Weekend
4: September 6th – September 7th 2014
Saturday, September 6th
We
woke up early this morning to take an hour train ride out to Fontainebleau to
see the châteaux. The châteaux is huge and a lot of important people have
stayed there (King Louis VII, Philip Augustus, Louis IX, Henry II, Catherine de’Medici,
Napoleon Bonaparte, Pope Pius VII, etc.). It’s very similar to Versailles, but
a little older and less well known. Some of the neat things in the châteaux
were some of Napoleon’s stuff (clothing, furniture, swords, etc.) and the bed
that was made for Marie Antoinette (that she never used). The châteaux
had a conglomeration of 4 or 5 gardens around it and a grand canal.
After the châteaux
we walked around the small city a little bit and bought some lunch for a picnic
in the nearby forest. The forest of Fontainebleau used to be a royal hunting ground,
but well…now it’s not. We had a nice little picnic in the forest then headed
back to Paris for dinner.
We went to church that night and then had dinner off
the Champs-Élysées. We chose a very eclectic but nice
Asian restaurant. It was getting dark so we took a stroll around the Triangle D’Or (Golden Triangle) near the Champs-Élysées then watched the Eiffel Tour light
up at 9. The tower glitters for five minutes every hour on the hour at night. We
then got some soft serve ice cream and called it a night.
Sunday, September 7th
Today
was a busy day. We spent the morning planning out the rest of our weekends here
in France. After that we headed to the
Jardin du Luxemburg – a huge and beautiful park in the 6th arrondissement of
Paris. We got a crepe (chicken and mozzarella for Stuart) and a sandwich on the
way (a delicious jabon cru et fromage de
chèvre or smoked ham and goat cheese sandwich for Stevie). After eating our
picnic in the park we walked around and found the very pretty fountain there
that Marie had built (Medici Fountain). This park was made in 1612 for Marie de’Medici
as well as her Luxembourg Palace that now houses the French Senate.
After the gardens we found the oldest church
in Paris, l'église saint germain des prés (St. Germain’s church). This
church was built in 558 as an abbey then rebuilt in 1014. This church sits in
the ‘Latin Quarter’ of Paris because the abbey donated some land for the
University of Paris where Latin students came to study. After the church we moseyed
over to Shakespeare and Company English bookstore only to get stopped by a huge
herd of rollerbladers through the streets of Paris. We also saw the fountain
for St. Michael on the way. ALSO along the way was Notre Dame, so we stopped
for some pictures. Finally we made it to the tiny little English bookstore
where writers like Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound gathered.
After the bookstore we went
over the bridge in Paris just off of the Notre Dame, which happened to have
thousands of locks on it. It’s on THE ‘love lock’ bridge, but it sure looked
like it. We finally made it to our destination, the world famous ice cream shop
of Berthillon on the Île Saint-Louis. After that, our feet were ready to take us home.
On
the agenda for next weekend…possibly Loire valley! (Castles, castles, and more
castles!)
Bons
baisers (lots of love),
Stevie
and Stuart
Your photos of Fountainebleau are beautiful - it's difficult to imagine such extravagance, but fun to look at!
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