Christmas in Paris

Heyooooo!  Back and ready for action.  Sorry for the delay folks (I'll pretend for now that I have followers) but the last couple of weeks have been filled with non-stop commotion.  To give you an idea all within the span of 2 weeks I was kicked out of my apartment, forced to find a new place, found one that required a 3 month deposit, left for Paris and Berlin with close to no money, then had 3/4 of my clothes misplaced on the airplane.  Take home message:  I have 2 new awesome roommates in a great location and I now have an excuse to dress more European (for better or worse) once I save some money.  Oh and did I mention I might need to have my wisdom teeth removed?  More on that later.

So besides the luggage fiasco the trip to Paris for Christmas was all a go.  I had my friend Sherbert visit me from California and he accompanied me on the voyage.  We managed to coincidentally find a cheap room at the same hostel my old high school chap was staying at so we met up with him early on the 22nd.  Paris, per usual, was a beautiful city, especially decorated for Christmas.  The first day we went directly to Versailles.  I've been to the gardens outside the palace before but never actually inside.  Luckily since I am no longer an illegal resident of Spain and I have my temporary residency card I was able to gain free admission into the palace.  Unfortunately, the outside gardens were not as beautiful as I had once remembered 3 summers ago. Many of the sculptures were covered and the fountains weren't on because of the season...

..but overall the gardens were still majestic as usual.  We even made it to Marie Antoinette's getaway retreat house and all the surrounding little cottages where her farmhands lived.  This area seemed like the most quaint village with watermills and mini light houses.  I imagine the concept for Snow White and the 7 Dwarves was conceived here.

I build stone bridges in my free time.

Then we were off to the Palace.  So Louis XIV put in the plans to build the official Versailles Palace (le château de Versailles if you will) around 1661.  It had originally been a hunting lodge for the Royal Family, but the Sun King had another vision in mind.  He wanted to shift the main seat of power in France to the rural Versailles area about 20 km southwest of Paris.  By moving the court and government to Versailles, Louis XIV hoped to get his way more with the govt. and nobility and move away from the main French population. He required nobles and officials to spend a certain amount of time in Versailles every year, thus weakening their regional influence in their own areas.  Eventually Versailles became synonymous with the absolutism of Louis XIV and the Ancien Régime, or main governing power of France for the previous 4 centuries or so, overall.  It was not until the French Revolution in 1789 that Versailles ceased being the main seat of French power, when Louis XVI was forced to return to Paris shortly before his beheading.  One reason in particular that I find Versailles so fascinating is its use as a tool of humiliation between France and Germany.  At the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1871, the newly solidified German state forced France to surrender in the Palace of Versailles, giving a crushing blow to France's previous prestige.  Then at the end of the First World War, Germany was blamed for causing the war in the same room France was forced to surrender in nearly fifty years earlier.

All history aside, the inside of the palace is astonishing to say the least.  Many of the early rooms are dedicated to Roman gods and goddesses to capture the essence and purpose of each room.

In case you didn't think Louis XIV was full of himself for building his own palace,
he has sculptures and busts of himself everywhere so you never forget.

Then the main attraction:  The Hall of Mirrors.

Hey, that's me!  I'm in the Hall of Mirrors!

Then once back in Paris, we had a great time seeing the sights, eating the best falafel in the world, and enjoying some Parisian cuisine.  On Christmas day we had an INCREDIBLE dinner at a legit French place for only 19 euros.  If only I had taken a picture to show you how delicious the food was.. oh wait, I took two.



This time around I didn't take nearly as many pictures around the city, but here are some of my favorites.

Wait, it gets better.

Told you.

There is an ice rink on the first tier up.  That's awesome.

This is my high school friend Kevin.

He's a grad student.

I.M. Pei's controversial glass addition to the Louvre.

Joyeux Noel from Paris!

Arc de Triomphe.