Recent Visitations

Had a slightly more quieter weekend last weekend. Once again it was ANOTHER public holiday last week (I have been here not even 3 weeks yet and we have already had 2 public holidays) we got out to explore the large parks that are on either side of the town. There is a massive one in the East called "Bois de Vincennes" (which we explored on Sunday) and in the West "Bois de Boulonge" (on Monday)

Because Paris is a small city that has 10 Million people in it, everyone lives in apartment buildings. A natural consequence of everyone living in appartments is that nobody has a backyard. As nobody has a backyard, once its the weekend and the weather is fine, people flock (and I mean FLOCK) to the two major parks that are on the edges of the city.

If you think that the Botanical Gardens or Hyde Park in Sydney are busy at lunchtime, well you aint seen nothing. There are people everywhere, with their picnic rugs and their dogs and their soccer balls and their tables. There are scores of old frenchmen playing petanque all throughout the park, there are families on bikes, people sunbaking, people sailing model boats on the lake, people rowing (which we took part in) and just generally a hell of a lot of people trying to enjoy their own 4 square meters of open space in the park
.

Versaille

Last Sunday we took ourselves out to the Palace of Versaille, (which of course is where they signed the treaty after WWI) and thats how I know of the place. There was nothing in or around the Palace or grounds that talked about the signing of the treaty. The palace was basically an homage to all things that were decadent about a whole bunch of Frenchmen called Louis. (Louis the XIII, XIV, XV & XVI ) they all lived there and the place is freakin massive. The gardens are pretty nice, well manicured and huge.

(This painting is called "The Feast of Simon")




Yes there were a lot of people there (like seriously everywhere) and it was freakin hot.