Saturday June 23, 2007: Paris!

Us at Fontainebleau

On the steps at Vaux Le Vicomte
Entrance of Vicomte
one word..BEAUTIFUL!
Today was wonderful! First off, we slept in until ten o'clock which was much needed after everything we went through yesterday. We had a bus arranged that picked us up at our hotel and took us to all our destinations for the day. It would have been nice to have this kind of service everyday, but in all reality, part of the experience is the traveling it takes to get there! Our first stop was Fontainebleau. It was a gorgeous mansion that dates back to the 12th century. Since then, all the kings of France have lived in the Palace. The most impressive part was the horseshoe stairway at the entrance to the Palace. After Fontainebleau, we hopped back on the bus and headed for Vaux Le Vicomte. On the way, our bus driver stopped at a supermarket so we all could get some lunch for our planned picnic at Vicomte. I will never forget how confusing it was to shop there! It was hilarious. None of us know a lick of French so it was tough trying to figure out what kind of meat we were buying for our sandwiches. When we arrived to Vaux leVicomte we enjoyed our picnic and walked the gardens. We waited to go inside because we had a candlelit tour eight. At night they light everything up with candles, even outside in the gardens! At eight the sun wasn’t down yet so we didn’t get to have the full experience of the candles but luckily they shut all the blinds inside so it was very dark. I loved it because it gave us a real glimpse of what the house looked like some four hundred years ago when they didn’t have electricity and had to use candles.Vaux dates back to the early seventeenth century and is home to the tragic story of Nicolas Fouquet. Fouquet was King Louis XIV's superintendent of finances and a faithful minister who built the beautiful Chateau. The King visited Vicomte and threw Fouquet in prison for life out of jealousy of his beautiful estate. The history and beauty of this place was fascinating. I loved it here. We finished Vicomte around ten oclock and jumped on our bus for the long ride home. Today was once again ..amazing! Tomorrow five of us are going to Disneyland Paris and I can’t wait!

Friday June 22, 2007

It was pretty much a disastrous day...I got motion sickness on the train to Paris, and once we got here we ended up sitting outside the train station for 4 hours for our bus. (that never came might I add) We finally decided to jump in cabs and drive to the hotel. After we settled in to the hotel we grabbed some dinner at this really good restaurant down the street. Our room is pretty nice, it's a hotel rather than a hostel so we get clean towels and our rooms are cleaned every day! The best part is the incredible view of the Eiffel tower out our window! It is much more impressive in really life than the pictures...Trust me! :) I just can't believe I'm in Paris!!!!

Thursday June 21, 2007: Last day in London!

Today was our last day in London. It's sad because we all started to feel at home here. Last night we went to the play Wicked and it was so good! I am so happy I decided to go. We spent most of the day going to souvenir shops and having our last dinner in England. Our train leaves for Paris tomorrow morning at nine and its a three hour ride. We have mixed feelings about going to Paris with the language barrier and the fact they don't like us much :) but I don't really mind..its all part of the experience and won't stop me from enjoying France! GOOD BYE LONDON, HELLO PARIS! :)

Wednesday June 20th, 2007

This morning a group of us woke up to stand in line to get discount tickets to the play Wicked. The play is a twist of the wizard of oz and I heard nothing but good things about it so I decided to go. After we got our tickets (front row I might add) we went to the Syon house. To be honest..the tour guide was really boring! haha I just sketched the whole time though. I am getting a lot better at sketching and I'm even starting to enjoy doing it! Tomorrow is our last day in London! We are all pretty sad about it but also excited to move on to Paris.

Tuesday: Chatsworth!

Chatsworth! It was so amazing there. I was much more impressed with the grounds then the actual house though. We really just zipped through the house and went straight to the gardens. The tour through the house was quite entertaining, we ended up meeting these three old ladies who had more energy than us! They were so hilarious. We even took some pictures with them haha. We found out that they were all around 88 years old! They really made our whole day.

June 18th, 2007

Blenheim! All I can say is WOW! The house was beautiful and the gardens and grounds were even better. I took a landscape architecture class at UW and learned all about the places that we have been visiting and it's so great! I actually shocked some of the tour guides when I knew the answers to some of their questions. The Palace is home to the Duke of Marlborough and the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. It has 2100 acres of land around it landscaped by Capability Brown. We spent majority of the time walking the grounds. The secret garden was my favorite. It was so pretty and peaceful. I loved it. I also tried Cream Tea which is popular out here. It's basically a scone with honey butter, jam and a cup a tea. Every day is filled with new experiences! I love it!

Scotland! : Sunday, June 17th

The weather was much better today! Actually it was one of the nicest days we've had so far. We woke up early to catch a train to Coleen Castle but realized we were pretty short on time so we went to the ocean in Prestwick instead. We played in the water a bit, took pictures and got some pretty rocks from the shore to keep as mementos. I was pretty sad to leave Scotland, I definitely could have stayed there longer. The Scottish people were so nice and friendly! All the locals we meet are very impressed with our trip since we are here for a month and getting to see so many different places.