Daily Details: July 18

The morning started off with a visit to the Paris Opera House. The outside was absolutely spectacular, but once inside, I was COMPLETELY blown away by how beautiful it is! I would say that its beauty definitely exceeded that of Versailles, in my opinion. It’s lavish, no doubt, but somehow, it just struck me as being much more beautiful. There was a beautiful hall with GORGEOUS chandeliers that reminded me of Versailles, but I loved it even more than the famous Hall of Mirrors. Seeing the theatre itself really surprised me because I always thought it would be much bigger. What I saw instead was a beautifully red, intimate theatre that I would just DIE to see a ballet in! It truly was a spectacular sight!

After the Opera House, we rushed to meet our group to go to Fontainebleau, one of the chateaus that was a predecessor to Versailles. I believe the movie, The Duchess, was filmed there. It was beautiful, although much like Versailles. My favorite part of the trip there was the strawberry sorbet that I got in the courtyard from a VERY handsome Frenchman. It was in this DELICIOUS waffle cone, and the sorbet itself blew ANY of the gelato that I had in Italy straight out of the water. No words can do the flavor justice and the color was magnificent! I was in heaven as we sat by the pond and ate our sorbet.

Next, we were off to a very winding trip to Vaux le Vicomte, another French chateau. Vaux has a fascinating history behind it—one reminiscent of the book, The Count of Montecristo. Vaux was built by Nicolas Fouquet, the minister of finances under Louis XIV’s reign. Fouquet had basically saved the French economy and so naturally had a VERY high rank in France. He was also very wealthy and so hence, was able to build Vaux. Colbert, another high-ranking man in France became extremely jealous of Fouquet and started to tell the king that Fouquet was getting all the money to build the chateau because he was embezzling. This was not the case, but the king asked if he could come visit Fouquet all the same to try to find evidence of this crime. Fouquet held a grand party at what was coined to be the most beautiful chateau in France in the king’s honor. It is said that all of the silverware was solid gold in Fouquet’s home. Envious of his glorious “fete” and chateau, Louis XIV had Fouquet thrown into prison. He was later put on trial and never allowed to see the evidence that Colbert had falsified. The trial took 3 years and the judges sentenced Fouquet to leave France. Louis was not happy with this and instead wanted the death penalty for Fouquet. What ultimately happened was that Fouquet lived out the last of his life in a dank prison, never to enjoy his glorious chateau that he had worked so hard to build. Louis took all of the famed artists, architects and sculptors that Fouquet had used to build Vaux to build Versailles later on.

Anyway, after stopping at a supermarket to get our picnicking supplies, we finished our journey to Vaux. Lush forests surround the chateau, so we headed into them and picnicked under a beautiful bowery. It was SO much fun! As we walked up to the chateau, the walks leading up to the home were lined with candles. Once inside, nearly every room was lit up with real candles. It was a marvelous thing—I absolutely LOVED the candlelight tour. Vaux was my favorite French chateau, bar none. It was not as ornate as Versailles, but I thought it was much more tastefully done. It was full of mannequins in costumes of the period which made it feel more like you were back in time. So many neat things were done throughout the home that helped the story of Fouquet to really come alive. The gardens in the back were beautiful, albeit rainy once again. It was wonderful to stand at the end of the gardens and look at the beauty of this incredible home and think of the history behind it.

As we made the long journey home, I became deeply saddened knowing that in the morning I would be leaving Paris. It was a magical place and I didn’t see all that I would love to see there. After talking to my good friend Ali though, I felt better. She said that all that means is that I will have to go back again someday and finish my adventures there. She is absolutely right. “Au revoir, Paris!” or literally, “Until we meet again!”