I got up at 7:30 to get ready for our excursion to Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte. Last night I was woken up my my neighbor Alex at one in the morning. She decided that it would be fine to leave about six chatting friends in the hallway. I've been tired every since. I managed to get myself dressed, eat my madeleines, make my coffee, and get myself out the door. I took my coat and a scarf because it looked cold and it was already raining. I knew that this was going to get interesting.
It turns out that the excursion was mostly kids from a USC program with a few UC students and a few students from other programs. The USC professors and kids seemed like jerks. The bus wasn't nice like the one from last week. The seats were really close together and I could barely fit my legs in. Also, Kate was in charge of this excursion instead of Mirek. I sat with Lucinda (Raven's roommate whose name I now know after she added me on facebook), and we chatted on the drive to Fontainebleau. It stopped raining by the time we got there but it was still cold.
We got off the bus at Fontainebleau and they made it very clear that we were supposed to be back on time or else we would be left there. We had twenty minutes as a bathroom break before we were supposed to meet our guide. Our guide was late. We started the tour outside and then moved inside. We were going to get headphones, but the guided decided against it. Then she wanted to use the bathroom so we had to wait for her then. Then we had to wait again because she supposedly didn't know the château's no backpack policy. She was a hot mess, and her breath smelled bad.
Fontainebleau is exactly what you would expect. Lots of gold, flower paintings, and ornamentation everywhere. It was really dark inside so I didn't get any good photos. I liked a lot of the flower decor in the bedrooms, and was really surprised to see a lot of plaster (or maybe stone) bas relief sculptures lining a lot of the halls. I really liked the dance hall because it was lined with continuous frescos on all the walls and the ceiling. Usually I don't like guides, and this trip was no exception, but I liked knowing some of the context of the rooms. I liked knowing that the room we were looking at was where one of the Louis' was born (the 13th?) and that Marie Antoinette never slept in the bed made for her.
The grand staircase
The left side of the château. There are obviously two different phases of construction of the building.
A faraway shot of the whole château
After about an hour and a half we were let loose for lunch and to see the gardens. Lucinda and I literally ran (well almost ran) to town to find a boulangerie. I got a baguette for only 80 cents that was kinda chewy and rather tasteless, and Lucinda got a sandwich. She then stopped to get a postcard, and then we headed for the gardens. If you really have to see Fontainebleau I suggest speedwalking through the château and going straight for the garden.
The lake in the center is very picturesque. I got some good shots of clouds due to the almost rainy sky. Take a few pictures of the swan in the first lake and look at a few flowers. Maybe wander over to the sculptures at the very edge, but don't stay there too long. The real magic of the gardens is in the lake closer to the main staircase. There's a small, round colonnaded building in the center of the lake, and there are forests all around it. So beautiful. I loved seeing the changing of the leaves for fall. Lucinda and I walked around the lake taking pictures of the ducks and the hidden statuary. I wished that we had discovered that lake sooner. We were back on the bus before I had time to explore every nook and cranny.
Me in the main garden
The outside of the château from the main garden
The lake in the main garden
The main garden
Main garden
The second lake
The second lake
The forest around the second lake
Ducks in the second lake
We were there at the agreed upon meeting time and the USC kids were nowhere to be found. Kate called them and they were still at lunch. After threatening us with being left and they decide that they can't cut their lunch short? I don't like them or their jerk professor. We finally got on the road about fifteen minutes late which cut into our time at Vaux Le Vicomte.
We arrived at the château, got our tickets, and got started on our self-guided tour. I loved it way more than Fontainebleau. The decoration of most rooms is much simpler, and there's much more light. There was the perfect mixture of flower paintings and prints, highly designed wallpaper, and wooden antiques to make my heart flutter. The best part was looking out the windows and seeing the garden and forest below. I loved Madame Fouquet's bedroom the most because it was covered in white wallpaper that had pink flowers on it. She even had a small desk with a heart carved into the side. I also really liked the projection of people dancing on the the wall of the main dining hall. The display even included macaron towers. The weirdest part was the display in the kitchen. At first we saw a beautifully decorated, long wooden table with white and blue place settings. Then in the kitchen there was a fake hog on the kitchen table and fake chickens "roasting" in the rotiserrie. Freaky.
The entrance of Vaux-le-Vicomte
Madame Fouquet's bedroom
We explored the whole house and then moved onto the gardens. There was expansive areas of lawn with some areas having intricately manicured mazes of small bushes. There were many cone shaped bushes lining the landscape and some patches of flowers in both pots and in the ground. There are eroded statues everywhere. The best parts of the garden was the forest and the many lakes/rivers. In one area there was a series of fountaines. Once we got onto the land below we realized that it was like an artificial waterfall. There's also a real stream that runs down through part of the forest. It was so green, and the fall leaves were falling in the forest. My only regret is that we didn't have time to explore. If we were smart we would have rented a golf cart.
A "deer"
Manicured bushes
A statue of two lions
Maincured bush with the chaâteau in the distance
The stream
A lake
The back of the château
More manicured bushes
The whole garden as seen from a window in the château
We had to leave too early in my opinion. On the way I was subjected to the conversations of the USC kids. They talked about everything from drinking with guys they met on tinder to cuddling with a guy after he heard one of the girls puking (she didn't hook up with him because a friend had done so earlier). Then they switched to talking about religion and attending both Protestant and Catholic churches. Do only Catholics call Christian churches Protestant? I just wanted them to go away.
When we arrived at the Bastille we saw that there was a protest orchestrated by the Kurds. Lucinda and I quickly walked towards home. She came with me to franprix to get my newly beloved cookies. I was looking at some frozen food for dinner, and she suggested that we got to Picard. Isa has been making dates with me to go, but I kept forgetting/bailing on her. I finally decided to go with Lucinda. It's a long walk away, but we arrived at the ominous looking building to find a mecca of frozen food inside.
Picard is a frozen food store. They sell everything you can think of in frozen form for reasonable prices. There's frozen meat, frozen vegetables, frozen ramen, frozen pizza, frozen hors d'oeuvres. After much thinking I settled on a fajita meal and something that involves chicken that I no longer remember about. I've been craving Mexican food, and I was hoping that my meals would do the trick. My two meals with 3,80 total. I heated up the fajitas the secon I got home. Not fantastic, but not the worst frozen meal I've ever had. For only two euros it wasn't too shabby.
I chased my meal with some potato chips and four of my cookies while watching an episode of People's Court that I somehow missed. After the episode I convinced myself to read for pop. I struggled through closing eyes to read eight pages. I had to make a cup of coffee during the process. I then took my shower and attempted to edit my histories paper. I'm actually looking forward to taking the paper to Nic on Monday. It needs help.
I can't keep my eyes open, so I'm calling it a night.
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