Day 18: Vaux.

I'm living my life at a hundred miles an hour, and I love it. Because of this, I accidentally combined day 1 and day 2 into one (which they basically were one big 48 hour day, but for blog's sake, we'll separate them). So skipping ahead to Day 18: The view from the Eiffel Tower is ridiculous. So very cool. It's the only view you can have of Paris, without the Eiffel tower in it. Me, Kait and Brady waited in line for 2 hours, paid 5 euro more than we needed to, and only made it 3/4 of the way up due to our tight schedule. It was windy, it was cold, it was crowded, it was so worth it. This comedian dressed as a clown in line was following strangers and imitating their every move, then walking up to random men and hugging them yelling, "Tido! I found you!" My favorite one was when he walked up to a pigeon and held his hand out like he had it on a leash, He followed it around for about 2 minutes until it flew away: I was on the floor laughing. We had a chartered bus take us about an hour outside of Paris, to Fountain Bleu. Of all the palaces and chateaus we've visited, this one felt the most homely... in an over the top extravagant homely way. The best part was the little overpriced sorbet cart in the center courtyard, which is where I ate the most delicious apricot, kiwi, pineapple, and peach sorbet with my feet dangling over the hand carved stone railing, overlooking a private lake and gardens. Picture perfect. The next destination our bus took us to was the supermarket: you will notice I live on a healthy died of Orangina and Twix bars. We were stocking up on food because we were taken to eat a picnic lunch at a park. It was so fantastic, eating our baguettes, crackers and cheese, fruit, and twix on a picnic table at a little French park. Little did I know the best was yet to come. Vaux: the predecessor to Versailles (refer to previous post), also the marriage destination of Eva Longoria, and the most beautiful place I've ever been to in my life. We got there at about 8:30 pm and were given 3 hours to explore on our own. At night, they light 15,000 candles throughout the Chateau and the gardens for a candlelit tour... it poured rain. The inside was still magnificently lit by the flickering, glowing candles. The outside, however, was not so fortunate. But it didn't need any candles, we explored every secret pathway we could find, climbed every staircase, took every path less traveled. I waltzed on a stone overlook to Opera music serenading the gardens, and we made lemons into lemonade by recording videos with our umbrellas (very remincent of Singing in the Rain). As we were walking over the wet stones, they looked like a million glistening diamonds on the ground. It is one of my favorite memories of all time: i've never laughed so hard, or loved so much. Vaux is the most stunning place I have explored, and every single one of my childhood fantasies was relived better than I could have imagined it.
P.s. Everyone always takes those stupid jumping pictures: I am not a fan. So in mockery of that, we took the most awkward jumping picture we could. We succeeded.