Et vice Versailles...

Good evening, Reader!

I'm extremely tired, I can feel every bone in my body aching mercilessly (particularly my back), and I feel like my eyelids weigh a ton each, but I'm very happy, because I had a very very nice week-end. A particularly long one as well, since I took two days off... It was really cool, my friend V came over to visit me, and we went together to the Château de Versailles, Louis XIV's huge palace near Paris. It was very beautiful, and we were quite lucky with the weather. By "lucky with the weather", I mean that it did not rain at all, which is already something.

I liked the palace very much. It's part of these monuments where you think it's going to be tacky and overdone, interesting mostly because it's impressive, but it was actually very beautiful. Except for the fountains which did not quite convince me (more particularly a huge golden guy in the process of being burried alive, which supposedly vomited a 3m high geyser of water. I avoided the spot while the fountain was on, did not want to have any nightmares.)

I remembered some stuff from the last time I had come to the Palace (I must have been around 7), and it's funny how my tastes changed in the meantime: I had been very disappointed by the tarnished mirrors of the "Galerie des Glaces", and very impressed by the chapel, I remembered a very dark place with a huge golden altar. Coming back to the same place, I must say I agree with basically everyone else: the "Galerie des Glaces" is by far the prettiest room in the Palace, and the chapel was nice, sure enough, but not as amazing as I remembered it. Maybe it's my size which changed things, I don't know. I must have gained 70cm since then, I guess maybe it changes the perspective.

Oh, and I nearly fell into the big canal in the garden... We were peacefully eating our sandwiches with V, and I took off my shoes because I did not want them to fall into the water (they are kind of loose...). I was swaying my (nearly) bare feet, 2 cm above the water when sudenly a HUGE and very very ugly fish came up from under me. My first impulse, of course, was to leap to my feet, which could have caused me to fall into the water, had my thighs not been too weary for me to actually stand up without first crawling on my knees for a few hundred meters. It did not jump, but I am quite sure that it aimed at eating my big toe. I don't know what kind of fish they were (yeah, because there was not just one, more like 12 or 15), but they were really big, and ate some of the pieces of bread we gave to the ducks. Just to give you an idea of the size... They were actually probably bigger than most of the ducks... The fantom fish of Versailles... Our monarchic version of the Loch Ness Monster. But this one you can hand feed and see very easily, which is probably why it's not as famous. Apart from the fact that you can probably fish this one out and fry it in a pan, which is unlikely to happen to Nessie.

Apart from that, we met an annoying Spaniard, loads and loads of italian tourists, saw a lot of beautiful things and had a lot of fun, which is great, because now I feel as if I had been on holiday for a week even though it's not true. In a word, life is beautiful. Thanks for coming, V! And thanks for bringing your camera! :)

I tried to resist until now, reader, but I have to seize the occasion to tell you a little bit about the "Sun King" musical, which is one of the (shameful, shaaaaameful) reasons why I landed in Versailles at all, despite my heroic attempts to make things look like a very cultural expedition. You know feather-brain-Claire, she can't do anything which has nothing to do with something silly. Anyway, here we go, the musical is really nice, I like the music, in spite of the lyrics, which are, honestly, as bad as they get. Well, now that I said it in public, I guess I might as well say a word about the eyes of the main singer, since my honour is now officially lost forever... Big and blue, like the sea before a storm, as Buttercup would put it... *sigh*

Well, I guess it's time for me to go home now, my back has not moved for too long, and I am afraid that if I stay a minute longer on that chair, it's going to be stuck forever... I already walk like an 80-year-old penguin (so glamorous, reader!), so I'll try not to make things too much worse! Besides, my brain is boiling after too much Excel Testing, and I am meeting my sister F, we're having a little party for her birthday tonight! Happy birthday, F! Good evening reader!!