Sacre Coeur and Versailles!

I am finally in Italy! And by Italy, I mean that we are legitimately just crossed the border; the train is stopped and an Italian police officer just checked my passport. It felt so good to finally say “Grazie” to an Italian person in Italy! It has already been a long day, we woke up at 4:00am, took the metro to the train station, got on a train from Paris to Lyon, then Lyon to Chanberry, Chanberry to Modané, and are now headed to Torino before catching our night train to Rome—where we will arrive at 6:00am on the best day in the world: my birthday! ;) We had a 3 hour layover in Modané; it was a quaint little town, but definitely not much to do. We did find an internet café where we paid half a euro for a half an hour of internet use; if only Facebook hadn’t locked me out of my account…luckily my cell phone starts working once I’m in Italy, so I can call my host family and confirm with them about picking me up. Alas, it’s finally here!

That said, I definitely made the most out of my final bit in Paris and saved the best for last. After meeting Alexandrine, we headed up to Sacre Coeur, which is probably thee most beautiful cathedral in Paris. It was exciting before we even got inside—there was a Spanish band singing “La Bamba” and a man, with the most impressive soccer skills I’ve ever seen, doing tricks on a small platform. There was a great view of the Eiffel tower and people everywhere. We got French pastries for dinner; I’m really not even sure what I ate because the employees didn’t speak any English; all I know is that it was delicious!

French pastries for dinner? Yes, please.

This picture really doesn't do the view justice

Inside the cathedral was, just like most things here, unreal. Everything was built from huge cement stones, including these massive pillars. There was an enormous painting of Christ in the front dome, and places to pay tribute and light candles to lots of different saints. After such longs days of walking and site seeing, it really is just nice to go into a church, relax, and reflect on everything. I think it’s kind of cool that the cathedral is a functioning church, so while a lot of people are not Catholic, there are still members who come to pray or confess.

On our way home, we met a couple big, burly, black men. I asked them where they were from and they said something that I interpreted as “Holland.” Wrong. Then I clarified, “The Island?” Maybe they meant Jamaica? False. They were definitely from Ireland (haha). One of them said something to us, and Hayden, Shawn and I just exchanged confused looks, all completely oblivious of what the man—who was speaking heavily accented English—just said. I do love all the diversity here, Paris definitely has a lot of tourists, but its fun to meet people from all over, see if you speak some language in common and learn about each other. That and the big city feel. We stayed in a smaller town in Germany, which I loved, but there is something to be said about the excitement of a big city.

Yesterday was Shawn’s birthday and, how better to celebrate than to visit Versailles!? It was honestly my favorite site/location/tour yet! We spent our 18 Euros and started our tour of the gardens. It was a bit rainy and cold outside, but we didn’t let that stop us from exploring and taking pictures for 3 hours. While I would have loved to be wearing a Paris-high-fashion outfit in all the pictures, I—having not planned well for cold weather—just ended up wearing one of Shawn’s extra coats (haha). Not the cutest, but hey, I just spent the day in Versailles! Can I really complain? The gardens truly seemed to go on forever, I wish I lived here—I think that I would visit every day (it’s free to just walk around the gardens), bring my book, and read; maybe go on a run along the different paths—it’s large enough that I’m sure you could find solitude even among the thousands of tourists.

Nice view, eh?

I swear, the gardens go on forever!

The indoor tour was definitely my favorite of my entire trip. When you entered, you received a little handheld walkie-talkie-looking device and as you walked around to each new room, you typed in a little code (which was on a sign in every room), held the device up to your ear like a cell phone, and listened to a history of the rooms, the artwork, and the people associated with them. King Louie the 14th built the palace, but my favorite topic to learn about was Marie Antoinette. I’m telling you, you NEED to come to Paris! Yes, it’s expensive, but you can always live off peanut butter and banana sandwiches or street vendor food (yes, I thought I would miss peanut butter once I got to Europe, that is definitely not the case). We did treat ourselves to some Falafels last night for Shawn’s birthday though. Holy heck—Best. Food. Ever. Those Arab chefs know what they’re doing. Falafels look kind of like meatballs, but are actually made out of chickpeas, which—to be honest—I really don’t know what are. Either way, DELICIOUS. And the place we went, according to Alexandrine, was the best in town! (We did get to see Alex and her boyfriend again—we went to their storefronts; he never smiled the day before, but I think he was so surprised that we actually followed up and came to visit that a huge grin involuntarily spread across his face! P.S. I am totally a fan of this kiss on each cheek thing;).

A ton of the rooms had different themes, most were practically all one specific color

The bathroom!

Kudos to King Louie XIV for wearing heels before any of the women!

The Hall of Mirrors--just a little bit famous :)

You type in a 3digit number and put it up to your ear like a cell phone
and hear the audio for the tour

And, since my train doesn’t have too terribly much longer to go, I’ll just part with a few interesting things/things I’ve learned and observed about France

• ·         Fashion: Yes, people dress nice, but there is this one style that I’ve seen a ton in France and Germany for girls that I haven't quite been converted to: tights (usually tinted black nylons, but I’ve seen white, and all sorts of prints), under short jeans shorts (my favorite is when the shorts are so short that you can see the darker portion of the nylon at the very top), and sneakers (lots and lots of sneakers here). Who knows? Maybe it will catch on in the states...
• ·         Pick Pocketing: I’ve only seen one man get pick pocketed here, but it’s definitely something to be aware of—especially in the metro. Three kids (probably one that was 15 and two that were 10 or 12) kind of teamed up—one bumped him, one said something to distract him, and the third grabbed the money. It happened so fast that no one really even had time to figure out what was going on. I hear that Rome is infamous for their pickpockets, so that’s definitely something I’ll need to be aware of.
• ·         Bathrooms: you usually have to pay to use them. We did find a public one on the street that actually self-cleaned itself between every user though, pretty legit!
• ·         French Food: Delicious, but of what I’ve had (that’s actually French), not very substantial. That said, the best darn crepes and pastries that I’ve ever had.
• ·         Shopping: AMAZING! If only I was rich J

     Germany and France have been absolutely amazing, now I am ready for my summer in Italia!