Fontainebleau

You can tell that we are settling in to life here in Paris. I feel bad when I look at my blog posts from past months and see how they become less and less. Not that life isn't exciting or "new" anymore, but we are getting used to the way things are here. It takes more of an effort to go out, although we are always thankful when we do. Sometimes though, it's just easier to fall into old habits--staying at home watching movies while we have the munchies--rather than going out and discovering more of the beauty around us in one of the world's most fascinating cities. We had a bit of a wakeup call this past Saturday when we had our first actual travel experience since our arrival in Paris...

Life can be a Carousel, you get on and don't even notice what's going on as you go round and round.

I miraculously got the day off on Saturday (first Saturday off since our second week in Paris!) so we decided to make it a holiday! All the rest of Paris has "fait des vacances" (literally "make vacation/holiday"), so why shouldn't we?! Of course, our vacation was different, one day as opposed to the five weeks paid vacation that Parisians gain after just one year of employment in a company. (This is totally standard fare...even at Disneyland everyone gets this after the first year!) Since we had so little time, we had to find something relatively local. However, we also wanted to take the opportunity to get out of the city. We decided to go to visit the Chateau de Fontainebleau in the city of Avon, about an hour outside of Paris by train.

Andrew with the Chateau

We were both very excited upon boarding the train. We wandered around the Art Deco interior of the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, watching the TGVs coming in from all over France, enjoying the bustle of the city trying to squeeze in a last hurrah before school begins again. We had packed a delicious looking picnic lunch and were settled: this was a day to relax, to enjoy being together, and to have a holiday from the familiar life that we have begun to settle into. We watched the country fly by outside our windows, giddy with the thought of change! This short and simple journey reawakened a desire in us: didn't we love to travel? Isn't that one of the big reasons we came here--to see Europe? We decided to make a more conscious effort to see Paris as much as we could, but also to get out of it as often as possible. This little day trip was a lovely refresher for us, for our relationship, for our being.

We arrived in the town too late to visit the chateau, but we didn't mind...we were here for us, not to get things done! We walked through the grounds and admired the lovely gardens of the chateau.

The extensive grounds. The grand canal begins just beyond the fountain in the background...

We finally reached the Grand Canal that sprawled into a great park behind the chateau. The canal was lined with overgrown banks, full of green life. Next, on either side, came sheltered paths, and then an organized forest.

The Grand Canal, also the view to the left from our picnic spot. You can see the rooftops of the castle behind the trees in the center of the photo.

View to the right...what a perfect day!

We found a perfect spot for our picnic and had a lovely time, at least when we weren't fighting gnats! There were thousands of them along the banks of the canal, and when the breeze would die down, they came to attack us again and again! We fought with valor, and I must say we must have been quite a sight to behold...guarding our precious picnic by warding off the pests with plastic plates!

Our phenomenal lunch

Finally the breeze decided it was on our side, and being stuffed with cheese, bread, wine, fruit, and chocolate, we fell asleep in the tall grass.

Nap time! We are here to relax.

Upon awakening, we wandered back through the grounds to the town. We stopped for some cool drinks (tasty iced coffee for me, and refreshing minted water for Ange) at a cute "Salon de The" (tea house) before catching the train back home.

Cute lil' tea room

Very content to be enjoying this delicious, actual iced coffee at the end of our date!

All in all, a marvelous day!