Day 135

May 15, 2011

the one where we planned to continue getting our feet wet in France…but accidentally fell into the water! Allow me to explain:

Today was the day that our whole group (about 70 people) traveled to Versailles together. The palace was breathtaking—there were elaborate paintings on every ceiling, gold leaf coatings on every door, and intricate details on every wall, sculpture, and piece of furniture. It was beautifully overwhelming!

After our group tour, we were free to explore the palace gardens for an hour, and were told to meet back at our charter bus at 11:30.
So Carla, Dylan, and I set off into the gardens! (And if you’ve been keeping up with my project, you probably know how much I LOVE gardens.) Well let me just say: this one was incredible! So incredible, in fact, that we lost track of time and found ourselves leaving the garden with only a few minutes to spare! When we finally got back outside the palace into the parking lot, we were a couple of minutes late…and the bus was nowhere to be found! So we wondered…could they have left us? Surely not; we were only a few minutes late, and they would have noticed we were missing, right?

But eventually we decided that we must have been abandoned, so we set off in search of a pay phone, since none of us had international calling. When we finally found one, it didn’t take coins; only phone cards that none of us had! So I just laughed. I mean really, this kind of thing WOULD happen to me! Getting stranded in an unfamiliar city on my first trip to a foreign country? Yes, that just happened!

Thankfully I was in good company and we were all able to laugh at ourselves instead of panic. :) We found some English-speaking people and asked them how to find the nearest train station, bought tickets from Versailles to Paris, and had our very first train adventure together!

Then we decided to be rebellious and just do our own thing for the rest of the day, since we were abandoned by the rest of the group. We got off the train at St-Michel square, ate our first legit French meal, found Notre Dame, saw a 3-man band playing piano and double bass in the middle of the street, successfully hunted down Berthillon (the best ice cream shop in Paris—thanks for telling me about it, Natalia!), and explored shops in the Latin Quarter (where we found things like Sudoku toilet paper and dancing teapots)! Then we went back to the hotel, reunited with the rest of the group, and had a tour of Paris at sunset while riding in a boat down the Seine River. (I know, right?) And we got to see the City of Light at night, in all its illuminated majesty.

Thank you Lord, for keeping us calm when things didn’t go according to plan. Thank you for allowing us to laugh at ourselves, find helpful people, and have a fun & safe adventure on our own. And Father, I thank you the most for stranding me with two awesome people, and for allowing this experience to bring us closer together. I love you both! Day 135 = definitely a day to remember!