Boorrrrinnnggg

Today was super super boring.

I woke up at 8:15 and went downstairs to an seemingly empty house. Everyone was still sleeping! I went for a run (and saw pretty things), and when I came back Kari (the mom) was up making breakfast for two of the guests. At this B&B, they do nice hot breakfasts of eggs, sausage, bacon, and toast with fruit, muffins, and cereal as well. I like that they take more time on the breakfast instead of worrying about dinner like the other B&B I was at. Kari does all the breakfast, and then she has two "chamber maidens" that make up the rooms and clean up from breakfast. The kids set up the tables for breakfast the night before.

I sat around until about 11 when Kari told me my instructions for the day. I was to paint two large pieces of wood, check in some guests, and carry the phone around with me in case someone called to book. I painted one coat and took a break. Then I painted another coat on one and took a break. Then I finished the last one. It was like one and I had nothing to do the rest of the day. I don't even know what I did to pass the time. I couldn't leave cause I had to be on phone/door duty.

The guests came to check in/drop off their stuff at 2:30. No one called to book. I guess I just played with the cats and dogs, cleaned, and surfed the Internet until 6 when I grilled some chicken for my dinner. One cat laid on a stool in the kitchen alllll day long. All the others are so cuddly that it's annoying. I try to pet them but they're just not as great as Tolly, the dog. He plays fetch. He's fun and so cute. After dinner, I found Marie Antoinette on DVD so I took it up to my room to watch it. It was pretty awesome! I wish I would have seen it before I went to Versailles!! I was standing in the damr places just a couple days ago. It was great! (You need to watch it dad).

I forgot to say that Rob and Kari went to a wedding in London today. That's why I had to stay here. I hope they have more jobs for me or it will be a long awkward week...I plan on going to Bath one day next week and also going to see Stonehenge one afternoon!! Cool!

My Last Workaway...Bath, UK

I teared up again when dad left. You'd think I'd be okay with this alone stuff, and I guess I am, but I was still sad to see him go. Hopefully he got some sleep in the plane and will be able to get back to normal quickly.

I headed tote Eurostar to check in/go through security. They make all non EU citizens fill out a landing card with name, passport #, reason for going to the UK, and where you'll be there. I don't know if the workaways are legal in the UK without a visa, so I told the border control guy I was just traveling...cause I am. When he found out I was traveling alone, some sort of red flag went up and he started questioning me like crazy. "Do you have a reservation?" "Why don't you have a reservation?" "How much money do you have right now?" "Is that in cash or just available to you?" "Do you have credit cards?" "How are you paying for this?" "Where did you get the money to pay for this?" "Where did you work?" "Are you still in school?" "What are you studying?" "When are you leaving?" "Do you have your plane ticket?" He seriously asked all those and more. I showed him my flight itinerary and then he called someone to bring him a "Code C stamp." After watching Jason Bourne last night, I was gearing up for something big. Europe was totally after me. He stamped my passport and granted me access to the UK until the 26th, when I'm leaving. For all those traveling to England, print out your hotel reservation/flight itinerary before going. My goodness. At least he let me through!

I waited for my train and enjoyed my last French pain au chocolat. Sorry Ray, I tried to get dad to take you one home, but he was in too big of a hurry to the airport. :( Maybe we can find a French bakery near k town. I'm sure we can!!

The Eurostar was real nice, and I arrived in London fine. I had bought my train ticket online and retrieved it at the info desk. I then shopped around because I had an hour before my train...plenty of time. With 30 minutes til my train left, I started looking for the platform. I asked three different workers where London Paddington was. The first two said down the hall to the left...so three times I went down the hall to the left but only found the underground. The third person finally told me I needed to take the underground to get to London Paddington. I didn't realize I had to take the underground to the station...I thought I was at the station I would be leaving from! So with ten minutes til my train left, I got an underground ticket and ride it to London Paddington. I arrived ONE minute too late. I missed my train :( I was pretty sure I would miss it before i got on the underground so I emailed the lady that was supposed to be picking me up while I was at the other station and had wifi and told her I missed my train. I almost made it through my trip without missing any trains. Luckily my ticket was ok for the next train that left half an hour later.

