To Market, to Market, (and to the Palace Again!)

A Year Ago Today...

March 17, 2009

Itinerary:

Tuesday, 3/17: Paris

-Breakfast in hotel: groceries.

-10:00 a.m. Meet Julia at Metro stop on way to market.

-St. Germain-en-Laye (west of Paris): outdoor morning market, (a beautiful little town to give a taste of the wealthy ancient and beautiful suburbs.

-Chatou (Julia's town): see Julia's house/room.

-Grocery Store: buy food for lunch, next few days €5.00 each.

-Walk down to the Seine for lunch of Baguettes, cheese, apples, applesauce.
-Versailles (see the Palace-after 3 p.m. admission: €10.00).

-Back to hotel for Bible Study/goodbyes with Julia.

-Lodging: Hotel Concorde Saint-Lazare.

After seeing many of the Parisian sites, we had a chance to get outside of the big city on Tuesday. Julia lived in a city outside of Paris that was accessible by metro and so we hopped on the train to get a glimpse of her life outside of Paris. Our first stop was at the fabulous morning market where we took in all the beautiful fruits, vegetables, jewelry, clothes, etc. that were being vended at the market.

We also passed by a Fromagerie! A whole store of cheese?? Yum!

And the flowers! They were so gorgeous we had to resist the temptation to buy them all. I don't think flowers travel well on a backpacking trip.

We got to stop by Julia's home. Sadly, we did not meet her little charges as they were in school, but it was neat to see her temporary home in Paris.

You'll notice the yummy fresh baguettes that we picked up along the way. Perfect for a picnic on La Seine.

So that's where we went! Apparently many of the French Impressionist artists would frequent this area of the Seine to paint their masterpieces.

Claiming our territory for our picnic lunch.

When I look back on our trip, it is these simple moments of spending time talking with my best friends that are the best memories. It only adds a little bit of charm that we were sitting by La Seine or in the Gardens of Versailles but I cherish these memories with friends no matter where we are! I am so blessed with friends whose passion is living for Christ and can encourage me in that endeavor...alright there was my sentimental moment for the blog...back to the travelogue.

After lunch with Jules, she directed us back to the Metro with instructions back to Versailles. Here is Ali checking out our route while en route.

And this time we got to see the inside of the Palace! As I mentioned before, we didn't realize that the Palace was closed on Mondays until we arrived on Monday afternoon. We didn't think we'd get to see the inside until we realized on Tuesday that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays so that gave us a few hours of unscheduled time to return.

I believe this is the magnificent chapel inside the Palace.

And this is pretty much the biggest fireplace I've ever seen!

The Hall of Mirrors!!

And we had already instituted this pond as our very own when we had lunch here the day before. We even named it! After exploring the palace, we returned to enjoy the leftovers of our lunch.

mmmm so many wonderful kinds of cheese! Did I mention yet that I like cheese?

After Versailles, we headed back to our hotel where Julia was able to meet us again. We had a really special evening of more fellowship, chatting, giggling, and Bible Study in our cozy hotel room. After this, we had to say goodbye to Julia, but with the hopes that we'll have many more adventures together in the future! Then it was time to bed because early in the morning it was on to Belgium!