Versaille? Oui!

Okay, so as I've mentioned before, Chad and I officially tied the knot in 2009, but had our fabulous wedding on June 19, 2010. For a wedding present, the Cisneros's gave us the option to spend over a week anywhere in the world, which obviously blew me away. Due to my lifelong obsession with Western Europe, I BEGGED Chad to pick a country in that area. I just HAD to go there! I didn't even care which country he picked. At first he wanted to go to Aruba, but after much prodding and poking from good old me, we decided to return to the homeland! First we were going to attempt to do this elaborate country-hop between Italy, Germany and France, but once we realized we literally would get no sleep, we decided to scale it down. Little did I know that "scaling it down" meant PARIS and BRUSSELS! 

Anyway, the entire honeymoon story can wait for another time. I just HAVE to talk about one of the highlights of the trip for me, and that was the PALAIS DE VERSAILLE! I literally think about this insane palace every single day. I am definitely going to return on another trip to Europe. It was just so princess-y and beautiful! Definitely a great honeymoon activity for all you lovers out there! Here is how our day went on our little expedition outside the big city of Paris!

After the train ride through the Parisian burbs, we were in the city of Versaille! True to form, I quickly mounted a trusty steed before heading off to the day's excitement! The little city of Versaille (I actually have no idea if it's a "little" city, but it seemed quaint in comparison to Paris), was great because everyone was so nice! Most people, I would imagine, were tourists like us, but it still was great to meet some cool people. Chad was looking dapper and we were set to take in some culture! So we grabbed a quick baguette sandwich and off we went!

 After a quick stroll, this is what you find! It was absolutely massive. I wish the picture quality was better, but that's okay. The entire palace actually spanned further than my camera could take in! If you are like how I was prior to my visit to this insanity, here is a little history: this is where the Louis' 14th, 15th and 16th lived with their wives and all the servants. One of the most exciting points is that Marie Antoinette ("Let them eat cake!") was the last of the queens to live here. She was occupying the palace during the French Revolution when she had to scurry out the back door!

Anyway, after surpassing the MASSIVE line outside, (when we landed at Charles de Gaulle we bought ourselves some nifty two day museum passes), we got ourselves some audio guides and made our first stop at the Palace Cathedral. This is one of the newer attachments, so it was in excellant shape. The detail was just mind blowing. I took multiple pictures of the individual aspects of the building such as the floor, the paintings on the ceilings, the gold organ pipes, etc., but this picture gives you the amazingness in it's entirety! There just so happened to be a field trip of kids sitting on the floor learning about it's history. Can you imagine being a little French kid who's average field trip consists of visits to the Palais de Versaille and the Louvre?! As a kid I visited the stupid rock mines in Trabuco Canyon! Ridiculous!

As we walked on, we found a hallway filled with sculptures of men who helped to make France what it was pre-revolution. There were descriptions at each of their feet, but us being our mature selves, we decided it was of grave importance to emulate their actions! Here is Chadly directing the troops in war! (Okay, you are welcome to punch me in the face anytime my uproariously hilarious jokes become too much for you). A little side note here: as we walked through the roped-off sections of the palace with the rest of the brigade of sight-see-ers, I couldn't help but wonder what the heck was behind the twenty million other doors that were shut off to the public! The palace was already HUGE to me, but there were parts of it we weren't even able to see!

In the interest of not making this post the longest of all time, I'm going to skip straight to one of my favorite rooms of the entire place: THE HALL OF MIRRORS! Oh my gosh, I could not believe the grandeur of this room! It's where the kings and queens would hold court, various balls, and anything else that was high and elegant. Those windows on the right looked out to the expansive gardens, and those chandeliers went all the way down the room! It was just amazing. If I ever have a daughter, the main theme of her room WILL be the Hall of Mirrors! No choices in my household!

After walking through the old bedrooms, we rented a few bikes out in the gardens and took to a little cycling! This was my favorite part of the day. It was so beautiful out, and the grounds were so huge we could have cycled for hours! If you've ever seen Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley, and if you remember the seen at Pemberly (where Mr. Darcy - my boyfriend - lives), when she was looking out the window and his property stretched to the horizon, this was exactly like that. We cycled left, we cycled right, we cycled through the well-manicured maze, we cycled to the fresh orange juice stand, we cycled to Marie Antoinette's little house, we cycled EVERYWHERE! My leggings were the perfect thing to wear on this expedition and Chad was doing a great job with the camera!

This is a great representation of how basically all of Europe was to Chad: too small! He is probably three times the size of the average European, and Marie's chateau was no different!

Anyway, after Marie's humble abode, we handed our bikes in and walked back up the steps to the palace. That night we attempted to go wine tasting, but, once again, that's a story for another day!

I hope you enjoyed my indulgence! Woo!