Across the Pond

"Adventure, is a wonderful thing!"--Owl, from Winnie the Pooh

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Leaving the Arc de Triomphe my cousins and I travelled along the famous shopping street: Champs Elysees.

Also this door is a particularly Tardis shade of blue.

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Arc de Triomphe, 2015

Small museum in the arch and the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Also, Gandalf selfie!

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Beautiful Arc de Triomphe 2015

(after we had ditched our rented car and calmed down somewhat).

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So I glossed over our adventure driving in Paris, but I super recommend to NOT DO IT. That red/amber light on the steering wheel was an indicator we had hit something (later we found out we had knocked the side mirror).

The gps tried to get us to drive through the Arc de Triomphe roundabout. HAHA I DON'T THINK SO. We had planned to keep the car longer but it was stressing us out so we just returned it (after popping the side mirror back in).

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More features of the Versailles gardens. And a fountain that was turned on! Well, water feature of the lake in the back near Marie Antoinette's "cottage" chateau.

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Versailles Gardens, 2015

Water fountain in the center of the gardens. Apparently these fountains are super expensive to run and maintain, so they sell tickets to special water shows where they turn them on.

But look at the golden turtles!

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Versailles Gardens

My favourite part of Versailles has always been the fantastic gardens. They are immense and fun to get lost in. Also, less crowded than the palace :P

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Versailles, Hall of Mirrors.

Hall of mirrors, crystal chandeliers, and gold statues. Imagine dancing in this room!

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How come we don't paint/decorate ceilings anymore? Is it really that difficult and expensive? I'm not saying we have to put gold leaf on everything, but I want cool art on my ceiling.

Versailles, 2015

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Statues in the lobby of Versailles.

Also, painting of Marie Antoinette and her kiddies.

Also, tumblr kept telling me my nude statues were 'flagged content'. Let's see how lady covering her breasts does...

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Versailles 2015

My cousins and I went to Versailles for the day. Since Versailles is out of Paris, one normally takes the train. My younger cousin had this dream to drive a MiniCooper in Paris. They wanted to rent a car. That’s cool and all but the only ones available were standard transmission and driving in Paris is a nightmare. Let’s just say, it was a TIME.

But we made it in one peace.

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We climbed to the second floor and saw a little diorama explaining how the Eiffel Tower was built for the World’s Fair.

Also; place to kiss, lol

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Eurostar to Paris, 2015

My cousins had never really visited Europe before, so we took the good ole' Eurostar train to Paris from London. We got to Gare du Nord in the evening, and head out to see the Eiffel Tower.

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So the Devil's Dyke is a large valley and surrounding hills, just outside of Brighton. My cousins and I took a bus out there, and walked along some of the trails. We met a lot of people walking their dogs, which was fun. It was quite windy, but we had some sunshine as well.

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More history exhibits in Lewes. I think we went to a Lewes museum and then the 'Anne Cleaves House' which was like a cottage. It was pretty rainy, so then we went for tea.

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Some interesting military history around Lewes.

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Town of Lewes, 2015

My cousins and I spent the morning in Lewes, which is a small castle town a train ride away from Brighton. We went to a few little historic museums there of country British life.