ma ville favorie. // my favorite city.

day five brought me the most beautiful city i have seen in my life. yes, i got to see the one and only versailles. i literally walked out of the metro station and knew that i wanted to stay here forever (except for not really... i miss my family too much to stay in france longer than i have to...).

before talking about versailles, i should start at the beginning of my day. i got to school around 8 am, and then madame and the group headed to a cafe for breakfast. my hot chocolate was delicious and so was the price of my new shoes. yes, people; i bought new shoes. they were only 5 euros and super cute! i couldn't pass them up! :) after purchasing the shoes, we headed to versailles by train. it took about an hour to get there, but the view from the train was lovely, so i enjoyed the trip. when we got to versailles, we stopped at a boulangerie to buy lunch because certain students hadn't packed a lunch. my french mom, cathrine, packed me a clementine, nutella sandwich, chips, kinder chocolate bars and an orangina to drink. however, we walked inside the bakery and it looked so good. i bought a quiche because it looked extremely appetizing, but when i actually held it in my hand, i felt like gagging. when i tasted the quiche, i actually gagged. it was gross... but, i didn't waste 3 euros for nothing -- i now know that i absolutely hate quiche!

after the boulangerie visit, we headed toward louis' chateau. oh mon dieu, it was gorgeous. i took about 50 pictures outside of the castle itself. and when we entered the castle, i died. it was so beautiful! there were so many intricate designs and each room was different. the paintings were spectacular and i couldn't believe how grand the castle really was. the pictures that i will post on facebook should convey my impression (well, i hope... my "artistic" photography doesn't always come out "artistic..."). it was absolutely splendid today in terms of weather, so we got to eat lunch in the garden. i loved it. then, we walked about a mile to get to marie antoinette's house. she has two of them - the 'grand trianon' and the 'petit trianon.' she lived well... lemme tell ya. anyhow, her smaller house was really cute and had a very romantic air. the bigger house was similar to louis' chateau -- very grand and very gold. i took so many pictures that my camera died! i was kind of upset about that...

after returning home (finally... my feet hurt so bad!), i went home with camille's grandfather and talked to her grandparents for quite some time. mathilde asked me to help her with her english homework and i found out that camille and i are going to her friend emilie's house tomorrow. joni is staying with emilie, so that should be fun! i'm also going to play handball tomorrow -- wish me luck! :)

overall, today was great. the architecture failed to disappoint me and i was able to experience amazing history. i think i'll remember versailles for the rest of my life (also the fact that i took more than 300 pictures at the chateau itself...).

i miss you guys and love you lots!
xoxo,
jyothi