Update part one.

Uggh. I just got back from a really good dinner, and I'm so full/content that I might throw up. It's a paradox that even I don't understand.

Ok, so admittedly I suck at updating this blog. My bad. Here, for the two and a half loyal readers I might have, is a semi-update while I try to get the rest of my thoughts out of my head and into a Word document.

I'm going to be better at this. Be back soon. Promise.


An extract from an update that has been sitting on my computer for a week:

Plenty has been going on, and at the same time, not much, so it’s hard to know what to update. We haven’t taken a weekend trip in the past couple of weeks, so nothing on that front. But this weekend is Normandy (!), so there should be some great new pictures come Monday. We’ll be visiting the beaches where the Americans came ashore on D-Day, the American cemetery, and Mont-St.-Michel, among other things. We’re also kind of obsessed with our bus driver, Saïd (he’s awesome), and I fully expect our meal times to be as epic as the first two lunches were. Little does Madame Maiden know, there will also be more karaoke on the bus this weekend. Good times ahead.

So…updates. Not much goes on during the week. Mainly classes, dinners en famille, and the occasional trip into Paris. An entry of “a day in the life” has been requested, so that will be coming soon. And since you know me, by now you know that “coming soon” means “November.” But it will happen. I promise.

I think the last thing I updated was our trip to various chateaux. So backing up about a week and a half (maybe two).

We visited the Musee du Louvre about two weeks ago. I had been once in high school with our exchange group, but it was much more interesting to visit having actually studied some of the art since then. The only problem with the Louvre is that it’s so darn big. There are 60,000 pieces of art (and history) in what was the royal palace before Versailles was finished. So naturally, it’s enormous. And confusing to walk around, because who ever heard of a royal palace that didn’t get you lost? Right.

Anyway, it’s really impressive, but since you would need approximately 4 years, 261 days, and 12 hours to appreciate it all, a 2 hour visit was a little daunting. We were instructed to hunt down 4 paintings to take notes on (and no, the Mona Lisa was not one of them), but surprisingly, we found that 3 of the 4 were closed. What are the odds, right? We later found out that they weren’t actually closed, but rather that we were on the wrong floor. Figures. We googled them anyway. And then went to look at other paintings. But after about 2 hours, we became overwhelmed by the vast array of art before us and went to find a crepe. You do what you have to to cope. It usually involves Nutella.

The following weekend, we had completely free. It was glorious. I got to sleep past 7:30, relax, and spend time with my family. The son came home for the weekend, so we had everyone present except for the 22-year-old sister who finds it difficult to commute home for the weekend from San Francisco. Saturday consisted of being absolutely lazy, and having a late lunch with my family. Steak – so yummy.

After lunch, I made my very leisurely way to Paris and spent about 3 hours doing nothing but exploring. I took some of the walking cards I had been given and went wandering around the Louvre, Tuileries, and Place de la Concorde just taking pictures and enjoying the sights. Since it was a gorgeous day, the Tuileries were swamped, but that’s because they’re beautiful. After Paris, I came back to Versailles and had dinner with Emily at a pizza place we had found the weekend before with pretty good deals. Sunday, the entire group had lunch together as a celebration for Kirstin and Dan. They ran the Paris-Versailles, a 16k from the Eiffel Tower to the gates of the Chateau. They got a sweet t-shirt for torturing themselves, and we get a really good meal courtesy of Furman at this creperie right next to the Chateau. My dessert crepe had literally the most amazing vanilla ice cream I have ever had. Incredible.

The following Wednesday, September 30th, we had our weekly trip into Paris for the Hotel des Invalides. It, like most old monuments in France, serves 3 purposes. It has a museum, is a monument, and is a church – the holy trinity in France (ha!). Literally. If someone asks you what something is and you don’t know, we’ve found that it will always be one of those three. In addition, it still serves as a hospital for the invalid (hence the name). It was nice enough, but the entire visit was basically wandering through a war museum being told the history of weaponry from the French Revolution on. For 6 of the group, it was relatively boring. Not to mention that Napoleon had a real complex. When we went into the church section and looked at his tomb, it’s enormous. He could literally have fit into 1/3 of the lid. The tomb in its entirety could probably hold an elephant or two. Not my favorite visit, but then weapons don’t hold a ton of interest for me. Emily, however, was inspired by the clothing to create a modern day fashion line based on Napoleon’s clothes. Although that might have just been boredom in civilization class.

To be continued...