Fountaine Bleau!
 Saturday, May 14th. Today was spent at the Chateau de Fountaine Bleau. This is the castle where Napoleon I abdicated the throne the first time before going into exile to the island. The castle originates from the middle ages though and was a favorite of most of the royal family through generations. King Henry the fourth spent the most time here of all the kings. It's gorgeous and large. The gardens are beautiful and huge. Not as huge as Versailles, but large none the less. I think I actually prefer the organization of this garden better than Versailles. Both are awesome of course. The castle itself is lovely as well. We took an audio guided tour of parts of it. We got to see more of this castle then we did at Versailles. In general it's less elaborate, but not by much. It felt more spacious to me, whether that's true or not, I don't know. Point is, it was awesome and you should all be jealous. ;) In front of the castle there is a grand horse shoe stair case which we might have had too much fun with. I don't have the pictures, but my classmate does. We pretended to be royalty, and copied a painting we saw of Napoleon abdicating there. You should not climb on the railing, in case you were wondering... That's not allowed. ...Tee hee. It was cold today, which is super unfortunate when we had a large garden to explore. I love Fountaine Bleau I've decided. We had to catch our bus at Four forty, and then we were homeward bound. McKenna missed the first train, so she had to take the one after me. Luckily my host sister, Lidwine, let me in the house. I talked with her for about ten minutes or so. She's super nice and patient, but my french is terrible. I don't know enough vocabulary. McKenna came home after that and Lidwine had a friend come over. McKenna and I had bought ourselves a pre-made pizza earlier that week, so we stuck it in the oven for ten minutes and enjoyed our not a sandwich meal. It was super good too. I don't typically like frozen pizza back home, but this one was awesome. It's a keeper. I don't know how much of it is mental or real, but food tastes better in France. After dinner we both did homework and showered etc to get ready for Sunday.  Another good day. Praying for sunshine.

Maddie and I on the bus to the chateau. 

We're here!!!!! Doesn't Carson look excited?

Yes I might be sneaking another picture of a random bride without her knowledge. I'm not sure why she was there to begin with. Perhaps for wedding pictures. Carson said, " She's jealous that she can't get married in the Mormon castle, so she's taking pictures at a real castle  to make up for it." I'm sure that's what she was doing. ;)

 
Ya, I think I could get used to this. Also Maddie said I had a Pocahontas hair moment. So flattered.

I found the veil of the fairies!!!! I wanted nothing more than to grab Carson (he was the only one there, or I would have made the others dance to) and make him dance with me in circles. As it was, Carson found this spot picture worthy. Yay!  

I wanted nothing more than to play on this tree, but there was a sign saying stay off the grass. And it's already being held up by staffs. It would have been fun though.

Another Artemis statue! This fountain was interesting. The dogs are peeing into the fountain. Interesting sense of humor.

Our group might be obsessed with flowers. They were gorgeous and abnormally large though, so what can we say? :)

This is the original tennis!!!! This court is one of two in the area or in France. I can't remember which. It was cool to watch them play, but I didn't understand what was going on at all.

 Look at this sword! Jeweled handle and all. Nothing is to fancy for Napoleon. This sword was used for his coronation I believe.

 
Even while he was away at battle, his tent was fancy. The crib on the left was for his son, Napoleon the second, the future king of Rome. He was his pride and Joy.

 This is a jewelry box made as a wedding gift for king Francis I. Its huge, but I guess it'd have to be to fit their style of jewelry in it. It's very pretty and actually sentimental, with pictures of their wedding painted on it.

 
Touring the room chambers. The one on the right is Marie Antoinette's private room where she would go to have a break from court.

 
This is the throne room and the first bathroom we've seen! Napoleon would receive visitors here in the middle of bathing. Boundaries were not a thing I suppose.

This is a really cool clock that works like a calendar! That's why there are so many dials on it. It tells when the equinoxes are!

 
Back to the gardens! There's a pond/canal in the garden that had lots of fish, ducks, and some swans!!!!They're huge!!!

 
The gardens are really something aren't they? Brings out the imagination in me. Doesn't the picture on the right look like a bird's leg?

 

"I could get used to a view like this. Yep, i'm used to it. Guys I need a castle." Oh wait, this is a castle.