Phew! Another busy day. Apparently we aren’t allowed any relaxing days on this trip, though. Maybe things will be a bit quieter this weekend.
Sara’s teacher Ellen invited us to join her class on a nine-hour day trip to Fontainebleau and Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte. Ellen was so positively wonderful, and we really lucked out being on this tour today! We got a free ride on the bus, a free picnic lunch, free entrance to Vaux-le-Vicomte, and I got free entrance to Fontainebleau. What should have been a €70+ day ended up costing us €12! Merci beaucoup, Ellen!!!
Mom was a little hard to wake up this morning, but we made it out the door and to Sara’s dorm one minute ahead of schedule, despite my being trapped in a metro station at one point because I misplaced my exit ticket. A nice Parisian woman let me follow her through the gate. Whoops!
The bus ride was chilly with the air conditioning, but I slept most of the way, nonetheless.
Fontainebleau’s buildings were short but wide-reaching.
The interiors were charming…
But the facade and its famous horseshoe staircase were much more impressive.
Some more rooms were to be viewed in the main part of the castle after entering through this grand staircase.
After a lovely tour by Ellen, we were free to roam the gardens and admire the swans in the small pond.
Then back onto the bus for a drive to Vaux-le-Vicomte.
We had a little picnic outside of fruit and sandwiches, but the masses or yellow jackets quickly turned our settle meal into a whirlwind of running and frantic, periodic yelping. These yellow jackets seem to be everywhere in France, and they are not scared of swatting hands. It makes eating outside a risky adventure every time!
We got another tour of this castle, which belonged to the young King Louis IV’s trusted advisor, Nicolas Fouquet. Unfortunately for the advisor, young Louis IV was so maddeningly jealous of this man’s showy display of wealth and power in this mansion that he was tried for treason and imprisoned for the rest of his life! Louis IV then went on to copy and emulate much of the design in Versailles later on. The story made me so sad for Fouquet! Kings can be so pig-headed….
Ellen kept saying that this was a small house, but it took us just as much time to walk through here as it did at Fontainebleau.
The gardens, on the other hand, were much more extensive, manicured, and designed in an orderly fashion. I wish we would have had the time and energy to walk the whole garden, but at our sleepy pace, that likely would have taken two hours.
Oh. And we accidentally twinned again. I swear this wasn’t even planned!!!!!
We had some fun with pictures on our own before it was finally time to turn back to the bus.
Sounds like a full day, no? Well, according to Mama, no.
I just wanted to take a nap, but Mom wanted to see all of Paris, and Sara was willing to oblige. So after much pulling and nagging, we were up and out once again. This time, we headed to meet our friend Thailer from back in Auburn! He was here just for the day on a little European adventure of his own, so we met up for some flower-shaped gelato.
We took our gelato and ventured over to Sara’s favorite place in Paris, Jardin du Luxembourg.
It was quite a sight, and a lovely retreat from the bustling city streets!
I thought we would never convince Sara to leave. She was so content to just lay in the grass and chat all night. We finally pried her away from the grass to walk around a bit more.
We stopped at a little cafe for some hot chocolate and wine…
We grabbed some deeeelicious hot dogs along the way…
And then….
Woohoo! The Eiffel Tower! Finally! Strange to have been here four days without ever catching a glimpse, and this was Mama’s first time seeing it.
I don’t think I could ever take enough pictures from enough angles to be satisfied that I had captured the surreality of being underneath the Eiffel Tower with my mom and sister in Paris! Sara couldn’t stop voicing her disbelief at the same event.
Hahaha sorry for so much leg action there from Thailer.
We had to stay around to see the sparkles, though!
It was a lovely and mesmerizing foodless picnic. I didn’t want to leave, but suddenly everyone else was tired and had crawling into bed on their agendas. How come they couldn’t just nap with me early to gain some energy!? Psh.
Anywho. We had a good time today, but we have another early morning tomorrow! Talk soon!
Bonne nuit,
-Lizzy-wa