Marie Antoinette had it made. Until she lost her head...

I had an incredibly exhausting but wonderful day on a bike tour of Versailles yesterday! All 20 girls who are part of the Abroadco fall semester here went together, so I got to meet everyone I hadn't yet. It turns out that four - FOUR - of us are from UCSD, so it's been great to have that in common. We had to get up super early and ride the metro to the tour office, from which we biked to the train station, loaded our bikes ONTO the train (yes, all 20!) and rode to Versailles, which is about 20 minutes outside of Paris. We had 9 bikes stuffed into our car, and needless to say we got a lot of less than friendly looks from the other riders. Once we arrived we unloaded and biked to the nearby Versailles market, which is a giant square lined with boulangeries, patisseries, caves du vin, boucheries, you name it. Almost every day of the week the interior of the square is filled with vendors selling all manner of food and sometimes fabrics and other textiles. We were set loose to eat a snack and buy lunch for a picnic later, and most of us got some variation of bread, cheese and meat :) We then biked to the chateau grounds and got a quick history lesson from our awesome guide (a young American woman from Philadelphia), then rode to our picnic spot next to the lake. A few of us had decided to splurge on a 20 euro bottle of champagne, which was EXCELLENT and the perfect way to wash down a sandwich. Our guide insisted that drinking did not hinder, but enhance the biking experience - and our resident director Tawna, who is a total lightweight apparently, was red-faced and giggling after a glass of red wine at lunch. Needless to say, she was an endless source of entertainment for the rest of the day! By this point, I totally could have gone home and been happy as a clam. But we still had to bike up to the chateau and take the audio tour of the interior. I had already seen it years ago, so it was less impressive but still cool to see. We then had to retrace our steps completely until we ended up back at the tour office at 7pm - a full 12 hour day! My legs still were a little wobbly when taking the Metro stairs today - I hadn't biked in literally 6 years, and the grounds were NOT flat! I started today by walking to Shakespeare & Co., a famous English-language bookstore pretty close to the apartment. I bought a used copy of The Pelican Brief for 3 euros and then met friends for lunch near the Catho. I had a gigantic slice of quiche lorraine (ham and cheese) and tried not to think about the nutrition behind the utterly creamy and delectable filling and perfectly flaky and buttery crust. I started classes today with my contemporary French cinema class. My friend Connie is in it with me, which is great, and our professor is HILARIOUS. We're going to cover 4 different genres of film by watching movies in class and discussing them. I'm very excited for it, especially because it's in English and I'll be able to absorb everything. I found out today at the Bureau de Poste that stamps to the U.S. are 0.85 euros. I love you guys a lot, but I think I'm going to have to hold off on the $1.50 per postcard and spend it on food souvenirs for you instead. I send my love virtually :)