#7 - Ah, Versailles!

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Today is Saturday. The sky started out cloudy but now, at 7 pm, the sun is out and the sky is blue. One thing that I have noticed is how long the daylight lasts here. It isn't dark by 10 pm and the streets are very busy much later than that.

I had an interesting day yesterday. I set out to explore by myself and made my way to "Little Italy" and Paris' Chinatown, which are side-by-side and at the same Metro station. The Chinese, although very visible here by their numbers, don't seem to accumulate in one part of the city, like in Richmond, for example. There were actually very few shops but quite a selection of Asian restaurants: Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese. And then, stuck in the middle of little Italy, I ran into an Irish Pub…what are the chances?!

I happened upon a nice shopping centre where I spent a couple of hours, mostly watching the people. I've been doing a lot of that since arriving. It seems strange to me to see people of various backgrounds all speaking French. Funny, huh? Of course, it makes sense when you think about it but my experiences of other cultures has, generally, been from the English perspective. Frame of reference is everything, I guess.

I managed to find two pharmacies where I was able to get some medicine for my feet. They've been taking a beating since I arrived. I got "home" at about 9 pm. I soaked my feet and then put on some of the cream that was recommended to be by the pharmacist. My feet were very happy to be up and resting. When I got up this morning, the metamorphosis in the skin of my feet was unbelievabl They're so much happier…and that means, so am I. This cream was so good that I'm going to try to buy a couple of extra tubes of it before I go home. Isn't that sad? Here I am in Paris and all I'm talking about are my feet!

Today, after lunch with Judy at the Tuileries (it was so good the other day that we thought that we might as well go there again, since it was across the street from where I needed to be by 2 pm. I had Boeuf Bourgignon that was to die for. Judy ordered the lasagna again because it was so good the first time.

At 2 pm, I boarded a bus and went to the Palace of Versailles. It was as beautiful as I remembered. And this time, I spent some time in the gardens - they're magnificent! The Hall of Mirrors is under renovation but half of it is still available for the public to enjoy. About three nights ago, Judy and I happened upon a television show (en français) that was showing us in detail the work that is being done on it. It sure dovetailed with my trip today. The detail that the conservateurs are dealing with is incredible, both of the building and the artworks.

I had a full 2.5 hours at Versailles and only saw the King and Queen's apartments and part of the gardens. I'm sure that it would take more than a week to see the whole palace and then probably another to see all the outbuildings. The outbuildings include the carriage house, stables, houses of the prominent people of the court who couldn't be put up at the palce-proper and special-purpose buildings that were erected on the palace grounds for such things as hunting and nature pursuits. And then, there was the "cottage" (of more than 10,000 square feet) where Marie-Antoinette could play "sheepherder." There were more than 5000 people on staff just to keep the palace operating on a regular basis and, imagine, a city of 30,000 sprung up in less than two years in the neighbouring city when Louis XIV offically moved there as a direct result of all the service people and suppliers that were also part of the operation. It's hard to get your head around.

I guess King Louis really knew how to throw a party but it was the richness and excesses of his lifestyle that was to be his and wife Marie-Antoinette's downfall. Some people just don't appreciate how lucky they are. I have bought a wonderful book about the palace so you can have a look at it later, if you like.

An interesting conversation occurred earlier today about snakes. This morning, while I was resting, Judy found herself at one of the metropolitan zoos. It was there that she found herself in a very large and very warm reptile house. Judy loves snakes but even she said that they had some very big snakes! Then our concierge, Thérèse, told us about an experience that she and her husband had while eating at a very upscale restaurant a few years back. As her family dined, they were visited by a very large snake that stuck its head up at the corner of their table. Thérèse told us that the proprietor tried to tell them that this was his pet snake but they didn't buy it. And apparently, Paris has a real problem with snakes at this time of year. Yikes! I'm sure that if one showed itself while I was dining, I'd die on the spot! So gross! I'm going to keep a watchful eye for the rest of my stay.

Well, that's all for today. Take care, eh? And watch out for snakes!

love,
~Linda.

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Comments

[normcc]

snaky
very interesting. enjoyed the castle tales and of course the snake at the table was pretty cool too :)

[Mado]

snakes? est-ce possible?
I never realized there were snakes in Paris. Is that like the aligators in the New York City sewers? Well, yes, it is very light at 2200 because it IS the summer solstice and wouldn't you know it, France is on a 2 hour daylight saving, not just one like here. They are permanently one hour ahead of their regular time zone and another hour ahead from April to October... Just thought you'd like to know that... Au réservoir mon amie