cherchant le chateaux

6/3/2008

(started out the day with our first parisian croissant - i'll describe that in detail another time for you mr. kroll! just be prepared because it was fantastic.)

aujourd'hui nous avons vu le chateaux de versailles. c'etait tres jolie! trying to get there on the other hand was difficult! i knew we were supposed to take the RER C but i didn't realize there were different trains and taht outside of Paris RER C split on both sides of versailles.

luckily we met a couple, debbie and phillip, from denton! they were looking for the chateaux aussi. chancement i can speak enough francais to get by and despite the trains' determination to get us lost, we found the chateaux with a little help from out friend josette, as we shall call her since we never did get her name. she was sent from Dieu, j'en suis sur! we started talked to her at viroflay - rive droite, which is a stop nowhere to be found on my RATP maps. never ever ever ever get on the L train because it apparently doesn't exist unless you're lost, from america, and are trying to reach chateaux de versailles. josette helped us though. she didn't speak english but I could converse enough to know she was at least going our same direction and we could follow her. the last stop on the L train took us to versailles - rive droit and we wanted rive gauche - chateaux. life could be worse though! josette and i walked ahead while kathy, phillip, and debbie walked behind. we passed some great little shops and the food/pastries looks delicieuse! the 10-15 minute walk was pleasant (at least for me, maybe not kathy...) and we were able to see much of the town - the sights, sounds, smells were like a fantasy and to try to describe it would simply do no justice!

the chateaux was grand-large and beautiful beyond belief despite the construction blocking much of the facade. we lost debbie and phillip at the beginning (kind of on pupose) and went to the cafe for a snack after our adventurous morning. after a quick cappuchino we started into the state apartments and discovered that the only rick steves tour on my iPod was the historic paris walk, so for today we would have to guide ourselves. the interior was beautiful, especially the hall of mirrors and the queen's quarters. we then toured the gardens via les petits trains which took us to le domaine de marie-antoinette. my favorite part was le hameau, which she had built to escape the horrible treatment of royal life. we saw the petit and grand trianon then also the grand canal. apres le tour we make out way towards the train station - this time we couldn't get lost! i got some postcards from the TI then we had to get some food! we looked for a rick steves' recommendation, but found el rancho tex-mex - i know, we did not come to france to eat tex-mex but we were seriously starving - and we had to be the judge of that! the chicken and cheese quesadillas were actually tasty but the doritos and ballpark nacho cheese did not pass the chips and salsa/queso test. nevertheless the waitress was very friendly and it was right by the train station.

we made it back to the apartment to rest before our soir-sortie! (while we were resting merz called me which was such a pleasant surprise. the funny thing is that it was via skype - merz you're so asian!) vers 20h we headed for le paradis latin for dinner and a parisian cabaret show. the food was wonderful, prepared by graduated of le cordon bleu and the show was spectacular! we has great seats. the dancers were very talented, as was the main singer. the show started as a walk through time: 1920s after WWI, 1950s after WWII, 1970s after mai 1968, and 2000s... all times ''we needed to party!'' we really has a great great time! the man next to us was good looking and was having a much better time than his date. we did notice that he had a severe twitch. it was very obvious, poor thing, but we talked with him after the show and i decided i could look past it if only he would ditch his date. confetti at the end and balloons signaled le fin and we returned to rest for another busy day demain.

a bientot!