I got to Bath and walked the mile ish to the B&B. My first impressions of Bath were great. It is a very pretty place. My hosts are really nice...an English couple with five children, three of which still live at home. They have one adorable dog and five MIA cats. I watched Italian job, ate dinner, and watched The Eagle with them. The dad, Rob, is the most talkative and he loves to hear about the differences between America and England. He is real smart, and I was happy to see a grown man hang his own pictures and fix his own towel rack after staying with poor helpless Roger last week.

I'm not 100% sure what my duties are, but I know I'm supposed to paint something as well as attempt to clean up two common rooms. That will be next to impossible since I can't exactly throw anything away...we'll see what tomorrow brings.

So Parisian

Dad and I spent our last day in Paris, not in Paris, but at the palace of VERSAILLES! It was beautiful, gold, ornate, and pricey. We learned about the history of the reign of the Louis'. Louis XIV built the palace, and he seemed to be the self-centered psycho Louis. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived there before going to prison and later being beheaded by the guillotine. We walked through both the king's and queen's quarters (bedroom, study, etc.) as well as the famous Hall of Mirrors. All the rooms had huge paintings on the ceilings and walls. It was a lot like the other palaces I have been in, but this one was especially cool because of the people that lived in it. They were so famous (or infamous, I should say). So much history at Versailles...what a place!

We ate lunch in the ginormous gardens until we were kicked off the grass, and then we walked towards the other palaces in the back of the gardens. We rented bikes (my favorite part of the day) and rode to Marie Antoinette's little place and the grand and petit palaces hidden in the gardens, locked up our bikes, walked for five minutes, and decided we just wanted to ride bikes. Sooo...we left there and rode around for about half an hour. I'm pretty sure one of the first things I will be doing upon returning home is getting on my bike, Sylvia, and going cruising. It was so refreshing! Most of the gardens were pretty...the statues were still covered with tarps, and the trees were all dead, but I'm sure it's fantastic in the summer, and I just used my imagination like I have with just about every park I've been to. Half the parks in Paris don't have a lot of grass, and these gardens were no exception. It's all dirt, but it's still spectacular.

It was SO hot today. Dad's phone said it was 72! We both got sunburned and had our jackets off for most of the day.

We left Versailles and did some pathetic souvenir shopping. With the exception of food, there isn't really such thing as a good souvenir...so it was hard, and we just got some little things.

We headed back to our apartment on the metro, but we needed to get stuff for dinner first. Soo...we stopped at the boucherie, creperie, boulangerie, and marche to get all the things we would need for dinner cause that's how the Parisians do it. They shop every day and only get what they'll need for that day. Pretty crazy compared to our Sam's Club/Costco stock up on the goods ways at home. We got 2 pork chops, the crepe I have been dreaming about, a baguette (dad is obsessed) and a strawberry crumble (dad's obsessed), and some salad ingredients and cheese. We had potatoes at home that we stopped to put in the oven before heading to the supermarket...the oven doesn't have words, only pictures, which you think would be more convenient with the language barrier, but it's not. It's really not. How am I supposed to know what a bunch of dots/lines/swirls mean? I'd rather look up a french word in a dictionary and get it right. We cooked our potatoes with the oven set on "cleaning" mode...I've never seen potatoes bake so fast! Whoops...Dad made dinner again (2nd time this week), and I was ever so grateful because I'm still sick of cooking from my time with Roger. It was a delicious dinner and a great way to end our stay in Paris. So Parisian.

We watched The Bourne Supremacy, enjoyed our desserts, did some laundry (and hung it on the window to dry...so Parisian), and got ready for tomorrow. Dad will be heading to the airport to go home, and I will be riding the Eurostar to London and then a train to Bath for my last workaway at another B&B. Lucky for dad, we can ride to the train station I'll be leaving from together, and then I can make sure he gets on the right metro line to the airport from there. Then, he's on his own!

I'm so glad he was able to come to France and be away as well as spend time with me. It's been great to be with someone after all this alone time! I'm sending him home exhausted, so it's a good thing he has the weekend to recuperate. The second half of my trip is seriously flying by! I'll be home before I know it. Next stop...ENGLAND!

