Paris Day 4... June 18th

Day 24...

Today did not start till 2 pm! It was amazing to sleep in, but it didn’t end till 1 am, so still a long day. So my morning consisted of relaxation, sleeping in, and actually getting ready!

We left the hotel and got on a bus and headed to the Fontainebleau. We drove through the country side of France and it is beautiful. It’s nothing like London, but it has some amazing hills and fields of its own. The bus ride was about an hour and we arrived at Fontainebleau. I don’t think I ever realized it was that big, but it’s huge. There are high vaulted ceilings in every room with either coffered, beams or elaborate paintings. Multiple different patterns and color inspirations are throughout the house. Louis VII, Francis I, Napoleon III and many others made important renovations at the Palace of Fontainebleau, such as demolitions, reconstructions, additions, and embellishments of various descriptions which all unified the Palace together. The library in the Fontainebleau reminded me of the library in the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast.

We then went to the market to get food for our dinner picnic at the Vaux le Vicomte. After we ate we walked over to the Vaux le Vicomte. The view from outside the gates is incredible. I didn’t even go inside yet and I was already beyond impressed! I decided I wasn’t going inside until a little later because it looked like it could possible rain, but the gardens and the surrounding land is fantastic! I walked down the main walk towards the statue at the end, with a few people and we just had fun snapping pictures. The different bridges and sculpted grounds and the lake/ponds and what I like to call, “the enchanted forest”, every bit of it was amazing. As I’m sure you guessed, my favorite part was the forest, because it reminded me of something out of a fairy tale, which seemed to be my theme for the day, because the PALACE reminded me more of a castle fairytales describe then anything, which the mote, forest, large gates, high ceilings inside, everything. The interior has mostly larger rooms with high ceilings, and like many of the other palaces, castles, or houses I have gone into here, there were hidden doors for servants in the walls. When I was walking through the upstairs and parts of the downstairs it reminded me a lot of The Three Musketeers and Man in the Iron Mask. There were even set ups of what I thought looked like them!

Tonight I got to see my fireworks sense I will be missing the ones on the 4^th of July. I had front row seats right by the lake. The fireworks were the cherry on top of one of my favorite days in Europe!

~Legit Castle~

Elyse