Marie, Marie

8 words to sum-up Versailles: opulent, hot, beautiful, crowded, smelly, breathtaking, unbelievable, underappreciated.

More crowded than the Louvre, hotter than Charlotte at 2pm in August, covered in dust from the gravel in the gardens, Versailles is still one of my favorite days we've had so far. The palace is truly unlike anything I've ever seen. You think you know opulence? No no. I thought I knew because I've seen Marie Antoinette so many times, I had no idea. Theres more gold than you think possible, more marble than could ever come out of the ground, and more paintings on the walls and ceiling than would take many artists lifetimes to complete! Even while you're dazed at the beauty of the place you can't help but be revolted at the over-the-top lifestyle these people lived while the rest of France was literally starving in the streets. I know its very bourgeois of me to say, but its true! Despite all the art and culture that came out of Versailles, which believe me I do appreciate (I think I was the only person I saw paying attention to the artwork on the ceilings), it is the number one most tippy-top prime perfect example of why inhierited governments died out. But I digress.

The best part of Versailles was undoubtably the Hamlet, a collection of several cottages and gardens and even a little pond where Marie-Antoinette wasted away much of her reign. It was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen, but still the Revolutionary in me kept reminding me of the extravagances of the Bourbons. The Hamlet was more than picturesque, Grandma kept saying how it looked make-believe, and I had to remind her that even though its been around since the 1780s, the Hamlet was constructed as Marie's personal Disneyland. So yes, it is make-believe!

After we returned from Versailles, we were far too hot and tired to do any more walking around, so we went to see the new movie with Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher, Killers (or Kiss and Kill in France). Lucky for us it was in English with French subtitles, instead of dubbed-in French. Before the movie they showed a trailer for Eclipse (its not out yet in France- where its known as Hesitation) and it was dubbed-in, oh dear god it was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen! They had these weird manly husky voices for Edward and Jacob, and everyone was sounded even more emotionless than the real actors do. Anyway, Killers, very funny! Light, amusing, just stupid enough. But it was a good kind of stupid comedy, not too heavy on the sex jokes, etc. Plus Ashton Kutcher is a genius. He could make Hamlet funny. The Shakespeare Hamlet that is, not Marie Antoinette's Hamlet....

So it ended up being a pretty early night, and I wasn't ready to turn in yet so I went down the street to a cafe and sat outside with my book and a kir, my new favorite drink ever! It's white wine with black currant juice. Its bright red and very sweet but in a good way. And they serve it in a tiny champagne glass and its very cute! Haha but anyways so I was reading facing the street and there were three boys about my age kind of behind me and to the left a bit, and I'm like 98.3% positive that they were talking about me hahaha. They clearly didn't hear that I had conversed with the waiter in French so I knew what they were saying :p This spying on the French thing is getting very entertaining, especially since I'm getting so much better at picking up what they're saying!