Sortir, and Versailles

This post will cover two subjects: going out to bars at night, and a trip to Versailles.

         A couple of nights ago we (a few friends and I) went out to find a fun bar/club (boite de nuit).  We went to Saint Germain-de-Près, and followed directions to Rue Princesse, which apparently was a very happening place. We were right, for as soon as we turned on to the street we could see it was teeming with young (18-25ish) people, spilling out of the bars.  We went to a bar called The Frog and the Princess first.  It was super crowded, but fortunately was closing at 2 and as it was 12:45 when we arrived, the crowd started to thin out as the night wore on.  The 5 of us split a pitcher of beer and got a round of shots, and then we just watched people and conversed amongst ourselves.  Every once in a while a couple guys would approach us and talk to us, which was fun speaking in French (sometimes English).

         Then, once the bar closed, out on the street, we met a group of Canadian (?) men, and spoke a mixture of French and English with them. We were all being rather rowdy, and it was one of the Canadian's birthday's so we all cheered and clapped and laughed.  It was semi-flirtatious but so much fun!  A great way to practice French.

         THEN Saturday night was my host sister's soirée rallye and it was amazing! I brought along one of my friends in the program, and we danced up a storm!  There were so many people dancing, eating hors d'oeuvres, drinking champagne, but they were all younger than us (ages 14-18).  One of my host brother's friends kept trying to dance with us but we felt kinda sketchy doing so and thus maintained an appropriate distance between us and him (we didn't want to be cougars, haha).

        Today was a trip to Versailles, which I can honestly say I was not looking forward to.  Having visited the inside of Versailles twice, I find it incredibly boring.  Like Plymouth Plantation without the actors and more crowded and less interesting.  It's just rooms made to look fancy, with plaques in each room, and tourists jostling each other to look at all the fancy rooms.  Not my cup of tea.
        Fortunately, though, we never even went inside today!  We spent all day in the gardens, my favorite of which was the Jardin d'Anglais.  Anne-Sophie explained to me that the difference between les jardins français et les jardins d'anglais, is that the french gardens are more geometric and planned out with straight paths and perfectly manicured trees and hedges and flowers.  the English gardens are more 'organic' with trees planted hap-hazardly amongst winding paths and stony grottos.  I MUCH preferred the latter.  It just was more relaxing, like taking a stroll through the countryside in England as opposed to walking through a museum-garden.

       Tonight was my other host sister's 14th birthday, and I got her a gift card to a nice shoe store, because she is very interested in fashion and clothing, etc...She seemed to really like it, so I'm happy!  I also had an AMAZING dinner.  Baked salmon and some other fish, with an amazing amazing sauce. I have no idea what was in the sauce but it tasted like butter, cream, lemon, salt, and delicious. And rice on the side.  I don't think I've been that into a food dish in a while. It was just so tasty!

Ok I need to catch up on my sleep!

bonne nuit!