Of course you Caen

Hello from Normandie!

We have arrived safely in Caen, Normandie, to blustery Oregon-like weather and much better food than that of "Le Triomphe" (NOT a triumph in our opinion).

Its nice to be out of the city for a while. The last couple days of our first Paris tour were filled to the brim! It seems like the entire world is traveling abroad as I was blessed enough to see Julia, Sarah, Elizabeth, AND Marta in the span of, oh, I don't know, three days. It was fantastic but tiring. (ps the weather in Paris has turned its face toward sun!!! I even got a random sunburn!)
Sarah, Julia, and I walked around Pere Lachaise cemetery. It is so beautiful and GIGANTIC, housing the graves of Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Guillaume Appolinaire, Moliere, Jean de la Fontaine, Balzac, Maria Callas, Jim Morrison, Chopin, Heloise et Abelard, the list goes on and on. However, some of the most beautiful, breathtaking tombs were dedicated to random families. It is interesting because one doesn't just buy a grave. Its more like you RENT a grave, and have to pay continually.
Then we had dinner at Chez Papa and basically crashed. The next day I attended an Evangelical church service with my class and met up with mes amies as we walked all around the latin quarter, visited the Pantheon
(home to the crypts of Voltaire, Jean-Jaques Russeau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola, Madame Curie, etc). Also, it was really cold in there. So of course we had to stop for gelato on our way to the blossoming Luxembourg Gardens. Then it was a sprint to about three different closed metro stations and the hotel so sarah and julia could catch their train. Which I don't think they did...

Then the next day Marta came into town! We set up to meet at Notre Dame, which was not very smart as there are two sides and about a gazillion people. After 30 minutes of searching we finally found each other! It was beautiful. We walked all around, to the Luxembourg Gardens (again, BEAUtiful), Shakespeare and Co, Les Jardins des plants, the Flower Market, and the Paris Mosque tea room for some delicious sticky sweet mint tea. This was followed by a brief visit inside the mosque and then me going back to my hotel room to do laundry in the bathtub. Later that night we all met up with Elizabeth and walked all along the Eiffel Tower and had wine and chocolate.

The day after that was wonderful as well (aside from the seam on my pants ripping at Versailles). We got up early and took the metro and RER to Versailles. After being in the Loire in the off-season, the palace itself was a bit of a let down. We felt slightly like a herd of cattle, surrounded by twelve tour groups of people breezing through each room running after their tour guide's uplifted umbrella.
However, the grounds outside were not disappointing in the least. Seriously, if you ever visit Versailles, RENT A BIKE.
Best. Decision. Of the day. We rode through the countryside by fields of sheep and Marie Antoinette's hamlet where she played "little poor person", on bumpy old country paths through woods and wide field expanses, and next to the gigantic reflective pool, under rows of trees in a group singing sound of music.
I am so joyful that I will be able to remember this experience for the rest of my life. It was one of those moments.