I'd Live in the Hamlet Too, Marie.

This weekend was jam-packed. Friday night Gloria came into town from Switzerland with her sister Carolina. I met up with them at the Eiffel Tower. My first time up! If it weren't for the souvenir accosters, and if we weren't all girls, we all agreed it would've been a very romantic night.

Then Saturday I went to Versailles with a friend, Beth, who's working as an English teaching assistant like me. Before meeting up at the palace, I was in need of a Starbucks, if you know what I mean. New Yorkers will. I've learned that Mac Do's (McDonald's) is to Paris, what Starbucks is to New York. And Americans get the reputation for eating fast food all the time! This was the first time I've stepped foot into a McDonald's in maybe 10 years. I escaped without buying or wanting any food but was very grateful for the facilities.


On to the Palace. In Versailles there are 3 palaces. The main chateau or palace, built for Louis XIV the Sun King, has gold everywhere, is very decadent, very formal, and very impersonal. Check out Louis' bedroom to get an idea. That balustrade is there to offer him some privacy since the other half of his room was for people to mill around in - I'm sure his servants and close friends but still. And he wanted the whole thing decorated. Not an inch is free from some embellishment, in gold.


And here's the Hall of Mirrors where you can check your makeup and hair on the way to the Salle de Guerre or Salle de Paz.
The chapel Louis XIV had built. Somehow he thought it ok to mix Apollo/Hercules/Mars and other Greek Gods amidst religious art with Christ and apostles. I had a hard time reconciling that...

But supposedly he was very religious. Rumor has it he was also a catch - a true rennaissance man. Good looking, horseman, musician, athlete, art-lover... Take a look and you decide. Maybe if legs do it for you :-)


Right at 11:00 we finished touring the palace just in time for the Grandes Eaux Musicales - a musical fountain show throughout the gardens. Think Bellagio but without gambling or strip clubs, and Beethoven, not Sinatra.
The gardens are HUGE. We didn't reach the end. It's a 50 minute walk to just one end. But it's beautiful. Don't be deceived by the blue skies. It was a very sunny day, but very nippy too. I've been thinking whoever told me Paris is cold has not lived in San Francisco. Turns out, they might have. It's just been uncharacteristically warm here for the past month. No longer.


Anyway, you get the idea that the gardens and palace are huge and beautiful. So Louis had the Grand Palais built to escape the formality and hubbub of the palace and feel a little homier. Here's the peristyle connecting both wings. For the inside, just picture a homier, smaller, still nice but not "break-the-bank" palace.


A couple decades later, Louis XVI was king and married to Marie Antoinette. Say hello to Marie from Austria.


Louis XVI let Marie move into the Petit Palais as her little escape. It's one step down from the Grand Palais in size and decadence. If you've ever lived in Atherton, you'd feel right at home here.

Behind Marie's abode, she had her Hamlet built. Now let me just say that the palace gardens were amazing. But both Beth and I were charmed by the Hamlet. We decided it would've been our residence of choice in the Versailles grounds.

There were a bunch of these little cottages surrounding this pond, each with their own vegetable gardens and flower gardens... So all I'm saying is, I can relate to Marie.

On a separate note. Beth and I were both a bit curious about the palace curator's choice to house a Jeff Koonz exhibit in each of the rooms. Though I liked some of his stuff, somehow the styles didn't coincide very well.

The next room had a blow up raft in the shape of a lobster hanging from a red plastic chain. It would've been very fun to raft with, but in the Apollo Salon?

I liked this piece of his a lot. It was called Split-Rocker. Took me a while before I realized it meant one of those rocking horses (dinosaurs) at a playground. This was outside, so those are all flowers.

So then Sunday afternoon I had some friends over for dinner. I totally forgot to take a picture. Sorry, Jane. I made mom's Chinese Chicken Salad and then coconut sticky rice with mangos for dessert. I had to take a trip to Paris' china town to find the noodles for the salad. Is it strange to say that I felt right at home the second I walked into the oriental market? I did. I miss you, California. I got a bit frustrated too with France's supermarket choices. Let's just say the food options are limited. Evidently the French have not discovered the joy of macademia nuts yet. Nor do they know the taste of green onions. Their loss. And just forget about trying to find a big bag of frozen chicken breasts. Portion size is in full force even at the grocery store.

Just to cap this entry. This was my first week of teaching. I'd say it was a success - if you measure success by active student participation and obedience. I'd like to offer a little shout out to my mom too for teaching me some tricks in how to discipline a classroom, thanks to her school. Worked like a charm.