Well, hello again! Judging by the title of this post, I'm sure you can tell where this is going-- I did indeed travel out to Versailles on Saturday with one of my suitemates, Grace. Having visited before, I had expected to be less affected by the beauty and hugeness that are the grounds of Versailles, but arriving there again I found myself mistaken.
We walked into the gardens first, electing not to wait in the huge line to visit the palace just yet. The gardens are giant-- I'm fairly certain they stretch for multiple kilometers, so walking the length of them seemed like a bad idea. Instead, we headed out at an angle and into the labyrinth of carefully cultivated trees, weaving through mazes and finding marble statues all along the way.
Also, I'd like to formally apologize for the lack of pictures. My computer isn't behaving currently, but I'll see if I can get them to upload later.
After walking through the gardens for a while and discovering a fountain that changed formation to music, we decided to grab lunch before heading inside to the palace. Shockingly, there was a place near the entrance of the gardens that sold reasonably priced food, so we stopped there and grabbed sandwiches before re-entering the maze of gardens to find a bench to sit on.
Following the wonderfully reasonably priced lunch food, we headed into the palace of Versailles. Fun fact: student ID cards get you into Versailles for free if you're listed as an art history major. Thank you, NYU! The palace itself is absolutely gorgeous-- everything is covered in gold leaf, and there are huge paintings and tapestries on almost every wall. The Hall of Mirrors is my personal favorite. It's a giant hall with one side of the room covered in mirrors and the other side full of windows. Everything is so light and beautiful in there.
Eventually, we finished the tour of the palace. As we were both feeling rather tired and had plans to go out with my friend who lives in Paris, Katarina, later, we elected to only briefly wander the streets of the town a little before catching the train back into Paris.
It started to hit me on the train back from Versailles that I'm really here in Paris. I really get to live here, I really get to study here, and I really couldn't be more excited. Classes start tomorrow (because no, the French do not celebrate Labor Day) and I'm buzzing with anticipation about what could possibly come next in this new chapter of my life. Ideally, not anymore RER breakdowns-- the metro breaking down on your way to class is not the best way to start a day.
I believe that's all for now, yes? Expect an update sometime at the end of this week-- though maybe not until sometime on Sunday, since Friday and Saturday we're going on an overnight retreat to Chantilly. Apparently it'll be good for bonding, or so we've been told. Mostly I'm just excited to explore more of France!
Katrina
