Zee Odd Couple

Martine and her neighbor Patrick, have a very funny (and entertaining) relationship. Par exemple:

Moi: Martine, j'ai une question: si je dis "j'ai mal à la tête ça veut dire que j'ai une migraine ou je suis folle?"
(Engrish: If I say "I have bad in the head"...sounds way nicer in French, and not as weird because that is how you say something hurts in French...does that mean I have a headache/migraine or I am crazy?")

Martine: Mais non, ça veut dire que tu as une migraine...mais si Patrick dit ça, il veut dire qu'il est fou.
(Oh no, it means you have a headache...but if Patrick says that, it means he is crazy.)

*Patrick chuckles from the couch where he is snuggling with zee princesse Zouzou*

Cézanne et Paris - Musée du Luxembourg

Finally got to the Cézanne exhibition today (before it closes on Sunday), and saw "those incredible apples and pears", among others.

Les Serres d'Auteuil

About a five minute walk from my apartment (just like Roland Garros) is an oasis, apparently:

The Greenhouses/Gardens of Auteuil (Auteuil is the name of what I think used to be the village where I live, before it became part of Paris)

If you look closely, you can see GIANT koi fish. Apparently they can get really large when kept away from their natural predator, the raccoon. 

Eddie Scissorhandz Wuz Here

PALM TREE! They didn't have my favorite kind (Royal or Queen palms or whatever they're called), but I'll forgive them because there were so many others, and they had to include ones from all over the world

 Hibiscus! It's just like being back in Florida

 Elephant ears, like the plant from my childhood backyard, affectionately named Sid (after the evil kid from Toy Story) after it began to take over our entire yard...also, le soleil!

 There was an entire greenhouse dedicated solely to palm trees (with a shout out in the descriptive plaque to Florida). Made me so proud.

A wonderful (WARM) way to spend a chilly Sunday afternoon in Paris.

Les Oiseaux

Watching The Birds in French. Alfred Hitchcock, a genius even in a foreign language.

Versailles

Yesterday, I took a little hop on over to a modest little (ha!) chateau in the town of Versailles: 

 They were such scholars, with their big globe!

 I believe I have heard of this lady...

 The chapel

 Some old French Kings:

 And a queen:

 And Jeanne d'Arc, of course.

 Getting ready for a party!

 Oh, what a dandy.

 The chapel, as seen from the second story

 The construction throws off the ambiance a bit:

 Un coeur:

 The Hall of Mirrors

 The King's bed

 Louis XIV

 View from the King's bedroom: so he could watch out for the angry mob of peasants coming toward the front door, I suppose. Or just his other King visitors.

 The study room (don't know how I would have done any real work in here either):

 La Chambre de la Reine (Marie Antoinette):

 The door that led to her secret room, and how she escaped from the angry mob of peasants:

 Zee famous portrait of Marie Antoinette and the kids:

 Oh hey, Napoleon, didn't see you there! What are you doing at Versailles?

  This guy was known as Louis the Desired??? I'd hate to see what the ugly guys looked like...

And for this part of the tour, we see the perfectly manicured gardens:

 Le Lac des Cygnes:

 Moutons!

 A baby carriage, that is nicer, even after several hundred years, than any car I will ever own, I'm sure.

 NATURE!

 chuppah?

 perhaps not...

 Le Petit Hameau! Marie Antoinette's pretend peasant hamlet

 It looked like where the Hobbits lived. Very much like how I imagine the angry peasants lived...

 Un vache!

 Un chèvre!

 Mulets!

 The sky was so apocalyptic, it even made the pretend Hamlet look foreboding

 And Louis again, in his usual humble style

The entrance/exit...gold, of course

 The front door:

 Humility was not one of the strong points of the French Monarchy:

Twas not a bad place to call home, I imagine. The castle itself is beautiful, and ridiculously lavish, but the grounds are so big that once you actually get to Petite Trianon (Marie Antoinette's "escape from the terribly stressful life at the chateau" chateau) or her little Hamlet, it feels like an entirely different world.