Stars in the sky!

Coming back to Paris with Ryan, after a week in Rome, felt like coming home. It is so difficult to travel to a country where you can only say 15 words and count to 100! French may be difficult but at least I can get directions or ask what exactly is in a particular pastry (especially important to know). It was also nice to be in Paris because my friend Marjerie let me use her small apartment, in the center of town! We could cook meals instead of going through the stressful process of finding a restaurant every day and night (not to mention the stress of paying! $$$). And an apartment just seems more like home than a stark hotel room.

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My favorite day by far was the day we visited the chateau of Versailles. I've been through the chateau part before but this time Ryan and I ventured down into the Versailles gardens too. We saw the grand canal built by Louis XIV and ate a quick lunch at a snack bar. We almost rented bicycles but then decided to walk instead; it wasn't exactly a sunny day but it was actually warmer in rainy Paris then in bright sunshiny Rome! So we went by foot to the smaller chateau, hamlet, and gardens built by Marie Antoinette, about a mile away from the larger palace. She missed her "simpler" life in Austria so she built this Home Away From Home that celebrates the outdoors and the beauty of nature. The small stone house she had built is charming and feminine. We saw her blue flowery sitting room and her bright pink and white floral bedroom (see left). (She wasn't living here when the revolution occured. She was back in the larger castle of Versailles when the palace was stormed. The queen ran from her room to the king's rooms for safety, via a hidden passage, when the peasants broke in that night. Otherwise she could have been killed on the spot.)

Her gardens were fun to explore because there are crags, old footbridges, steep climbs, crooked trees, and waterfalls to discover.

Tangent: one thing that Ryan and I noticed is that all of our pictures look exactly the same because we wore the same coats and scarves everyday! (Example at left, me in Marie Antionette's gardens.) It was a cold February in Europe - not the ideal environment for self-expression through fashion. Stars in the sky! After a whole winter of scarfs and boots, I can't wait for summery clothes. Shiny sandles, soft, flowing skirts, jewel-toned tank tops! They seem like a nice dream from where I sit - in my thick sweater over a long sleeve shirt and, as always, pants.

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My birthday came and went while we were in Paris and then Ryan had to go home, which made me more than a little homesick. But I felt better after returning to Angers and resuming my normal, working life here. This week I am actually going to English Camp every day with one class of 5th graders. It's nice to play games and not have to prepare any lessons, for a change, but I'm working double my usual hours and not getting paid any more! Today is Wednesday, which means no school for primary students; I am going to see a small island on the Loire River with Katrin and Lee, two other assistants from Germany and England respectively. Then tonight we are going in a group to see a German movie called Waves - in German with French subtitles!