Today was our last full day in France on this leg of the trip and it didn't disappoint in terms of a variety of sights and emotions. We decided before leaving the states that we wanted to go to Versailles and that Tuesday was the best day to go. Unfortunately for us, Tuesday was the one day out of the three we spent in France that it was raining. Still, much of the cool stuff that we saw was inside the palace.
The inside of the palace was crazy. Again, it was just decked out in immense displays of wealth. We toured through the hall of mirrors. One side had 12 large windows showing views of the gardens and the opposite side had 12 large mirrors lining up perfectly with the windows.
We also moved very compactly (think sardines in a can) through the salons; places of dining and entertainment.
In one of the rooms there was a table set for the kind and queen to take their dinner. The only people they would allow to sit with them were their young family members.
We saw the king's bed chamber
and the queen's
After the crazy amounts of crowds inside it was a nice change to get out into the open and see the beautiful gardens. A shocking amount of people avoided the gardens altogether because they didn't want to get wet. Luckily, living in the Pacific Northwest for the last 5 years has trained us for times like these. We didn't even look for an umbrella. This particular day featured the "musical gardens and fountains" attraction where throughout the gardens classical and operatic music was playing the whole day. We saw a ton of different groves, statues, and fountains throughout the walk and ended up at Marie Antoinette's gardens. By the end of the day we were exhausted and bed was sounding nicer and nicer.
While it would be nice to just post on this blog all the good things that happened in our time abroad, it really wouldn't be honest of us and today was a particularly hard day. Obviously we were in a beautiful and extravagant palace with some of the most amazing gardens either of us had ever been in. Unfortunately sometimes other factors determine how your day goes.
In terms of things that can and do go wrong on a trip abroad, the list can seem endless. For us today it was sickness, bad weather, disagreeing with each other, strangers trying to con us and, as always, a bit of culture shock/homesickness.
I (Gabe) kinda feel like no matter how long a trip is or how far away a trip takes you we are all creatures of habit and when that habit gets broken it can take a little while to adjust. Also, if you don't pay attention to how you're feeling the emotions about missing routine can pile up, come out sideways, and all the sudden you're angry about something you wouldn't normally be angry about. One way I've seen this demonstrated the strongest is with my (Gabe again) nieces and nephews. They get so excited to see me and Amanda, or each other, and for a while everything is just awesome. They play together as unicorn train conductors for hours. Then suddenly something happens and it's not fun anymore. Whoever is present that shouldn't be needs to leave or the kids just need to get home. There is crying, sobbing, and screaming but of course the next day, after routine has been reestablished, they want nothing more than to go back over to someone else's house or have somebody over. Versailles was that moment for us and while we are in Europe I think that a movie marathon is in store for a couple of hours just to remind us of home.
*Note: This post was actually written a few days ago. We're currently in Amsterdam (few days behind on the blog…working on Germany post!) just wanted to check in to say that we're not all depressed anymore. Back to play time and exploring the world!
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