Day 2 à Paris

Posting from Paris encore. The weather was the same as it was the day before, pretty hot. P2, bless his stuffing, isn’t taking the heat very well. Grunty claims he was made to take the heat. I beg to differ (he's got a flammable tag on his derriere, don't tell him I looked). I woke up early this morning (not this this morning, the morning of which I'm referring to, I guess I should say "this one morning"...) planning to spend the entire day at Versailles, the infamous palace of graphic French lore.

Getting there wasn’t so bad, although Versailles was basically the last stop on that particular line. The place was packed like no other. Entrance fee was 25 euro for the grand pass. That included the interior palace, the gardens, and another section of the estate that I think I went to but am not sure which part it was since there was just so much to see. It was crazy! Naturally P2 opted another day indoors in the safety of the air-conditioned rooms.With nothing else to do, the guy’s been watching French television all day. He was telling me about this Family Feud knockoff they have going on over here. At the final part, where one family member goes off into the sound-proof room, they music on for them and they always seem to make a spectacle of themselves. Show boaters all of them.

There were masses of people. I mean masses upon masses, people from everywhere. I'm sure I heard every major language spoken that day. The chateau itself was really nice, bright colors were really popular back then (notice the color palette between rooms). They had a lot of articles from the original castle out on display, and artwork that decorated the castle was gathered into a hallway for display.

After I went through the entire chateau (avec une audioguide), I headed out to the garden for a packed lunch. Sitting out there, watching the masses wander and take pictures I couldn’t help but feel as if I were in Disneyland. The sheer size of the place and the meticulous care given to the shrubbery made the whole thing very surreal. Nature a la France as a guide colloquially put it. Grunty loved the gardens, the castle not so much. Oh my gosh, and of course, the fountains were the main attraction. They were only turned on for a few hours each day as to not overtax the stone sculptures which are surprisingly in good condition (probably not so surprising, considering the amount of income they’re raking in). Here’s a picture of the Encelade.

The whole thing’s on a kind of grid system, symmetrical if you look at it from the back of the castle. Each fountain has a name and a theme. My favorite one would be the Colonnade grove, probably because it resembles an amphitheatre.

Second to that would be The Encelade Grove which uses volcanic rock or something that looks similar, to depict the fall of Enceladus (head honcho of the Titans). There were some other groves without fountains that I liked. The Queen’s grove is the one that comes into mind the most, because it felt a lot more like a forest than a garden. There were even paths one could take through the trees to bench ways under lots of foliage, it felt a lot like camping. I wasn’t able to see all the gardens before time ran out, but I think I got to most of them. There was some kind of super fountain show at the end, but I couldn’t’ see it really well since it was too crowded. Oh well.

They closed the gardens after that. I would’ve stayed for the night show, (which I regret not doing right now) but was too tired to do so. I headed home after that. This is definitely something you should not miss when you’re in Paris.

First Day :D

So here I am in France. The weather is as hot as it was in SoCal, if not warmer. Paris may not be near an ocean, but the bounty of greenery that the city likes to sport keeps is cooler than it could be. Leaving my house was a terrible chore. I was losing things left and right, leaving a giant mess in my wake. I finally just gave up and stopped packing and repacking. I’m just going to get the rest of my stuff en France.

Security at the airport was brief. Here’s a picture of Grunty and P2 at our station. We had come early, so P2 insisted we have hotdogs for lunch. I didn’t take it well on the flight, which was thankfully without any connections. P2 didn’t take the hotdogs well either so he opted to stay in his bag. Since it was a flight straight to Paris, the attendants assumed everyone spoke French. It was a nice segue into the country. I got to practice, even if it was just asking for shrimp instead of beef for dinner. I was more than a little shy about speaking up though, since I constantly felt like an imposter dealing in a foreign language. My banana juice turned into pineapples because of it. When I wasn’t sleeping, I spent my time playing “in-Flight Tetris” on the little screen on front of me. It was cramped but my first view of the Atlantic was wonderful. Hello new body of water.

Getting into the country was easy as pie. Just a five minute wait, a customs agent asking me if I spoke French (un peu), and then baggage claim. One thing I noticed about this French airport was the lack of noise D: It was eerily quiet, not much audible conversation. Is this the first piece of evidence for the American stereotype of being loud and obnoxious?? :o Grunty with my luggage. P2 stepped out to the restroom again.

I left the airport and arrived to my temporary Paris residence to find things cramped and smaller than America. It feels like everyone drives stick here, and their notions of personal space (or lack thereof) seemed to extend to their driving practices. I figured it more prudent to close my eyes than scream at the driver about how close he was to an accident. I don’t think he would’ve minded though, he seemed to enjoy doing it to everyone else on the road. I unpacked my stuff, and tried my very very hardest to stay awake. I left Pacific time around noon. The flight was ten hours. I arrived to a nine o’clock Paris. You do that math. If I can do it, so can you :D Turns out my brain can’t function without at least a little sleep, so I conked out for three hours.

I awoke and decided to see a sight before conking out for good. I took the metro to the Basilica of Saint Dennis, the saint that walked with his head in his hands (after it was detached). Grunty and P2 opted to stay home for this one so I went alone. There was a small entrance fee, but it came with an audio guide, an awesome invention if I do say so myself. I asked for a French one, but after going through the first audio selection twice to no avail, I opted for one in anglais. The tourist sites here are very English friendly. The audio guide was interesting to say the least, filled with lots of historical facts and things I can't remember anymore. The whole thing felt like an amusement park of sorts which makes me wonder how much money they are making off of us tourists. The nice thing about this place was that it was not crowded at all, but it had all the amenities a tourist would need: nearby public transportation, gothic architecture and artwork, stained-glass windows, creepy crypts. All in all I'd say this Basilica was a good first place to visit.

The Basilica was right in front of an Arab and African district, so I visited the open air marketplace that lined the street. There was a lot of bootlegged material everywhere, so it wasn’t what I expected it to be. There was some cool fruit though. I got some peaches and grapes for 2.50 euro a pound.
Yes. I know.

The rest of the day was unmentionable, and by unmentionable, I mean I can’t mention it or else no one would continue reading. That’ll be all for my first eventful post. Bon soir.