Exploring Paris

This morning, we drove the car to the Palace of Versailles, which was about a half an hour’s drive from our hotel. The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the car, was that it was hot. The warm air immediately hit my body as I stumbled out of the car. I then saw one of the most beautiful gates I’ve ever seen. It was gilded in gold leaf and had very intricate designs. The gold complimented the black steel rods, which reached high up in the sky.

Once I walked through the intriguing gates, I immediately saw the huge palace and all the people waiting in line. We showed a worker our “front of the line” tickets, and we were placed behind everyone else. Apparently, everyone in the line already had their tickets. They were just waiting in line to pass through security. I thought to myself, What did I get myself in to? There were so many people… The line weaved back and forth three times! Even though there was a long line, everyone moved quite fast. We were at the security check point after 45 minutes, which isn’t too bad for a popular tourist attraction.

The palace was very beautiful and elegant. Almost every single ceiling was vibrantly decorated with murals. The murals were also adorned with gold leaf, which helped enhance the paintings’ beauty. The ceilings were just as magnificent as those in the Louvre. The only difference was that Versailles didn’t have as many rooms as the Louvre. 🙂

Many rooms were decorated in the style of the 16 and 1700s, including Mary Antoinette’s room. We also saw the Hall of Mirrors, which was very beautiful and huge. The hall was very long and seemed more elegant with the chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling.

Then we saw the garden, which at first wasn’t particularly fascinating because of the huge dirt roads. Then, I saw the newly clipped green grass and carved trees. A huge man-made lake was also in sight. At first, it just seemed like a regular man-made lake, but then I learned that it was built over night! It was so big, I don’t even understand how the King could’ve arranged that. There must have been thousands of workers who worked all night to build it. I also found out that the lake was built for Mary Antoinette as a birthday gift. How many people get huge lakes for their birthday? Haha, not me!

Garden

One of the fountains

Another fountain

We went to go get something to eat, just a couple of sandwiches, when I experienced something very different. I saw a man come out of the bathroom and he was just acting so strangely. He studied his hands and twisted them around in odd angles. He wobbled from side to side as he took staggering steps forward. He stopped and peered at the weirdest things. I soon found out that he was on drugs. It freaked me out a bit, because I haven’t seen any “high” people before, at least not so close to me. My family and I left our spots to go explore more of the garden, when I noticed that he was following us. Luckily, he didn’t bug us any more than that, and he also wasn’t violent. He was just quiet and calm, very interested in particular things. It was sad that that had to happen in such a nice place as the Gardens of Versailles, but you don’t need to go through security for the gardens. Anyone can get through.

Anyway, I had a very nice time in Versailles, but it did get very hot. It was about 39 degrees Celsius at one point (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit). The palace was definitely worth the 3 and a half hours of my day.

We soon went to the hotel to rest our feet. We were so tired from walking and standing, we just needed some time to relax. My sister and I watched some Netflix while sitting comfortably on some nice chairs. We were soon up and out of the hotel to go walk to the famous avenue, Champs-Elysees. Before walking down the street lined with brand stores, we took a detour to the Arc de Triomphe. The monument was enormous! The carvings on it were very fascinating and reminded me of the Louvre. We climbed the stairway all the way to the top, and the view was spectacular. We could see all of France from up there. The Eiffel Tower was in plain sight, along with Notre-Dam. I absolutely loved Arc de Triomphe, and it’s one of the highlights of my trip.

Arch de Triomphe from a distance

The view from the top

We exited the monument and walked down the famous street. We saw designer stores with guards standing in the entrances. We passed a Louis Vuitton store that had a line of women waiting to get in. I wanted to see inside the store, but I was so sick of waiting in lines that I passed the chance. I went to go see other stores like Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger. Though, everything was so expensive considering that most of the items were clothes and purses. They don’t even last that long. Clothes wear and tear very easily, so what’s the point of spending 60 dollars for one shirt?

After that, we ate some Haagen Daz ice cream and dinner. At the restaurant, I accidently dropped my camera on the floor, not thinking that there was a lot of damage. The problem was I literally dropped the whole camera facing down on its lens. When I opened my case, the cap was smudged into the UV filter, which means that I can’t take off the lens cap to take pictures. Thankfully, I can take off the UV filter, but then the lens wouldn’t be protected from the sun’s rays.

Even with that problem, I joined my sister and my dad to go see the Eiffel Tower (finally). As we neared the tower, I became more and more excited. It was so huge! It stretched out for 100s of feet above my head. When I looked at it, it didn’t even feel like the tower was there. It was just so far over my head, that it didn’t even look like it was real.

I was soon let down when I saw the line to get into the tower. Our passes didn’t work, so we had to buy tickets. That meant  waiting for over 45 minutes. My sister and I couldn’t handle waiting around longer, so we went back home to the hotel.

Now that I think about it, I had a pretty awesome day. I saw the Palace of Versailles, climbed up the stairs in the Arc de Triomphe, went into stores that only rich people can afford, ate some delicious ice cream, and saw the Eiffel Tower close up. This really was a day of touring Paris and just having a journey of a life-time.

