Long time, no post...

Many apologies for not posting in ages, especially considering that I've been up to all sorts of adventures since my last post which I have not shared.  However, I have an excuse...and it's very valid.  During one of my adventures, during which I took lots of pictures, I left my camera in the backpack of one of my Rotary friends, so I wouldn't have to carry it around and risk setting it down someplace and losing it.  And of course I forgot to get it back.  And Rachel, the friend with the backpack, happens to live on the extremely dangerous and forbidden RER train line D, so I can't just hop on a train and get it back.  However, I should be getting it back pretty soon, and as soon as I do I promise to upload all sorts of lovely photos of the lovely things I've been doing.  So expect a sudden burst of posts sometime within the next month.  Until then, suffice it to say that I'm having a lovely time and seeing lots of amazing things that I can't wait to share with all you readers! 

Versailles!

I started writing this post a while ago, but then had some difficulty uploading the photos, then forgot about it, so it's quite late...Sorry!  Here it is, finally...My Versailles trip.

I'm watching Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette; so it seems like an appropriate time to write a post about my trip to Versailles last Sunday!  It was a lovely day, perfect for being outside, so we spent the whole time walking around the gardens.  It was gorgeous.  We were there on a day when they had the fountains going, so we got to see the whole magnificence of the place.  Being at Versailles was like going to Paris for the first time for me in that it was a totally surreal, is-this-really-happening, I-feel-like-this-is-a-movie experience.  Especially later, as the sun got lower in the sky and started hitting the walls of the chateau, making the whole thing glow gold...It was incredibly beautiful.  But I don't need to tell you about how gorgeous it was, you just look at these pictures...

Crazy hair and a huge smile- a sign that fun is being had!

This is the outdoor ballroom in the garden...The fountain was decorated with exotic shells brought back from the Red Sea by the French Royal Navy of the time.

This is also at the ballroom...You can sort of see the exotic shells, along with the obligatory (this is Versailles) large ornate gilded thing.  And yes, I know it looks like I have no eyes...It was really  sunny, and I'm squinting in almost all of these pictures.

Again at the ballroom...And me in the middle of saying something...

Versailles, the gardens, the fountains, the glory

Ditto...