July 17th

This morning we took about an hour train to Versilles. Versilles is one of the most beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art. It started as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge before his son Louis XIV expanded it, moving the court and government of France to Versailles in. Each of the three French kings who lived there until the French Revolution added improvements to make it more beautiful. It really is a beautiful palace not to mention the hundreds of acrs of gardens. Louis XVI loved his wife Marie-Antoinette so much that he gave her the Hamlet which was a genuine and picturesque village and also the Petit Trianon, which had a little theature, surrounded by beautliful gardens. It was really neat to learn the French history, our tour guide was awesome. I can't remember his name but he was so excited to tell us everything about Versilles, he had a really cool accent to especially when he would say "Louis XVI". We spent most of the day at Versilles, but came back to Paris for dinner and we wanted to climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc was so cool and I was so proud of myself that I was able to get to the top. It was so worth it! It was a good time. After we got down it started to rain but it was so fun walking in the rain at night in Paris. It was a good day.