Je t'aime, Paris

Hello family! It's been a while since my last email. I blame the difficulty of finding Internet and also lack of spare time. We've been real busy here in the city of lights. We go to one, more often two, museums a day and after that we're usually running around exploring the city. There's so much to see and do in this place it's insane! I feel like I still haven't even seen half of it. Some highlights: definitely the musee d'orsay. That is a beautiful museum with the best collection of 19th century European art, my favorite. The Van Goghs were of course my favorite. I bought a poster of his "Eglise D'Auvers." it's beautiful. But an artist that really surprised me was Renoir. Look up his Moulin de la Galette. I absolutely loved how you can see the light coming through the trees and reflecting on the people below. Gorgeous! It's so strange how my opinions have changed so drastically. Monet used to be my favorite impressionist, but now he's moving down the list as other artists like Renoir and degas are moving up. Again, seeing the art in person is so different from looking at a slide. I've been amazed time and time again. We also went to Versailles. That place was amazing! No wonder France went bankrupt and the people revolted. Did you know that to build that place it took the equivalent of $2 billion dollars today? Insane. But it was a beautiful palace. I want gardens like that in my yard someday... Ha! We went to the Hameau, which was this little English country side village built by Marie Antoinette. It was so stinking cute! It was like a functioning farm too with cows and goats and pigs. She built it for her children and her to play in, but I would live there. I can't wait to post pictures. The best part of Versailles was our rowboat trip on the grand canals. We rented a row boat For forty-five minutes and merrily merrily merrily merrily rowed gently down the stream. It was very relaxing. Other favorite of Paris have been the Louvre- which is finormous and can't possibly be fully explored in one day (we spent three there), climbing Notre Dame, visiting Chartres cathedral - the first cathedral done completely in the Gothic style with beyond amazing stained glass windows, an amazing Indian food dining experience (it was my first time for Indian and I now love it), the best French onion soup soup I've ever had, and climbing the Eiffel tower. We climbed to the second floor and then rode the elevator to the top. It was a gorgeous sunset that night. One downside to Paris is that, besides the two delicious meals mentioned, we have not had a good experience with food. Most of our meals have been bad to really bad. Which is sad considering where we are. But I spoke to a friend and she said most o the time you have to pay a lot more for good food, which has actually been the case. That Indian meal was the most expensive meal of my life, but so worth it. We'll be dining st the cheap places for the rest of the trip probably because of it. :) I love Europe! I'm very sad I have to go home in less than two weeks back to real life. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the parentals and lil sis tomorrow! It's come so fast! I can't wait. I love you all and I hope you are all well!