routine

This last week has been pretty normal.  We finished up our classes and have started getting ready for final exams as well as finishing up a few last papers.  It's weird that we only have this next week in London and then a week trip to the West Country next week.  It's all passed by so quickly, I'm not sure I'm ready for it to be over.  Highlights from this last week include seeing "Let It Be" on Wednesday night.  I had no idea what to expect and assumed it was a story about the Beatles with their music.  Instead, it was four guys as the Beatles, playing set after set of songs; basically a Beatles concert.  They were quite good and it was just a fun night of singing and dancing.

         The other fun event this week was going to Kew Gardens on Friday.  They are the Royal Botanic gardens set on 300 acres of land close to London.  It was quite chilly that day, so a friend and I went to two different glasshouses, one for the tropics, the other was a temperate house.  We also saw Kew Palace and the remains of the Royal Kitchen which were rather boring.  We did do a tree-top walk which was really neat and we saw the Japanese pagoda but it was not open for visitors.  The estate is huge and the flowers are starting to come up, but it would have been much nicer had the sun come out to stay.  On our way back to the tube station there was a bakery stand of pastries and sandwiches.  I got a salami and brie baguette sandwich that was delicious!  Market foods are so awesome.

view from the tree-top walk

food

My last full day in Paris seems to have been dominated by food.  After a visit to Pere Lachaise where we saw the graves of Chopin, Moliere and Oscar Wilde, we headed back to rue Moufettard for some more crepes.  I got a ham and cheese one that was pretty good, but then we went to Carl Marletti’s for dessert.  They have amazing pastries and desserts and I chose a chocolate praline tart.  So, so good!  After eating our pastries by a fountain, we found the Statue of Liberty, took some pictures and then went to the Eiffel Tower where we got some food and enjoyed watching the tourists.  I chose a caramel and chocolate crepe that was amazingly good.  So tasty.  Our last tourist stop for the day was Lovers Lock Bridge where people have padlocked their love to the bridge and thrown away the key.  It’s a cute (if tacky) idea but since I had no one’s initials to write, I mostly helped take pictures and just watched the tourists doing the same.  It was pretty entertaining though.  Then we got gelato at Amorino, a delicious gelateria where they shape the ice cream into flowers!

 

            

Our last day in Paris, Saturday, I decided to save for relaxing and some shopping.  A friend and I went out and actually found some clothes.  I got two tops, both striped from H&M so it was a successful day.  We headed back to London in the early afternoon and though I was sad to leave the sunshine of Paris, it was nice to get back home and be somewhere familiar and where I could actually communicate.  Every time I attempted to speak some of my limited French, all that came out was Italian.  I probably should have just spoken Italian; maybe they would have liked me better.  Despite the language barrier, it was an amazing few days and I already can’t wait to go back someday, hopefully with someone who speaks the language; that would be useful!

versailles

Thursday we went out to Versailles and the group I went with headed out at about 8:00 so we got there shortly after it opened.  Somehow we got lucky and there were no lines.  We literally walked right in with no waiting at all.  I was somewhat unimpressed by the palace, though I did like the Hall of Mirrors; that was cool.  We went through pretty quickly but spent several hours in the gardens.  

hall of mirrors

First we just walked around, but then we decided to rent bikes for an hour and so we proceeded to ride around the entire gardens.  In case you don’t know, Versailles’ gardens are enormous and we went biked rather quickly.  I was exhausted after that but then we walked over to Marie-Antoinette’s hamlet which is adorable.  It looks like something straight out of Beauty and the Beast or Snow White.  It was such a cool experience, definitely something you have to do if you go to Paris.  

            Back in Paris, some friends and I went to the Pantheon to see where some famous dead people are buried including Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Voltaire and Rousseau.  Then we got some food, probably the most important part of the day.  We found this great creperie on rue Moufettard as suggested by a friend.  I had a dark chocolate crepe – ohmygoodness it was tasty.  The guy even put the chocolate on in shapes! From there we went to the arc du triumph and hiked up to the top to get some views of the city.  It was dark but so, so fun.  We also saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle which was a unique and rather thrilling experience.  I loved it.

my delicious crepe