Versailles

Strange Things About Europe, Volume 1
1) I saw a couple making out inside Notre Dame. I know Paris is the city of romance, but Notre Dame is still a church.
2) I heard a young British boy who was probably about 10 years old singing There She Goes, most recently recorded by Sixpence None The Richer. I had no idea they were popular over here.
3) On the Eiffel Tower, a British professor with his class of elementary aged students were looking for the “lift” to the top level. He asked me where it was… in French. Perfect French as far as I could tell. Now I ask you, do I look the slightest bit French to you? I answered him in English, and he looked rather embarrassed. I think it was because he thought he had replicated the accent and everything, but through it all I (being French) still knew he was British and that French was his second language.
4) There is a car in France that is small enough to back into (perpendicular) a parking spot that you are supposed to parallel park into. I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s the wussiest thing I’ve ever seen.

So today I went with my grandmother to Versailles. Today’s weather was not nearly as good as yesterday. It was drizzling all day, and it had to be in the 40s. So today was the perfect day to tour Versailles because for the most part the whole thing can be done indoors.

Since I’m such a big fan of art and architecture (though I confess I know nothing about it), I thought Versailles was amazing. My grandmother had been once before but she loved it all the same. In particular there was one painting of Joan of Arc that I was absolutely transfixed by. It’s a war scene of course, but Joan seemed completed detached from what was going on around her. Her eyes were gazing up to the heavens. And she had this look of complete calm and serenity on her face. I could have studied and marveled at that painting all day.

Because of the weather we took on less today. We went on two tours at Versailles and called it a day. Tomorrow is my last day in France and I’m going to go to the Louvre. At around 7:30 PM local time my sleeper train leaves for Florence. I’ll arrive at my stop about 12 hours later. I’m not sure when I’ll next be able to update my journal. I know tomorrow I’ll be too busy. As for Thursday, it depends on whether I can find an Internet cafe in Florence that day or if I’ll have to wait until we have some of the orientation sessions to tell me where one is.

I am feeling much better today, so to all those who prayed for me, thank you. My travel to Florence is my newest prayer request. Mostly I’m worried about things being stolen, as they say that occurs with alarming regularity on sleeper trains. That’s all I can think of right now. I will talk to you again soon.