The Versailles Let Down and the St. Chapelle Gem

One of the biggest let down of Paris sight seeing is Versailles, the megamansion of the Louis XIV-XVI and their Maries: Marie-Therese, Marie Leszczyska, and Marie-Antoinette. I understand that the purpose of Versailles was to house and entertain the entire French court and then some, BUT the number of tourists packed into Versailles was ridiculous. You couldn't even get a sense of what it was really like because of all the shabbily dressed, camera weilding people who don't resemble anyone, even a pauper, from the French court. After 3.5 hours in line, I was able to pack my way into the royal apartments in which I moved with the other sardines through the nice rooms, and was glad to be spat out the exit. Met up with Courtney and her classmates who covered about one room of the palace in their class. We meandered through the garden a bit, which is very flat. The whole thing is flat. I'll post a picture to explain. 1/2 of the picture is sky. 1/4 is ground. The last 1/4 is the mansion and all the greenery. Not very beautiful to look at. So I walked to Marie-Antoinette's estate which she built as a retreat (I don't blame her!) with two gigantic "small" triaons, or day houses, expansive fields with creeks, bridges, and grottoes, and a play village. This quaint village was used by MA and her ladies when they wanted to "play peasant." It's a lovely lake with swans and a mill, a farm with horses, a lookout tower, and peasant houses. It all looked very fantastical to me. I would gladly live in any of those buildings. It was really nice to be out there because not many of the tourists make the trek, or pay to make the trek, out there. Made my way back through the crowds to, where else, the St. Severin area to meet Courtney for a great dinner.



I couldn't get train tickets to Belgium for today, so I needed a place to stay for a night. I got into a pointless fight with the witch down at the desk who told me that there weren't, all of a sudden, any beds when every room I had been in had at least one empty bed in it, and that their other branch in the Latin Quarter, didn't have any either. Walking away to get my bag, I decided to call the number of the hostel. The witch picked up the phone, and very nicely told me that this branch didn't have any beds, but that the other one did and that she would transfer me to that number. How nice. Merci. Moved my stuff over to the Latin Quarter where I met Crystal in the bag room. (Character: Crystal, a music teacher who had just come from singing in an international choral festival at Canterbury Cathedral.) Crystal and I teamed up for the day and headed first to the St. Chappelle, a small chapel across from Notre Dame known for its expanse of stained glass windows and light. Wow, what a gem! My mouth literally dropped to the floor. I had seen pictures, but nothing compares to experiencing the space. First of all, there is so much glass. When you hear about Gothic cathedrals being light and airy, St. Chappelle is the best example. The light was streaming in an array of colors, as if one is walking through a kaleidoscope. Second of all, every inch of the stonework is painted, like Gothic cathedrals used to be. It's one thing to walk through the gray and looming cathedrals of stone, but it's a completely different thing to walk through one that is brightly colored with painted tapestries and designs on the walls. They're not frescoes, but more trompe l'oeil gemstones and marbles decorating the interior walls. Originally also, I believe, many of them were painted on the exterior as well, just like the Parthenon in Athens, believe it or not. The pictures just do not do this building justice...so go there and see it for yourself!

Crystal and I decided to go see what Montmartre is all about. Climb to the top of the hill to the Sacre Coeur, a huge, out of place looking church with gorgeous mosaics inside. Ambled down the winding streets in search of our truth, beauty, freedom, and love and instead found a few churches, some steep streets, and some amazing boulangeries! Ate to our heart's content and walked over to the Moulin Rouge to see what that was all about. Took a picture and one look at the surrounding area and decided to make our way out of that district and into one a little safer looking. Walked down to the Tuilleries to finish our stashes of olive bread and pan au chocolat (Paris does it better than anywhere else!).

Courtney met us at the Orangerie, a very small, but wonderful museum in the Tuilleries that is most famous for Claude Monet's Water Lilies painted on gigantic curved canvases for two oval rooms. One depicts the lake at daylight and the other at dusk and night. Beautiful. Courtney drooled over them and decided that she would, one day, paint them in her dining room and living room respectively. Good idea. I think I have a strange appreciate for Monet in that when you get up close to his painting, the paint looks like huge haphazard brush strokes, but when stand back, it's a perfect picture. I have a similar appreciate for Seurat, but more for Monet.

While Courtney was at class at the Louvre, Crystal and I walked down to the Pont Alexandre Trois (what a great name to say!) and admired all the gold pasted onto the bridge (if it wasn't grandiose enough...). Walked around the P and G Palais and the Champs Elysees before meeting up with Courtney and Renee for dinner. (Character: Renee, a friend of my from Harvard who is an actress and aspiring director, perhaps in film, as that was her program for the summer. She had been going crazy editing her first film and couldn't come out of the studio until now.) Went back to our favorite place, yet again, for another wonderful dinner! Went to a great gelatto place where they make you a huge flower out of all the flavors you want in your cone! It's really neat! Said my goodbyes to my wonderful guide and headed back to the hostel, only to stay up for many more hours laughing with my boisterous Austrian roommates.

Au revoir, Paris!