Part Deux!

Upon a second thought, I realized that one of the days we definitely also walked around my neighborhood/ Pere Lachaise / my school, but have no recollection of what day that was. So I could very well be lying about any of the activities that occurred.

Either way! On Wednesday Dusty and I headed to Versailles. It was the first time I had been and it definitely did not disappoint. It was a pretty incredible place. The opulence was pretty stunning. On the left is the famous Hall of Mirrors, which pretty nicely captures how absurd the whole building was. The tour was cool to do, but the whole time I was just wondering what was in the parts of the palace they weren't showing us! We probably only saw 1/5 of the palace (total guess) but either way it was absolutely massive, and we definitely didn't see a whole lot of it.

The palace itself was pretty cool, but I absolutely plan on going back just to visit the gardens. The gardens are insanely huge. I don't think you could walk all of them if you tried. I think google told us that the garden is 80,000 acres. It had tons of fountains and different pathways through incredibly cut hedges. I am excited for when the statues get uncovered and the plants are all green because I definitely plan to have an awesome picnic there. I can just picture it, after finals are done and the world will be a great place.

 Either way, Dusty and I toured the whole palace then wandered into the town of Versailles and stumbled upon some really awesome thai food for lunch. We then walked back to the palace picking up what turned out to probably be the best eclair I have ever had in my life. We took our snacks back to the gardens and probably just spent two or three hours enjoying the incredible weather and the gardens. I think this was one of the warmest days I've experienced so far. I was walking around in just my cardigan and was completely content! In fact, I believe this was the day where the high in Paris was higher than in LA. Which was a big success in my books.

 That was most of our wednesday, besides that I think we went home and cooked dinner. We spent the better part of thursday and friday in museums which was cool, but incredibly draining. I think by the end we were both going a little crazy, as the pictures will attest.

We went back to Musee d'Orsay, which I ensured was actually open this time. They had a temporary exhibit of Degas works which was pretty cool, but their permanent collection was pretty insane. I really had no clue all that they had! They had a lot of Monet's works as well as Van Gogh. It felt pretty crazy to be standing so close to paintings that are so famous and that you have seen in print so many times. Being able to actually observe the brush strokes and paint use in Van Gogh's self portrait was pretty bad ass.

After we finished at d'Orsay we made our way to Laduree to grab some famed macarons then found ourselves a little cafe to get coffee at and enjoy our delicacies. God damn are they good. I really am obsessed. I think I should get a job at Bottega Louie back home. They give discounts, right?

 We then proceeded to wander over towards the Georges Pompidou center and eventually to a really yummy steak dinner. It was this super great little restaurant where pretty much all you can order is steak and potatoes, so it was right up my alley. Afterwards we walked home through the Bastille and got Dusty his first crepe since being in Paris. I'm pretty sure it was my crepe, and I also have no clue how he went so long without getting one....

 The next day we spent at the Louvre which is daunting on its own, but after spending the previous day at d'Orsay it was just ridiculous. We were clearly a little stir crazy by this point...

We spent most of Saturday and Sunday just being lazy and lounging around. And eating. That is definitely something we did a whole lot of while Dusty was here. It was ridiculous how much awesome food we had.

On his last night we made our way to a restaurant that had been highly recommended to me by a friend and damn was it could. It was a super small restaurant that when we arrived there at 7, when it opened, it was already nearly full of people.  The food was awesome though.

Overall, it was a pretty amazing break and great excuse to get me to walk my butt all over Paris. Its really nice to have a reason to get out and about and see more of Paris. I really can't get enough of this place. It really felt like I was on spring break too! Funny how having classes only 3 days a week can make feel like a vacation.

Though it's clearly over now! Its kind of a complicated system but for most of my classes this is week 8/10 and I have a whole bunch of group projects that are due in week 10. I don't know how all of these French kids are so unfazed. I guess I will just have an insane week or two and then it'll all be over.

I mostly am finished with my obligations by mid-April (minus one final) so I am definitely looking forward to that!