versailles with em

today was by far the funniest day i've had in MONTHS! emily and i went to versailles to get some of her beaurocratic paperwork crap taken care of. we met in st. germain and took a bus out to versailles but found out when we got to the prefecture that they don't DO cartes de sejour on thursdays so she has to go back tomorrow anyway. totally didn't kill our spirit though.

we left and went in search of a place to get lunch. i was craving 2 things: pizza and fries. i would have settled for one or the other. we ended up getting neither and landed on a britannique restaurant. we got galettes (mine with ham, raclette, potatoes and lettuce) which were even BETTER than pizza and/or fries. although some fries on the side would have been lovely. mmmm fries. i've been craving them since brussels.

so after the restaurant we headed up to the chateau. it was kind of weird when we realized we made it all the way to the back steps leading to the gardens of versailles that we weren't even PHASED by the chateau we just passed under. i've been there so many times that i kind of had the 'oooh that old chestnut' feeling. at the same time, however, emily and i did a double take and said outloud 'GOD that is so beautiful!' really though, i was completely unphased. i felt so...french.

we headed down into the gardens and i was equally unphased. that might have been due to the fact that the bushes were covered for the winter and the fountains were not running. i can't wait to go in the spring and see it in full bloom. i showed em some of the huge mouth fish (that's what i've named them) in the pond. they look like whales when they turn over on the surface of the water and they have these big ugly mouths that make perfect O's when they open them for food. creepiest fish i've ever seen. they were imported from japan i guess when marie antoinette was going through her 'exotic animals and folliage' phase. she was a spoiled little 16 year old queen, wasn't she?

i couldn't have been more excited to go back to the queen's farm. all of the pictures i'm going to put in this post will be from the farm. i inherited my grandmother's unhealthy love for cute fluffy creatures who don't talk back. i mean, grandma mo (i'm pretty sure) didn't like humans. but she sure did love animals. i think i enjoy both equally but could probably live happily ever after as a cat lady. only i guess more of a cat, dog, donkey, poney, sheep, bunny, every creature ever made lady. instead i think i will end up a brad lady though. (awwww so cute and gross)

aaaanyway, em and i walked around for a bit because i had a hard time remembering how to get into the farm. turns out i had no memory whatsoever and took us all the way around to the back. well, friends, they lock the back gate after about 4 or 5 and you can only get in on the opposite side of the farm. that's about a 10 or 15 minute walk back the way we came. this is where the story gets good.

there was a mote-like ditch in between us and the farm which was also reinforced on the farm side with a stone wall (this description will make much more sense when you look at the pictures). emily and i decided to scale said stone wall and climb into the farm. so the two of us, both with recently and severely sprained ankles, sidestepped our way down into the muddy ditch and scoured the wall for a spot we could climb. we took turns (so that the other could take pictures of our idiocy) and triumphantly and illegally (kind of, not really, more just frowned upon) tresspassed into the queen's farm. i neerly fell down on my back into the mud because i was laughing so hard. emily almost wet herself. we both rolled on the ground laughing for about 5 minutes before composing and visiting with the animals.

oooh the animals! they have donkeys and goats and pigs and chickens. there are cows and horses, bunnies and ducks. i love them all. there's even a little dog who supervises the WHOLE operation. i love everything about this place. i could live there and be perfectly happy, although i think you may have to be special and maybe part of a family of descendants to live there. it's funny, i would never imagine myself living on any other farm. but this one is just so charming and fairytaley. (i can't believe fairytaley is a word in the google english dictionary)

after visiting with the animals, i brought emily to the queen's little hideout as the sun was setting and casting orangey warm light on everything. there are all of these bungalo-like little cottagey buildings on this beautiful pond. i can't think of a better or more fitting word than charming. and in the spring everything is in bloom and the entire thing looks like a painting. it's official. i'm in love with the queen's farm. i tell everyone that if they go to paris, they HAVE to take a day for this place. it's magical.

we spent another 2 hours walking around and discovering whatever we could. we walked through marie antoinette's woods and her crazy cool paths. she had all of these outdoor music party gazebos built and super fun passages with caves and big stones. i mean, the poor girl was 16 and she was married to the stuffy, fugly, boring king of france (sorry france, that's probably a horribly rude thing to say). she needed to make her own fun. and this chick knew how to party.

it was just such a fun day. it reminded me so much of the time i went to the queen's farm with my mom 4 years ago. the two of us did the same stuff (well, minus the wall scaling) and had just as much fun. it's so rare that i get to spend time like that with my mom and i thought about her all day. it made me a little homesick but in a good way. i'm getting teary talking about it now but i was in such a great mood all day. (ps - my mom is wonderful)

as we walked back through the woods and towards the chateau (and civilization), the sun had set and the moon came out. it was dark and there was mist covering the grass. it looked really creepy and beautiful. i tried to take a picture but it just doesn't do it any justice. by the time we got to the back of the chateau, it was officially dark and versailles was lit from the inside. we could see into the hall of mirrors and the chapel was covered in a beautiful blanket of moonlight. i had never seen versailles at night but now that i have i can say with conviction that it is much prettier in the moonlight.

i wish every day could be this perfect but i know that if they were i wouldn't appreciate them the same way. when living in paris or in any big city i think we take the simple beauty of things for granted. i need days like this to take a step back and let myself really look at what i'm seeing. after the farm today i got back to paris and found everything to be a little prettier. i guess that's what vacations are for - to take the time to appreciate what we miss during the mundane routine. that's why i have music though. to remind me that the littlest chord progression can make the world seem a little more wonderful. (it all comes back to music folks. embrace it...i'm a musician inside and out.)