Paris day 24- FontaineBleau and Vaux le Vicomte

Today was a late day. We were given the morning to ourselves we just had to be back and ready at 1pm ready to go. So for the morning I decided to try and get caught up on some blogs. I got up a little early and ate some breakfast. After that I finished getting ready for the day and grabbed my laptop to head down to the lobby and work on blogs. Ireland and my need for sleep put me behind on my blogs. So I sat in the hot lobby typing away. At one point a family came down the stairs and elevator. The kid decided to run down the stairs while the parents took the elevator. The kid won the race and I noticed he was wearing a Sharks Sweatshirt, for those of you who don't like hockey it is the San Jose hockey team. So when the parents came down they said hi and asked if they were from California? They said yes and how did I know and I pointed to the sweatshirt and told them I loved hockey. Then I told them my team was the Red Wings. They are from Detroit and the Sharks have a rivalry. We smiled and they headed out to explore Paris. It was fun to have a little hockey talk. I continued on and then went upstairs to grab my backpack and get ready for our evening trip.

We met the bus on the other block so we wouldn't block traffic. Then we were off to Fontainebleau. This was the home of Francis the First. His symbol was the salamander so I expected to see more of them but didn't until the very end. It was pretty impressive. Everything inside was ornately decorated. But as I was going through it seemed that the Furniture wasn't the correct time frame. It was really frustrating to go through. But once I was back I did some research and it turns out during the French Revolution a lot of the original furnishings were sold. Then Napoleon took over the palace and so when we saw the bee we knew exactly what we were looking at. We saw the blue throne that held the Napoleonic Bee. It was iconic. It was what I saw in history class. I recognized it immediately. At times though the décor was a little much. To have the bed fabric match the walls and the chairs and every other piece of fabric was a little much. It made the rooms a blur. You couldn't really look at the pieces and see the room. The ceilings were wonderful. They had paintings and carvings. The ones that had Cherubs creeped me out though. All in all it was beautiful and very well done. The outside was magnificent! It is a perfect spot for wedding pictures or an actual wedding. They even had Sherbert. It was so good. I got the lemon and it was divine. Plus there was a great lake with a gazebo in the middle of it. Then we had to get on the bus, after a really good group photo.

After Fontainebleau we went to the grocery store. Laura, Danielle, Andrea, and I decided we would pool our resources and make a picnic for us. We bought a lot of food, probably too much food but everything we ate was really good though we felt a little bit fat after eating all the food we did. We made sandwiches, had PIMs cookies, oranges, strawberry water, and a lot more. I enjoyed ever minute and it was Griffin's birthday so we sang happy birthday to him and he had two eclairs with candles in them. The picnic was a lot of fun, we laughed and had a good time. It was kind of a family like moment. We really were starting to make a good family. We had some food left over but we would eat it through the rest of our time in Paris. After our meal it was time to go to Vaux le Vicomte. It is one of my favorite places! It was beautiful. Plus it was starting to turn dark and the sunset just made the atmosphere perfect. We were all wishing to have a guy with us. The fireworks would be at 10:30 so we had to be back to one of the ponds by then. We wanted to explore the gardens first. It was beautiful. There were ponds and statues, and lush green areas. There was a great statue of a lioness and the lion. It was romantic and sweet. On the other side of the stairs there were two lionesses. The palace was so beautiful against the sky. It was so regal looking. There was a huge statue on a hill that overlooked the property. It was Hercules. We went on a walk along this long man made pond. And once we reached the other side there was a bridge like thing. It had Poseidon carved under it. Laura, Andrea, Danielle, and I took a group picture. We talked about what animal we would be if we weren't people. Like we would say what animal personality wise would resemble us. It was starting to turn late and we hadn't gone through the house yet. So we walked down the other side and headed to this bridge like thing. It was cool cause at one point it was kind of shallow and a car drove through it. On the other side of the bridge was a water fall. It seemed like it was right out of a fairytale. I walked up the stairs and the slight hill to get to the house. Elyse and I walked through it. It was beautiful. The décor wasn't too much like it was in the other building. It was lighter and didn't feel as heavy. It was dark though, but at night that is to be expected. In the one room there was an alcove, and a bed was in it with a curtain around it. It was a place I could live for sure. The floor was parquetry and was beautiful. There was a library and it was floor to ceiling book cases. It was my dream room. Though in some rooms they put mannequins and it was just weird. The rooms didn't need them. The kitchen was another dream room. it was large and had stone walls. It blended in with the original architecture. to me it was a dream kitchen. I mean every girl has one.

A ton of the chairs and couches and tables had cabriole legs. And some detailed carvings. There were flowers on the columns. Which fits for the time period. It was originally Louis the XIV's financial man and he threw a party for the king and Louis XIV was so jealous he imprisoned him and took his architect and designers and landscape person and had them build his palace, Versailles. I loved every minute of going though the palace. It was beautiful and not over done which makes it perfect. Plus there weren't tapestries everywhere, and that fit right in with what I like. It was finally time to join everyone for the fireworks! It lit up the sky! We were all laughing and trying to take as many pictures as possible. After the show we headed back up to the gift shop. Wow. It was a great one it had jewelry, dishes, clothing, and kids stuff. We were entertaining for another hour. It was like we were little kids. Once we got on the bus we crashed, and we crashed hard. I think everyone slept. I did and I never sleep on the bus. It was great. Once we got back I decided to do a blog. I sat in the lobby and the San Jose people came back in. Right when they entered they shouted, Go Sharks! I couldn't help but laugh. Everyone I was sitting with was like what? So it told them it was a hockey thing. Then I went up to my room, all the girls were asleep. I went in quietly and quickly fell to sleep, I got to sleep in the next morning. Got to love free days.