The Old City of Colmar

I woke up this morning with heavy blankets over me, paintings depicting France hanging on the walls, and flower-painted cabinets beside me. I really did feel like I was in an ancient place, in a good way. The hotel is hundreds of years old, dating back to 1381. The hotel’s exterior is just gorgeous with its very rustic wooden shutters, painted walls, and hanging old signs.

After admiring my hotel room for the hundredth time, I got ready to have my first French breakfast. My family and I with some friends went to a nice restaurant around the corner. Once we found our seats, we greeted our waiter and ordered. Most of us had an order of the “standard” French breakfast: a croissant and baguette with complimentaries such as butter and honey. We also received a hot drink and orange juice. The breakfast was very good, even though it was a lot of bread. The croissant was just amazing. It was my favorite part of the meal.

We soon went exploring in the city, Colmar, which is absolutely gorgeous. I’ve never been in a city like Colmar, ever. All the buildings were so old, ranging from the 1300s and up. I was amazed that these old buildings still exist. They were most likely restored, but the history this city holds is so fascinating. I absolutely love history, since I’m an archaeology freak 🙂 haha. So this is the perfect town for me. It’s almost like I can feel the history. In a way, I picture how people used to live here and how this city looked like so long ago.

I admired the city as we walked around everywhere, basically getting lost. We finally found a shopping center and found a little tour train next to it. We decided that that would be a great way to see the whole city and learn its history. After waiting five minutes, we hopped on and got our selves comfy.

We passed by some very old buildings, many archaeology museums, and a very old church. The church’s roof is made out of copper tiles, which have rusted from its exposure to the oxygen in the air. Because of this, the tiles were a very bright green and it was just amazing to look at. It was so beautiful and in a way exotic.

Taking the small train was cool, but also a little frightening. It weaved through some very narrow streets, where people were walking. All of a sudden, the train stopped. We waited a couple of minutes until we found out that there was a car blocking the street in front of us. While we were waiting, groups of people slid in between the train and the wall. I was shocked when a woman was pushing a stroller in front of her through that tiny little gap. Surprisingly, she was able to fit the stroller, but the train started moving. I thought the train would drive right into her or the stroller, but she made it out safely.

We walked around for a couple of hours, looking around and doing some window shopping. We saw some people taking a boat through a narrow river, just like in Venice. People actually call that part of town Little Venice. We sat down and had lunch  right next to where the boats were riding. We ordered some light food, fish and salads. We thought the quality of the food would be like yesterday’s dinner, since the prices were about the same. But, no. It was like we were on a whole other planet. The fish I ordered was perfectly cooked and the salad was nicely plated. The food was basically decorated on the plates and it  looked very appetizing. It was my first time ever eating a whole fish with bones and head still attached. Even though it looked a little frightening at first, I cut into it and ate it up like a pig, It was just very delicious.

Fried trout with a salad

For dessert, we had a delicious crème brülée with a perfectly hardened top and soft cream below. I recommend this restaurant for anyone who’s going to Colmar, France. The restaurant is called Les Bateliers. It really is a great restaurant and definitely worth a visit.

Crème brülée

I was literally sitting right over the river,

My sister and I went on a shopping spree when we were finished eating. We tried to find the shopping center we found earlier, but it was tougher than we thought it would be. We basically walked a full circle and had to start all over again. We finally found the place after a while of looking around, not know where the heck we were. Once we found the place, all we did was look around. Further down the street, we went into a French book store, and I finally bought what I wished for: the first Harry Potter book in French. I really don’t want to lose my French, so I thought it would be a good idea to start reading French books. Though, Harry Potter is going to be a little bit difficult to read in French. Oh well, I have to live with it. 🙂

My sister and I met with the adults later and we all went to go on the boat ride. Once I jumped into the boat, I got my camera all set up to take pictures. Then, all of a sudden, the whole boat swayed to the left and then to the right. I swore, it could’ve tipped over. I turned behind me and my dad was the one moving the whole boat! Gosh, it scared me so bad. I was sure we were going to tip over at some point in the trip.

Once we pushed off the wall, we glided on top of the water and I took a ton of pictures. Then, suddenly, my camera stopped working. I looked at the camera to see what was wrong, and I saw that the memory card was full… My 64GB memory card was full! Wow, I was not expecting that. I must’ve taken like thousands of pictures for it to already be full. When the tour was over, we walked all the way back to the mall and bought a new memory card. This time 32 GB.

When I went to go pay for the card, the lady behind the desk started speaking in French. I just looked at her, and didn’t say a thing. I was really concentrating on what she was saying. I then figured out that she said I had to go to another cash register and get the card out of the box.  I replied with a couple of “oui ” and a “merci”. I think she thought I spoke French, but she kind of gave me a weird look. Probably because I looked kind of lost and confused. Anyway, I understood her and I was proud of myself for pretending to speak great French.

Well, that was my day today. It was amazing to finally get into my hotel room and just rest. My feet are literally killing me, and it was about time to get some rest.