Day two of Paris!

In an attempt to ease the pain of the time change, we woke up early this morning. After showering, we made our way to a small Patisserie (bread shop) down the road and grabbed some breakfast. After the first bite, I turned to Hayley and said something along the lines of "Man, it has been two years since I have had bread!" I meant of course, that nothing compares to the wonderful taste of French bread.

The main course for today was a trip to Le Château de Versailles, one of the most important parts of French history. The château, constructed under Louis XIV, is actually not located in Paris. King Louis XIV decided that to get away from the political influences of Paris, and to better control the noble class, it would be best to move the government to Versailles, which is about 25 miles away. When we got off our train, we began the long wait in line for tickets into the château. A man working for the tourism office approached us and asked us if we were students studying in France. When we replied that we were, he asked to see our passports with the visa page. Sadly, I hadn't thought it would be necessary to bring them, and so we lost out on what would have been free admission to the palace. Instead, we payed the full price and began our tour. We walked from room to room of the castle, enjoying the art, but mostly just the splendor of the rooms. Not all of them were in their original condition, but the staff of Versailles have done a wonderful job reconstructing the palace. I especially enjoyed the famous room of the château called the Hall of Mirrors. The chamber is very large, with huge chandeliers, incredibly painted vaulted ceilings, and one wall that is entirely made of mirrors, giving the room the effect of being twice as large as it actually is. It was incredible to stand in the room where the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending the first World War.

Although we both enjoyed our long walk through the palace, in the end it could not compare to our walk through the gardens. Being so far away from any cities, the backyard of the palace is incredible. One of the first things you see as you walk around the chateux is the Grand Canal, a giant man-made lake. It is surrounded by acres and acres of gardens from simple flower arrangements to giant hedge mazes with ornate fountains spread throughout. Hayley was especially impressed by the marble sculptures throughout the gardens. There was a quaint little ice-cream shop in one part of the gardens, which provided us with a delicious treat. We laid out on the lawn in front of the Grand Canal for a while, loathe to leave, but the badgering in our stomachs reminded us that we had already spent most of the day at Versailles, as it was almost 5 p.m. We made our way back to the train station with sore feet.

When we got back into Paris, we decided that our evening would be best served by taking a trip to the Latin Quarter, the home of Paris's prestigious university La Sorbonne, as well as some of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Our first stop was Notre Dame de Paris, the iconic gothic church that was the focus of Victor Hugo's famous novel of the same name, as well as its Disney adaption "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame." We toured the chapel (like last night in Sacre Coeur, we managed to make it when mass was in session) and got to see the giant stained glass windows that make the church famous. Sadly, because it was so late in the day, much of the church was closed, so we were unable to get to see the displays of the Stations of the Cross, which was one of my favorite parts of my last trip to Paris. We walked around the outside of Notre Dame to see the back side, which is a prime example of Gothic architecture. For some reason, the front side of the church is recognizable by most, but the back side is a complete mystery. We sat in a park staring at the towering spires until some noise in the park caught our attention. A group of young guys were playing Petanque, which is a game somewhat similar to Bocce Ball, so we decided to watch until a two policeman came over and told them that they had to move to a different park down the road.

When we left the grounds of Notre Dame a few minutes later, we came across a memorial to La Deportation, which was where thousands of Jews and Jew sympathizers were exiled from Paris or killed outright during the German occupation in WWII. We paid our respects and started meandering down the streets of Paris towards the Luxembourg gardens. We only had a vague idea of where we were supposed to be going or how to get there. People always say that Paris is best discovered by walking around, and this was certainly one of those times where we got to see more by getting lost than going where we intended. We caught glimpses of the Eiffel tower here and there as we wound are way through the streets. While we had a destination in mind, we were also frantically searching for a somewhat inexpensive place to have dinner (although it was delicious, last night's dinner cost us roughly 50 euro) that sounded appetizing. I told Hayley about a delicious French specialty called a Gallette, which we decided we were going to try to find.

During our search, we ran across the Pantheon. This Romanesque building kind of sprang up on us, and we stopped to check it out. Sadly, we were unable to figure out what purpose it serves today. We continued on and eventually found the Luxembourg palace and gardens. While it no longer serves its function as a chateau, the Luxembourg palace today serves as the seat for the French legislature, and its well manicured gardens were well worth a visit. We were distracted, however, by a group of young people trying to film some sort of movie or something. Two women who we at first thought to be prostitutes and two sleezly looking guys were taking many shots of the same scene until the park police came over and yelled at them. Soon after, we decided to leave, laughing to ourselves. We walked for several more city blocks before we came across a place that served the type of food we were looking for. Although we had been looking for hours, the wait was well worth it. The food was delicious and we left with full bellies. To the left you can see a picture of me eating a Galette, which is kind of like a thinly sliced pancake-esque breakfast burrito kind of thing. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel, as it was already night and we were incredibly tired.

Tomorrow we plan to do all of the major sites that we haven't already visited, as it will be our first day of really having the whole day in Paris to explore. Hayley and I joked around today about how we wish we had purchased pedometers before we came to France, as we have probably put on at least 7 or 8 miles today.

In terms of the blog, I changed some of the settings around so that you no longer have to make a blogger account in order to post. All you have to do is scroll to the bottom of the post, click the thing that says either "no comments" or "x comments", and say hello. Much love to everyone back home!

P.s. sorry but no pictures for now. For some reason, they are being finnicky when I try to put them on the computer, but I will try to get them up there soon!