1/31/08

1/31/08 Today was thursday in Paris and I can honestly say that I am completely exhausted and cant wait to go back to our flat in London. English people are alot nicer and cleaner the the French. After breakfast today we went to this museum called the Orsay. It had tons of famous paintings like Renior and Van Gogh and Degas. Proffesor Ostraff lectured for our art class for the first hour and then we were free to roam around. My friend Amy and I saw this escalator that went up stairs and so we jumped on, what we didnt realize is that there were no stairs to come back down...so we got lost for a while. To our surprise those stairs led us to the coolest part of the museum...the ballerina paintings by Degas! And I actually bought two of the prints in the gift shop because I loved them so much. Some of us are so burnt out from looking at Museums that was had to sit down in the hall for a while and take a break because the French for some reason do have any where to sit in any museum (I figured that out early on). After the Orsay Museum we went to the Metro to catch an RER train to Versailles. The RER is a train that goes out to the suburbs of Paris and it is very convenient for tourists because it goes through the city itself. Well the RER is alot more complicated then the Metro because it travels farther and everything is in Frech once again! It took us three hours to get there, when we finally figured out where we were going we stopped at this little cafe where we bought our RER tickets and I bought this crab pita sandwich...so good! After we all had somthing to eat we were in a much better mood and so we got back on the train and headed to Versailles. When we got there we were all surprised because we were expecting it to be in the coutry because we have seen pictures of the gardens and everything. It was the exact opposite. There was city all around it and then you hit this road where you turn right and there is this huge old palace with gardens all around it. It was so cold outside and when we got there our first response was " lets get this over with." We were given these museum passes that let us into the palace and all over Paris for free so that was nice. When we got inside I bought this headset, best decision I have made this whole trip! It took me through each room of the palace on a guided tour telling me about all of the rooms and what took place in them. The palace was owned by King Louis and Marie Anntionnette, who was eventually beheaded. Each room is painted with a special design of either gold, silver, or red. This is the palace that is famous for having the "Hall of Mirrors." These people were so bizzare int he way that they spent money. Going to Verssailles was honestly the best part of the whole trip. I wish that I could go back in the summer to see the gardens and everything.
For dinner we went to this place by Notre Dame, there was a group of ten of us and we all got different kinds of Pizza's. I feel like I have spent so much money on food its insane...but really, I dont regret it at all because it all was so good!