The excursion to Montmartre was a HUGE success. First we got gelato (hazelnut, chocolate, and cinnamon; see photo), then we did some shopping, and then we got dinner around 8:30. Montmartre has the best little shops with the neatest jewelry and decent prices. Dinner was so much fun, although the food didn't match up to the ambiance. To begin with, the restaurant was tiny with two realllllly long tables pressed up against a bench-lined wall. If the waiters decided you were going to sit along the wall, they made you step up on a chair and over the table. I was lucky enough to get a chair, but Molly and Kelley clambered over quite gracefully. The first course was a fruity little apèro and a plate full of cheese, olives, and different sausage slices. The main course was a Swiss-ish cheese fondue with bread chunks to dip. This was served with your choice of red or white wine in a baby bottle. Bizarre, but so much fun. Dessert was a surprisingly refreshing fruit salad. Because of the way we were sitting, we got to know the girls to the left of us really well. Almost every place on our table was taken by American sorority girls, and I'm not sure the waiters knew how to handle so many divas making so much noise. Oh, and I added a little hokie spirit to the bathroom graffiti. We made it back to St.Michel around 10:30 and then we decided to take a bâteau mouche around the city! It was beyond beautiful, albeit a little bit chilly.
Today, we finally went to Versailles! After getting on (and off at the next stop) the wrong train, we made it it in time for a quick stroll through the city and lunch at a café. Today's menu included a salad with a vinaigrette dressing and goat cheese on toast. Yum! Then we went to Versailles itself, which was mind-blowingly beautiful! The line to get inside was really long, so we went out to the gardens first. Marie Antoinette's hamlet was by far the most quaint, beautiful thing I've ever seen. The rest of the gardens were also awesome, but this one was more natural and untamed and just so green! Then I got us thoroughly lost in the garden, but it was fine because we found some really cool stuff and then I had blueberry sorbet. By then it was about 4, so we waited in the slightly diminished line for the palace. It was also gorgeous and so so luxurious, but I really preferred the gardens.
Funny occurrences of the day:
1. Getting on the wrong train
2. Dresses on a windy day
3. Two Asian tourists asking to take a picture with me. I guess they like Americans? This has the potential to be creepy, but I'm just going to take it as flattering and try not to think about random people having a picture with me in it as a souvenir of their trip to France.
4. The coolest dog that rode back next to us on the train. The train was packed, so when I say next to us I mean snuggled up on the floor of the train.
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