On the Road Again!

Well, actually, just came home from my 10 day Spring Break Trip!  And what a whirlwind it was!  Like my last big trip, I'm going to break it down into several posts because, between finals, laundry, and just enjoying my last few days in Montp, I don't have a ton of time, so blogging will have to get put in between things.

So let's start at the beginning (a very good place to start):

Day 1: Paris.

No trip to France would be complete without a trip to Paris.  I left Montpellier around lunch (by my self) and arrived in the late afternoon (it's about a four hour train trip).  There, I met up with my friend Willow.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the Tuileries and the Champs Elysées before meeting up with my friend from Lehigh, Jess.  Jess is studying in Paris and took us to an AMAZING crepe place!  Not a lot else to report on day one, other than my hotel room was about the size of a closet.  But clean and friendly, and for a single traveler, it did the trick (Hôtel du Cygne).

Day 2: Versailles

Just as no trip to France is complete without Paris, no trip to Paris is complete without Versailles.  Rick Steves (my travel guru) says that if you can only see ONE castle in all of Europe, it's Versailles.  And he is totally right!  First of all, we got in for free since we have long stay French visas.  But besides that, it is definitely the prettiest place ever and we had amazing weather for it too.

We started out at the main palace, seeing everyone's beds topped with ostrich plumes, the hall of mirrors, and Louis's pretty face plastered on every single surface (imagine you're an artist and the king says to you: I want you to paint a picture of Apollo... but I want him to look like me).

It was great... once you get past the huge throngs of tours.  But the best part of Versailles is that, once you get out of the main palace, it feels practically empty because a) the tour busses don't go past the main building and b) it's freaking HUGE!  After the main house we went to the gardens.  Every tree or bush was cut into a perfect square and marble statues dotted the walkways.  Incredible!

 

Next, we went to the Grand Trianon and then the Petit Trianon, Louis's OTHER chateaux at Versailles.  Napoleon apparently lived in the Grand Trianon because the main palace was too big... nice attempt at being modest.  You're still living in Versailles.

Finally, we wandered to Marie's village.  In order to get away from the royal life, Marie had her own country village built on the grounds, complete with farm animals and a vineyard.  I personally thought that this was the prettiest part of Versailles, but most people don't get to it because it's a bit of a trek away from the main palace.

After Versailles, we took a nice coffee break.  Willow continued on to England while I stayed in Paris.

Day 3: Paris

The next day, I explored a little bit more of Paris, hitting the major stuff (the stuff that people say "WHAT!  You didn't do the ___?!" if you don't do it).  Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower.  But it was rainy, so I spent most of the day in the Louvre.

 

But I didn't have all day because I had a flight to catch to my next destination: Prague.  And who should I meet in Prague but my very own sister, Lesley!  (Well, it was a little more planned than that.)  We both got in kind of late so we checked into the hotel, did a little planning, and then passed out.

Click on me at the Eiffel Tower for more pictures of Paris and Versailles:

Stay tuned for... Prague, another city to Czech off my list.