Sweet Disposition: An American Girl in Paris Part Deux

I’ve been awful at blogging lately but I’m planning on getting caught up with it all now! So get ready to hear some stories. I just moved into my apartment in Monaco, but I’ll get to that later. I still need to finish talking about my Paris trip…it seems like it was ages ago!

But first let me let me clear up something about my last post. The obnoxious woman I met in the store on the first night in Paris was American (I guess that’s where we get our bad rep from with the French). Apparently she’s from Maryland and spends 6 months out of the year in Paris. I also forgot to mention one more little insult she threw at us (sorry but this woman really made me cranky). She kept telling Catherine and me that we had the most interesting accents and she just couldn’t place it. “You just have the strong eeeeehhhhh sound to it whenever you talk,” she said while she proceeded to make a noise similar to that of a dying cat.

Anyway, enough about crazy lady. We got up pretty early on our second day in Paris so that we could go see the Palace of Versailles. We went to a French bakery right around the corner from our hotel, grabbed some delicious pastries and caught a taxi to Versailles. We were there by 8:30 a.m. and I’m so glad we got there early because we were able to get to the front of the line, which turned out to be hundreds of people deep by the time we had finished our tour. This palace was one of the most amazing and elaborate things I have ever seen. I literally don’t think I have seen so much gold in all of my life. Everything from the gardens to the hallways was just unbelievably lavish. We were able to walk around the palace at our leisure with a headset that explained the significance of each room. Here are a few fun facts I learned:

In the past, the palace used to be the king’s residence and place for welcoming official foreign visitors along with growing diplomatic relations with other nations. It is praised to be one of the Seven Wonders of the modern world.
· It was first constructed in 1661 and was modified in 1668 and was perfectly finished in 1688. The total duration was 27 years with the collaboration from more than 30,000 laborers.
· Versailles is an ancient town of France situated in the suburban area of Paris. King Louise XIII went there to hunt animals. Because of this, he kind commanded the construction of his private hunting lodge in 1624.
· Later, during the reign of King Louise XIV, he wanted to make the world recognize the wealth and abundance of France. As a result, he ordered the demolition of the old lodge of King Louis XIII and replaced it by constructing the new marble palace.
· In 1789, there was a big revolution in France because the citizens did not like the extravagance of King Louis XIV. The king spent citizens’ taxes extravagantly while the citizens had to suffer from poverty. From this reason, the citizens gathered in seizing the palace and capturing King Louise XIV along with his royal family to be imprisoned. Then, they sentenced him to death on the guillotine with his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette.
· The palace and garden are set on 19,262 acres, and the total site is larger than the island of Manhattan.
· The construction of the palace cost 116,438,892 livres. This is equivalent to $2 billion in today’s terms.

The pictures simply do not show how extravagant this place was. It was absolutely amazing. After our visit to Versailles, we took the metro back to Paris and got lunch (escargot included). We then hopped on the same bus tour that we had done the day before and looked at some more sights. We got off at the Notre Dame Cathedral where we got to see beautiful gothic architecture. When we stepped inside, mass was taking place, and the choir kind of provided a musical background to our tour! It was hard to take in all of the beautiful stained glass windows…there was so much to look at all at once! Since I learned so much at all of these places I just feel compelled to share them all with you…so here are some fun facts about the Notre Dame Cathedral:

· Construction of Notre Dame Cathedral began in 1163 during the reign of Louis VII, and was completed around 1345.
· In 1793, during the French Revolution, Notre Dame Cathedral was looted and damaged, and images of the Virgin Mary were replaced by those of Lady Liberty. Restoration work began in 1845 and lasted 25 years.
· Notre Dame Cathedral is the most popular monument in France, even more popular than the Eiffel Tower. Thirteen million people, a mixture of tourists and worshippers, visit every year.

Right around the corner from Notre Dame was Sainte Chappelle, which I was told I simply had to visit. Sainte Chappelle is a Gothic Chapel that was sponsored by Louis IX of France. It was originally built to house precious relics such as Christ’s crown of thorns, the Image of Edessa and thirty other relics of Christ that had been in the possession of Louis IX. When we walked in, there were pretty stained glass windows and uniquely painted columns around a statue of Louis IX at the very front of the church. To our right there was a very narrow spiral staircase, and opened up into a large room full of floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows. It was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. I had trouble taking it all in at once, but once I did, I could see that there were very tiny pieces of glass that formed an image, that was then part of a larger image. It was truly breathtaking. Again, pictures can’t capture its beauty.

After Saint Chappelle, we finished our the bus tour, window-shopped for a little while, and then headed back to our hotel. That night, we decided we wanted to try a little bit of the Paris nightlife. At the front desk we were told that Rex night club was the best place to go, and it was relatively close. We took a cab there at around 11:30 and when we walked up to the door they told us they didn’t open until midnight. I guess Parisians like to do it late-night. We grabbed a beer at a bar close by until Rex opened and then excitedly busted through the doors ready to dance the night away only to be stopped and told it was a 15 euro cover to get in. We all sucked it up and paid the 15 euros only to walk downstairs to find a completely empty dance floor (with the exception of two guys who looked like they weren’t quite sure where there were or who they were, but just decided to dance anyway), and a drink list where the cheapest drink cost 10 euros. After a solid ten minutes we decided to just leave and find a new spot. The woman who was collecting the cover charge told us it didn’t usually get good until 2 a.m. and that we would have to re-pay if we wanted to come back (she said it in a way that sounded like, “I dare you to step a foot out the door and try to find somewhere else.”). I don’t know about the French but by 2 a.m. I’m on my way to my bed, and that’s on a rowdy night. Not worth it. We went to a bar a little ways down the street which turned out to be a much better option. We actually met some friendly people and had a good time, without a cover charge. One person I met was trying very hard to carry on a conversation with me in English and asked if I could speak any French at all because his English wasn’t that good. When I told him no, he asked if I knew any Spanish. Excited to hear of a language I had actually studied before I said, “yes, I learned some Spanish in high school! Lets try it!” Mistake. He turned into Speedy Gonzalez on me and I felt even more awkward than before. “Oops, maybe I don’t know Spanish as well as I thought.” That’s when a taxi pulled up and we all climbed in at went back to the hotel. From now on I just tell people I only know English, and not a stitch more.