Giverny, French kids, and Le Chateau de Versailles

After seeing the Pape on Saturday, we all met Dr. Morgan at the train station at 9:30 on Sunday to go to Giverny where Monet's house is. We took a train to Vernon and when we arrived, we walked around the little town for a while and bought some delicious pastries at one of the local boulangeries. I love boulangeries--I wish we had them in the U.S. because they make me really happy. Then we walked along the a road by the Seine and enjoy the scenery. It was a beautiful day too so it really was perfect. We found a picnic table off the road and ate cheese, bread, fruit, and pastries by the river. After lunch we walked throughout the town and Dr. Morgan knew of some trails we could hike to get a view of the whole town on our way to Monet's house. On our way to the trails we walked along some roads that were bordered by shrubs that had produced some ripe blackberries. Dr. Morgan purposefully planned our trip to Giverny around this time because he knew the blackberries would be in season. He's so smart. We ate some blackberries and then found our way to the trails. That hike was pretty hard because there was a good part that was a steep uphill climb. I regretted my choice of wearing a sweater at that moment. We finally found some flat ground eventually and then it was more enjoyable, thought still hot. It was worth it though to see the views we saw. Plus it was cool to be a tourist and not do touristy things--it was very unique.
When we got into Giverny we ate at a cafe called the Hotel Baudy which used to be a hotel where Monet himself and many of his admirers (they were all painters and in many cases, were American) stayed. We sat outside in the perfect weather and ordered the cider that was local to the area. It was very good. After the cafe we all went off on our own to visit Monet's house and gardens. It was really cool to see Monet's house again and be reminded of what his house looked like. I had my feelings of déja-vu when i saw all the Japanese artwork displayed everywhere in his house and I remembered how much Monet had been fascinated by it--which is interesting because his art is not at all like Japanese art and the pieces that he chose to display in his house were not incredibly interesting and they all kind of looked the same. Then again, staticness seemed to be what Monet preferred when it came to decorating his home. I had forgotten how bright and colorful the rooms in his house were (in most cases though, they were a bit too much for me because these rooms would only be one color, which kind of overwhelmed me a bit); For example, his kitchen was completely yellow. The walls, the chairs, the furniture, the table, the tablecloth, the curtains, basically everything was the exact same shade of yellow. While it certainly brightened up the room, the staticness of it all kind of freaked me out--definitely not my choice of home decor, but whatever. The kitchen was pretty cool. It was completely blue, but a pretty royal blue and the walls were covered with blue and white-patterned tile which was really pretty.
After exploring his house, I walked in the gardens with Elizabeth and Michael. We saw all the beautiful flowers displayed in his garden and we also saw the water garden, with the water lilies and the famous bridge. It was so nice visiting that again. After touring his house and gardens, our group returned to Paris and we had dinner there at a cafe called Marco Polo. Many people were determined to try escargot so we chose Marco Polo for the sole fact that it sold escargot. I ate escargot as well, and three people who had never had it tried it and liked it. I was glad they did since I kind of peer pressured them into trying it. After dinner, I returned to my house pretty late, did my homework, and then went to bed.

On Monday I had my first baby-sitting job. A French dad had approached me, Monika, and Elizabeth in the street last week and asked us to baby-sit for his kids, and we figured out that we could help him out on certain days. So I babysit on Mondays during lunchtime, Monika does Monday and Thursday afternoons, and Elizabeth does Tuesday afternoons. So Monday was my first day with these kids. I really only have to take care of the youngest, Anatole, who is three. He goes to preschool and gets out at 11:45 and I have to bring him back to his house, fix lunch for him and just watch him for about an hour and a half. His mom brought him home that day and I met her at their house so she could show me what to fix him for lunch. After lunch, Anatole's mom, Camille, asked me to pick him up that afternoon with Monika, so at 4:20 we both met Anatole and his sisters at Anatole's school and their dad, Damien drove us to the house. Then he left Monika and I to watch the kids until about 7:30. There are three kids total. Margot is the oldest and she is 9. The second is Emilie who is 6, and then there's Anatole (who is a boy). They were quite a handful. Margot liked to tease Emilie and tickle her and wrestle with her, and many times she'd hit her, and it was hard to get her to stop because we couldn't say all the things we wanted to say because we didn't know how to say them in French, so that was definitely a struggle. Monika took care of watching the girls and I took care of watching Anatole and playing with him. Anatole is the biggest challenge because he's so young and it's hard to understand him. I mean, I can sometimes barely understand three year olds who are speaking English so dealing with a French-speaking three year old is twice as hard. Sometimes I don't understand him and sometimes I don't think he understands me because of my accent (or I just may not be saying something right). It was fun playing with him though. We played frisbee (or attempted to) and then kicked a ball back and forth to each other. I had to leave early at 7:00 because I had to be home at 7:30 but I had fun with the kids and I think they had fun with us too. It's definitely a good job to have.

On Wednesday, we all went inside the Chateau de Versailles. It was really cool visiting the chateau again because this time I was more aware of all the history that took place there. All the rooms were gorgeous, especially the hall of mirrors and the Queen's bedroom (it was actually prettier than Louis XIV's). One of my favorite parts of the chateau though was the room dedicated to all the paintings of Louis XIV's mistresses and some of the kids he had with these mistresses. Based on the number of women's portraits in the room, I'm thinking odds are that Louis XIV probably had an STD or a couple. Probably the ciph--I've heard it was a popular disease among the kings. I also liked seeing Marie Antoinette's room as well as the portraits of her and her children; Hers and Louis XVI's story is definitely the most interesting in my opinion that took place at Versailles. Can't imagine what it must have been like when the French people stormed the castle gates of Versailles in 1789 and broke through. Scary.
After exploring the castle, we checked out the gardens for a bit. The gardens are enormous and beautiful and it's funny noting the fact that everything in the garden is symmetrical and shaped a certain way--it's very OCD and very French. I think certain Furman students could relate to the need for perfection and symmetry that the French felt was necessary. We would've explored the gardens more but it was really cold that day, and the gardens are open to everyone free of charge during the week, so a couple of us decided to come back later to really explore the gardens. I did a little bit of shopping with Elizabeth and bought myself a warmer coat. The weather got much chillier this week--it got to the point where I was too cold in the blazer I was wearing but it wasn't quite cold enough yet for my big winter coat, so I bought a nice in between weather kind of coat that's really cute. I wore it today and was very happy with it--it was perfect for the 60° weather we've been having lately.

Today was pretty uneventful except for the fact that a small group of us met up with the boys from St. Jean's that we had met in Paris to see the Pope for lunch. It was fun, and it's nice to have French friends here. Now I'm going to do homework and get ready for the upcoming weekend trip to St. Malo. Next update will be after this weekend. A toute à l'heure!