Close up: L’Arc de Triomphe

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to hang out with one of my old roommates in Paris!  I have to say, the next time you’re planning a reunion with friends you haven’t seen in a while, Paris is the place to go!  The weather was beautiful, the food was great, and we were able to walk from landmark to landmark for most of the day, seeing the sights while talking!  Unfortunately, I had to leave early after a frantic call from The Husband about our bathroom flooding due to a leak from the ceiling (darn those upstairs neighbors who left their shower on all day…), but it was still a fantastic day!

Right before we left, we spent an hour or so under the Arc de Triomphe.  Because we don’t actually go up close and look at it very often, I always forget how intricate and beautiful it is.   I couldn’t get over the detailing that had been done on this giant block of stone!  Hence all the photos…












If the weather looks gorgeous in these photos, thats because it was.  How I’m yearning for those days 0f 60 degree weather now that its in the 90’s and we don’t have ac….

Around Town

These past two weeks have been absolute mayhem — I’ve taken the GRE again (and totally DOMINATED!), lectured at my first college-level course, had job interviews, legality problems, appointments at the police station — you get the point.  Anyways, between all of these considerably less fun things (and writing a thesis…  Can’t forget about that, haha) we’ve found the time to do a bit of exploring around Paris, as well as planning some fun upcoming trips.  The favorite day so far?  Definitely when we explored the carnival at the Tuileries, followed by a walk to the Madeleine.

 









Versailles de loin

All of our Château visiting this year has brought me one invaluable bit on knowledge — where there is a Château, there will be swans, and where there are swans, there will inevitably  be baby swans.

I love baby swans.  Theres something about their gray fuzziness and their wings that are constantly flapping as they run about (although they’re much to tiny for their overly-large bodies still) that is just endearing.

So, during a week like this one (GRE, teaching, work, thesis-ing, and visa appointment -HOLLA!), I salute you tiny ugly swanlings.  You make my world happy, and that’s something that I am grateful for.


















Versailles de près

A few weekends ago The Husband and I headed out to Versailles on a Saturday and a Sunday, meaning that we had plenty of time to enjoy the free gardens.  Lucky (or not so lucky) for us, the weather was pretty sad that weekend, with highs in the upper 50’s and scattered showers, so while we did end up picnicking under an umbrella, the trade off was basically no tourists as we were walking around!  I’ll take that trade off any day — how bout you?

Here are some of the details of Versailles — I feel like if you try to take in the whole Château at once, you’ll be completely overwhelmed — the French weren’t the inventors of Rococco for nothing!


















Fontainebleau: jardins français

After picnicking in the English gardens (you know, since they speak English there and everything, we felt some sort of allegiance…), we headed over to the French gardens to enjoy the pristine land of straight lines, tiny shrubs, and ponds full of fish.

Speaking of ponds full of fish, The Husband and I sat down next to one and had a nice little chat for half an hour, with the fish trying to get our attention and everything.  Too bad a worker had to come up and ruin it by telling us that we couldn’t sit next to the pond.  Something about small children falling in and being a safety hazard or something…  Psh.




















Fontainebleau: Jardins anglais

We got to Fontainebleau around lunch time on purpose.  Aka, I was sick of having picnics on our bed when I felt like having a picnic, I wanted a real picnic and I wanted it right then, no matter that the temperature was only a balmy 59 degrees…  You know, this was much better weather for a picnic than the last time I made us go out (in February….).

After we had walked around the Château we meandered on over to the English gardens located next to the lake.  I’ve got to admit, there are much worse places to picnic in 59 degree weather….  The only drawback to our picnic was that we decided we were hungry right smack-dab in the middle of the “pelouse interdite” (keep off the grass) section.  Alas, we had to sit on a bench, so it wasn’t a real picnic, but we’ll let it pass since this was the first one of the season!




















Fontainebleau: Jardins

While the immensity of the castle itself is impressive, even more impressive are the gardens.  We spent a fair amount of time walking around, stuffing our faces (we do love a good picnic….) and generally frolicking (when there are fields and bridges involved,  who can resist?), but the sad thing was that we only found time to visit the lake, the English garden, the French garden, and the pond next to the old stables.  No canal.  No woods.

Obviously, we’ll have to take one for the team and go back to fit in the rest…  And now…. enjoy some lake shots!

 








Fontainebleau: Château

 

The Husband and I have been feeling the need to get out of Paris and spend some time elsewhere on a more regular basis lately, hence our goal to visit one town in the Ile-de-France region each weekend.  Lucky for us, with our métro passes we are able to travel anywhere in the region for free on weekends, so this past one we headed South of the city to Fountainebleau.  

Although I'd been to the château before, it had been almost 4 years.  And when I had gone I hadn't even had the chance to visit the gardens!  It's hard to believe that I forgot the enormity of this baby, but as soon as we got off the bus I was struck with the thought "Versailles looks dinky next to this guy."  

We spent the day wandering around the gardens, but before I do a post on that (guys, I took over 400 photos in one day its that beautiful.  So sorry, you'll have to bear through a few posts on this guy) I wanted to give you guys an idea of how beautiful this château really is.  

 

My advice?  If its peak tourist season, hit Fontainebleau up rather than Versailles.  Just as impressive without the bulk of the tourists.  We were all alone in most of the gardens.  Definitely a rocking place to have a picnic.












Orsay Street Art

Who knew that a little town outside Paris could have such amazing art decorating the buildings?  Let just say that The Husband was less than pleased by the amount of time that it took us to walk anywhere while we were here, haha.

Orsay, partie 2

Walking back from a hard days work accompanied with a view like this?

Weekends in France are hard to beat.