Class field trip to Chantilly (pronounced shant-ee-ee) chateau, castle, and stables. and yes, Chantilly also means whipped cream in French. But sadly there wasn't any of that on the field trip.
Side note: Apparently it rains here in France (I somehow missed that and failed to bring closed toed shoes or anything beyond a sweater) so the field trip began with torrential downpours, thunder, lightning and me - in a bright yellow cardigan, dress, and sweet gladiator sandals looking like the biggest dumbass in France. Did I mention I forgot an umbrella too?
Don't worry though, the day cleared up and my outfit was appropriate (after an hour or so of wading in the mud)...anyway, on to the chateau!
Chantilly consists of a ginormous horse stable, split level castle, and amazing gardens. The original owner from back in the day thought he was going to be reincarnated as a horse so he made his stables into a palace type set up. Yes, the stables are twice the size of the actual castle. It's also more luxurious than most barns, and mansions, I've seen (from the 17th century at least) It can house 240 horses and 500 hunting dogs. It's my kind of establishment. The castle part isn't a total bust, it's actually the second biggest museum in France (second to the Lourve) but it's set up in the old style of museums (when art was a private collection, where people were already supposed to be educated and have previous knowledge of what they are looking at, so it doesn't have labels or a specific pattern of arrangement) soo basically it's just art thrown on the walls. There were Raphaels just randomly hung on the walls. Pretty sweet actually.
The day mostly consisted of walking (or wading) around on our own. After lunch 3 of us went to check out the stables, which were closed for a horse show that cost 10 Euros and we'd have to leave early from because of our bus departure. Instead of wasting that money on half a horse show in French, we walked around the stables...and ended up accidentally sneaking in to the horse show. Honestly, it was an accident but ended up working out quite well. We left with some of our teachers and apparently as we walked out the ticket lady stopped one of our teachers and accused us of sneaking in. The kind pregnant teacher covered for us, having no idea herself we hadn't paid.
All in all a successful day, complete with baguette sandwiches for lunch aaand a night time adventure in the Bastille bars. but that's a story for another day.
Tomorrow I'm headed to the Moulin Rouge and if you don't hear from me by Monday that means they spotted my talent and I've become the head dancer. I'm bringing my corset to show them what I've got.
xoxo,
gossip girl
i wish.
xoxo,
kim.
sigh.
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