PS A side story that I forgot to include on Monday:

We went to the tourist information office to get a map, and the lady working there was super chit chatty. We told her we were from Utah and she went on to say that she really wanted to go there as well as Montana. We told her that Utah has FIVE national parks...the most of all the states. She said, "Yeah, well France has over 365 types of cheeses." Hahaha. We laughed (and secretly wanted to try them all!)

L'Opera, Luxembourg, Orsay, and the Seine River

This post will be quick tonight since it's really late, and I'm really tired. We started out the day by stopping by Place de la Republique for a quick picture (the whole square is under construction), and then we moved on to the Opera house. We weren't going to go in since it wasn't covered by our museum pass, but dad wanted to go in. So we did. And BOY, I'm so glad we did! It was absolutely amazing inside! The grand staircase, the theatre itself, and the halls...it was amazing...especially since Phantom of the Opera is my favorite musical. We got to see the Box 5 where the Phantom sits. There is a plaque on the door and everything.  How freaking awesome is that?!

We went home for lunch and to have a sit, and then we headed to the Orsay Museum. This museum has French art by Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, and many others. Our legs were tired before we even got in, but we made our way around and had a quick look at most everything. The museum itself is inside an old train station so it's unique, and I really liked the look of it. I think that Monet is my favorite painter....either that or Impressionism is my favorite painting style.

We walked to the St. Sulpice church next. This is the church in The Da Vinci Code, and  we found the Rose Line.  COOL!

We walked to the Luxembourg Gardens and enjoyed an apple while we people watched.  This park was full of locals...there were kids playing soccer, basketball, and tennis; old people playing chess and walking the paths; and young people meeting up and/or going to/from class. It was quite a happening place, and we couldn't quite figure out what they all were doing there. No one hangs out at parks at home. We decided it was probably because the people here don't have lots of kids or big yards to take care of. It seems that they just go to work, meet up, relax, and go to dinner.  The Luxembourg Gardens seemed to be the meeting place for many couples/groups/friends, and they hung out there til dinner time. Most were reading or chatting with others. I loved hanging out with the locals, and it made me like Paris even more.

We walked up to the Pantheon to find that it was closed so we just snapped a picture before heading to the metro to go to dinner kind of near the Eiffel Tower.  My friend/old roommate Sierra and her husband, Richard, are also in Paris, so we had plans to meet up with them for a boat ride on the Seine River. By the time we got to the restaurant we wanted to eat at, we thought it would be cutting it close to be on time to meet them, so we just grabbed a baguette from the boulangerie and some cheese from a fromagerie and enjoyed that while we walked up the Champs de Mars and watched the lights come on the Eiffel Tower.

We met up with Sierra and Richard and chatted until it was time to board the boat. It was a double decker, and we got to sit on the roof and see all the sights lit up. We passed under twenty something bridges. We got to see the Eiffel Tower light show which was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. It just sparkles for five minutes straight. So cool. J'aime Paree.

We went to dinner after saying goodbye to Sierra and Richard. We ate at Le Petit Cler which is an affordable restaurant on a cute pedestrian street near the Eiffel Tower. Dad got a T-bone steak, and I got coconut chicken with curry. Both were yummy. We had potatoes and salad with our meals, and then we enjoyed desserts. I had the tart du jour (the tart of the day...hahaha...no, but seriously, it was lemon), and dad had a chocolate cake. Both were super yummy. This was one of the most inexpensive restaurants I could find, but we still ended up spending about as much money for that one meal as we have for food the rest of the time we've been here (minus all the crumbles and baguettes dad insists on buying every day ;) ). 

We got back home, exhausted, and ready to sleep. Dad's feet are bruised (on the inside) like mine were the first few days of my trip. Now I'm a sightseeing machine, totally trained for these conditions, and I don't feel a thing. Ha, okay, that's a lie. I'm tired too.

We have one more day in Paris! Time flies when you're having fun!

Light show

Notre Dame

Sierra and I by the Eiffel Tower

Sunsetting over Paris

Pantheon

Pantheon

Luxembourg Garden

Rose line

Opera House

Opera House

Reserved for the phantom of the opera

Ceiling over Grand Staircase

Grand Staircase

Grand Staircase