Last Sunday, I went to Fountainebleau with Ken, Lucy, Luke and Colm. The chateau is in a located in the town of Fountainebleau, which is a typical French town with cobblestone streets, bakeries and pastry shops on every corner, and the typical old French buildings. From the moment I stepped off the train, I felt like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. The chateau was beautiful, and though it may not have been as big as Versailles, it was nearly empty, even on the first Sunday of the month when all of the public buildings are free. After spending day after day in crowded tourist spots, it was nice to go somewhere with some more space to breathe. We wandered through the chateau with our audio guides, learning the history of all of the French royalty that spent time at the chateau.
Fountainebleau was perfect, from the chateau to the town, and despite the 1 1/2 journey from Cergy it was definitely worth going, I would even consider going back again!
Today, Lauren, Caitlin, and I visited Versailles, words and pictures could never describe how grand Versailles is. The gates and the building sparkle and each room you walk in is even more impressive than the last. It is so hard to imagine where these kings and architects were even to come up with such grand ideas for the entire chateau. There was one odd thing about our trip though, apparently there is an exhibition of Japanese art going on at Versailles right now. As you can imagine, the large Japanese sculptures stick out like a sore thumb when you walk through the castle, I can only imagine what Louis XIV would think if he knew that these were on display.
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| The Hall of Mirrors |
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After touring the inside of Versailles, we headed out to the even more impressive gardens. We had lunch at the cafe on the grounds and then wandered around. It was the prefect day, relaxing day. We sat by the canal and watched people attempt to row their boats (it was quite a struggle for some) and then made our way to Marie Antoinette's hamlet which is about a 10 minute walk from the gardens. As if the castle isn't enough, there are 3 more buildings out in that area. By the time we made it back, we were just in time for them to turn all the fountains on. This completely transformed the gardens. They were beautiful! The fountain of Apollo's Chariot was by far the most impressive, as was the Ballroom.
As most of you can probably see from my Facebook albums, I was completely at awe with how amazing these two places are and took more pictures than imaginable. I just can't believe what it would be like to live in one of these places or how you even think to building something so grand. Both visits to the chateaus were on days with perfect weather, which made it even more enjoyable.
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