Don’t you hate when you can’t see exhibits well because there are too many tourists? Today, I went to Versailles with my group and my dad came too. The Versailles castle is gorgeous like the other castles that I have visited such as Vaut le Vicomte. However, there were millions of tourists and therefore, it was a little difficult to see the exhibits. At least I saw the film, Marie Antoinette, at a movie theater last Saturday with one of my host sisters and my host mother before going to Versailles. It was a good film, but quite boring. This film takes place mainly at Versailles. Therefore, I was able to recognize easily the rooms at Versailles from the film. For example, I remembered clearly the room where Marie Antoinette slept. In the film, there were several scenes showing Marie Antoinette waking up in the mornings, and when she woke up, there were many women standing around her bed and greeting her “Good Morning.” They even helped her get dressed! I can’t imagine waking up in the morning and finding bunch of women surrounding me and watching and helping me get dressed!

If someone asked me if I would recommend to go to Versailles, I would recommend to go to the Vaut le Vicomte instead of Versailles. Just because there are no tourists at the Vaut le Vicomte, and the Vaut le Vicomte is the same as Versailles, but much smaller. Even though it’s smaller, we can see the furniture and the rooms better because like I said, there are no tourists there. That is one of the BIGGEST advantages of being an exchange student – Staying with a native french host family who knows the city and the country better than the touristes – in result, we get to go to places that are more magnificent than the crazy touristy places.

After visiting the castle, I went to the Versailles town with my dad. It’s a very pretty little walkable town with lots of cool boutiques and cafes. My dad and I went to a nice little très français café where I actually received very good respects from the cashiers unlike the ones in Paris! In spite of my thick american accent while speaking French, the cashier smiled at me a lot when I asked her for something. Her smile was a sign of happiness that I was actually speaking french and it’s also the fact that she did not treat me like a random tourist! I finally had my favorite french ice cream – crème brulée ice cream! I’m going to miss that ice cream when I return to US!