A Day at Versailles

By day four of the trip, I'd learned a few things:

Not only should I greet shopkeepers when I enter and exit their stores, I should do the same with bus drivers. If the French despise Americans, they hide it well. Everyone seemed to go out of his or her way to make us feel welcome and to assist us. Merci!I imagine that would change if we tried to build a Wal-Mart in Paris. Give up trying to buy even a can opener. Canned food—not a core value. Not.Tips are included in the bill, and waiters seem in no hurry to move customers out in order to make more money. Dining is for enjoying food and friendship at a leisurely pace.The city is full of lovely sounds…chanters in cathedrals, bells ringing atop churches, a chamber orchestra playing Pachelbel's Canon in the metro. I heard only one car horn, though I saw thousands of cars and motorcycles.Every culture defines masculine and feminine in slightly different ways. Picture men with long, curly locks and tights as one century's ideal of macho. We must be careful, very careful, about creating "biblical" depictions of manhood and womanhood based on fluctuating cultural ideals. In order to be biblical, they must be true across time and country.Research says writing students more readily master the craft in a context of a mentoring relationship that includes true care. Peer feedback is effective only when trust is present. (I did do some work.)

Okay, back to the tour of sites. Though this trip was my third to Paris, I had never been to the Palace of Versailles. And I must return someday, because after a full day there, I'd seen only about half of the place. Happy to do so—my hubby has not yet been. Here's a mini-tour:

Surprise #1: Versailles is in the city, not the country. The front of it, that is.

Surprise #2: I expected the place to be big, but not to make Downton Abbey look like slaves' quarters. Enormo! 

The Hall of Mirrors reflected the sunrise for "the Sun King." Although I had seen  photos of it, nothing compared with the real thing. It dazzled, even on a gloomy day.  World leaders signed the Treaty of Versailles, ending WWI, here.

Equally impressive, in a haunting way, is a room in which paintings line the walls—one for each war from France's beginnings. The works include one celebrating France's aid against the British during the U.S. colonies'  revolution. Someday soon, I hope, we "ain't gonna study war no more." Way too many paintings.

The gardens, of which this shot captures about one tenth, seemed to stretch to Siberia.

The winners tell the history. The more I learn about Marie Antoinette, the more sympathy I have. An Austrian princess shipped far from home for an arranged marriage, she longed for a slice of normal life. She preferred the little hamlet on the grounds, of which this idyllic scene is a part, along with friends from all classes (scandalous!) to the vast house. 

The walk to Marie Antoinette's preferred lodgings required a thirty-minute walk. Tomorrow: Art.