very excited, and terrified to try them! Until I tried them. They were way to potent for me. One of them made my tongue hurt it tasted so bad! Yuck! But I tried every one of them! And one of them was definitely edible, so I made do.
Saturday's lesson was on culture shock. Talking about how when we arrive somewhere new, there's excitement, followed by depression, followed by normal life. When we were released from that, my partner, Liz, and I departed to our market to complete our market meander assignment. This assignment consisted of going to a market assigned to us, observing our surroundings (and writing those down when we got back) and buying food for lunch or a snack from said market. Liz and I went to the President Wilson market on Rue President Wilson (President Wilson Street). After wandering up and down the market, I decided to try some new cheese again, and hope for better luck this time! I told one of the ladies in one of the many "fromage" stands that I like mozarella and would like to try something new. She gave me a small piece of cantral cheese to try...and I loved it! So I bought a small chunk of cantral fromage. I also bought some framboises (raspberries), un pomme (an apple), and some Caribbean cornbread ball things. I don't really know much about them, other than those were not my favorite. My final purchase of the day was a bottle of rose wine...my first legal bottle!
Going to the market was a very enlightening, exciting, and interesting experience. I really enjoyed it. After that, Liz and I were so close to the Eiffel Tower, that, as I hadn't yet been, we wandered near it to get some good pictures. We crossed bridge after bridge until we found the perfect spot! It was right in front of an architecture museum with a huge, gorgeous fountain!
Then, it was time for us to head home. We got back and then I crashed for a couple hours, before making it to Terrace Time. After that, my friend Mallory and I went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it twinkle up close! It was so pretty, and we made such an adventure out of it! It was totally worth the late night that was created by going!
The next morning, Sunday, I was up bright and early to go to mass at Notre Dame. Naturally, it was in French and I didn't understand of word of it, but it was still exciting and interesting. After mass, a group of six of us departed for a day at Versailles. We hopped on the train and took a 40 minute nap!
The palace was beautiful from the outside. There were lots of gold plated everythings. But I think my favorite part of Versailles was the garden's many fountains. So many of them had a story behind them! One had different spraying patterns assigned to music! Another was made after the story of the leader of the giants being buried in rock by a god: Neptune, I believe. You see, he had been leading the giants to defeat this god by building mountains, enraging the god. So Neptune buried the leader of the giants under the rocks he had been piling to make mountains. With his last breath, the giant uttered a curse which is symbolized by the powerful jet of water coming out of his mouth...at least when the fountain is on.
It was really interesting to me that the fountains weren't left on during tourist hours. Some were on, some were off, and they seemed to cycle when which were on. My favorite fountains were the Grove of the Three Fountains. Each of the three were all shell and fish based with really interesting rocks lining the little pools. I have no idea what the story behind these were though.
I also saw Marie-Antoinette's estate, which got me into researching her. She was a duchess of Austria before she became Dauphine (next in line for the queen's throne in France) by marrying Louis XVI. She was never involved in politics, because the French were raised with an anti-Austria bias, until her husband started withdrawing from his role as king, because of depression. By this time, she had 2 or 3 children and a miscarriage. She later had a 4th, and the Dauphin (male heir apparent) contracted tuberculosis and died. One of her 2 daughters also died as a baby. At this point, she was no longer involved in politics, rather focusing her energy and time on her children. Around this time, the French Revolution was beginning. She was becoming more and more hated by the French people, as she was blamed for everything that went wrong in France at the time. Finally, the royal family was put under house arrest, at which point she did nothing but care for her children. The royal family attempted to escape, but because of Louis XVI's poor planning and his uncertainty, they were caught and arrested. Their son was given to another family to raise and retrain to be more revolutionary. King Louis XVI was executed for treason by guillotine. Finally, Marie Antoinette was tried for treason and child abuse, for sexually abusing her son, who said she had after being instructed to do so by his new family. She was convicted of treason, by helping Austria which she never actually did, and sentenced to death by guillotine.
Her estate was really pretty though. She made some changes to this building, by having the king's private staircase removed, and putting in a mirrored boudoir where they had been. The mirrors would actually move too. She also had the study on her floor turned into a billiards room. Everything at her estate was very elegant and pretty. The gardens around her estate were also very pretty.
Finally we went to the palace tour. It was very palace-like and fancy, with random modern art included throughout the halls. We accidentally missed the kings bed chambers. But the rest of the palace was interesting, though very crowded and hot. We also saw the Dauphin's apartments. These were also very elegant. But my favorite part of his apartments was definitely his globe. The outer globe was a terrestrial and celestial globe. Under it was a 3D globe that showed the height and depth of landmasses and oceans. Finally, at the base were zodiac carvings and the feet were dolphins. It was very cool!
Then it was time to head for home, where I crashed! Today, we've had class already and we've had most of the day so far. I also had a one-on-one meeting with my professors to update them one last time on my project. Before and after that, I've been taking it easy, uploading pictures and journaling, and now blogging!
I hope I'm not going into too much detail for anyone, I'm really just trying to share the factoids I find most interesting. But now I need to be going, after all, I only have 2 nights left here in Paris! For more pictures, check out the shutterfly link on the right! Au revoir!
