Chantilly

We woke up at some unholy hour this morning to leave for Chantilly on our day trip (the program told us that we could go on a trip today and they would reimburse us 30€). Luckily, I was feeling much better and so it was not terrible.

It took us about an hour to get to Chantilly, this tiny town outside of Paris, with a relatively well-known Chateau. We walked around and followed the signs for the castle, which led us to this pretty gorgeous, pretty impressive building. So we took a bunch of pictures in front of it and then walked around the back to try to get in for a tour. Come to find out, this immense marble building is only the stable. So ridiculous.

Sam and Gerald in front of the massive stable.

Another view of the horse palace.

But then we saw the actual castle and felt kind of silly. Of course that was only the stable!

It even had a moat!

Sam and Gerald in front of the chateau.

The inside of the castle had been turned into a museum, which was pretty cool. There were a few paintings I recognized, such as the one of Napoleon touching the leper and a portrait of Louis XVI, which was neat.

The building itself was magnificent. Also, there was a fantastic library that I snuck a picture of. So cool.Sam and Gerald near the entrance to the museum.

The picture I snuck of the sweet library!

After finishing inside, we walked around the gardens. I saw a sign labeled "Kangaroo Enclosure", but Gerald and Sam just laughed at me and said there was no way there could possibly be kangaroos there.

Why would there possibly be kangaroos in the "kangaroo enclosure"?!

We did walk to le hameau, a sort of ancient playground for rich people, with cute little cottages and a fun man-made island that we climbed on. It was beautiful and we had practically the whole place to ourselves.

Walking around le hameau.

On the way out, I made one last attempt for the kangaroos, but was talked out of it. Very sad.

We then wandered back into the center of town where we found a great little restaurant and grabbed a late lunch/early dinner. I had a croque bacon, which was basically a croque monsieur but instead of gross, disgusting ham, they put bacon in it! It was wonderful. And then of course, we got ice cream with whipped cream (the French word for whipped cream is chantilly, because surprise, surprise, it was invented there!). It was delicious.

Chantilly!

Then we walked back to the train station and headed home, full and exhausted. When we got back to La Fondation, I jumped on-line and found out that there weren't kangaroos there, but there were WALLABIES (apparently "kangourou" means both wallaby and kangaroo)! So upset.

And now I've got to do some of this homework so that tomorrow night I'll be able to hit up a jazz club/go see the sunset from Montmartre for my Lit presenation! Au revoir, mes amis!