July 18

(Fountain Bleau)

Today is our last day in Paris. The perfect ending to an incredible stay here! We had the morning to ourselves so we got to sleep in a bit, I spent way too much time uploading pictures onto facebook (the internet was running incredibly slow), and got ready to go on a little trip. At two o’clock we met our whole group in the lobby at the hotel and boarded a bus that would take us straight to Fountain Bleau. Woo woo! My feet are MOO-EEE grateful! Now we were able to see what came before Versailles. This house (if you can call it that) once home to Napoleon is pretty grand but not quite like Louis the IVs digs.

(a chair i really like)

(beautiful corridor filled with books)

We had headsets that guided us through each room and actually got to see where the Pope was imprisoned. Oh Napoleon! I enjoyed our tour of Fountain Bleau. There seems to be a lot of unique architectural features that gives Fountain Bleau its own identity. But I have to say that my favorite is Vaux. That’s our next stop, but first...

We jumped back on the bus and the driver took us to a grocery store to get food for our picnic at Vaux le Vicomte. I’ll just call it Vaux. Vaux was the palace to Nicolus Foquet. Apparently Foquet threw a off the hook party at Vaux. King Louis the IV was there and a bit jealous since this guy had a nicer crib than he did. Since he was the king he thought he should have the grandest palace. He arrested Foquet and stole his architect. If I remember correctly, the King wanted to have Foquet killed but they (whoever they is) weren’t willing to kill him so he was exiled.

Our picnic was a lot of fun! We laughed hard and I’m pretty sure we added like 5 new quotes to our “funny quotes while in Europe” list! At this point it’s getting pretty cold and is starting to sprinkle. Outdoor candlelit tour while cold and rainy… canceled. Kind of a bummer! But, we did get to tour the inside of the palace and they still lit the candles in all the rooms, chandeliers, and some of the candles in the gardens. This is to give you an idea of what it was like to be there when it was a functioning palace. After seeing as many palaces as we have these last few days you start to think they all look the same; gold, ornate, monstrosities, but Vaux seemed to be much more intimate and cozy. Vaux also had animatronics (not sure if this is what you call it) that made me feel like we were at Disneyland!

(Vaux)

(random picture at Vaux that I like)

Josie and I decided to take cover after the tour. We went inside their gift shop and sat in this little café until we loaded the bus at eleven thirty in the PM. Josie got a cute little candle snuffer and I enjoyed looking at all the little baubles and trinkets they were selling. We tried to order hot chocolate but they either didn’t have it or we were having communications issues or both! Back on the bus everyone was accounted for and we made our way back to the hotel Arley. Tried to sleep but it wasn’t happening. The trip home seemed to fly. Good thing considering tomorrow morning we are on our way to London.

(All night I'm trying to get this woman's picture without being obvious. Her hat is SO funny and sadly this picture doesn't do it justice. I think they may have suspected something when I could hardly take the picture because i was dying laughing... over the hat and over the fact that i was so insistent on getting a picture. That is If they didn't already suspect something earlier when I would be snapping pictures in their direction of things you usually don't see people documenting... oops!)

(where Josie and I took cover)

almost forgot... Eva and Tony were married here!