Vaux-le-Vicomte

          The next day, we took a night field trip to Vaux-le-Vicomte, which is an 17th century chateau about an hour outside of Paris.  The architect of both the palace and gardens of Versailles was also the architect of Vaux-le-Vicomte.  As you'll see in some of my pictures, this is really obvious.  The palace and the gardens are absolutely beautiful.  They're actually modeled after English gardens, which I think is a little ironic but interesting.  Also interesting, Vaux-le-Vicomte is the home of actual The Man in the Iron Mask, and the film with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed here as well.   

          Anyway, we had the afternoon free and met up later that night.  We were given super delicious sandwiches to eat in the bus as dinner.  Here are a few pictures of the French countryside... 

          We went at night so we could watch the sunset at Vaux-le-Vicomte.  At night, candles are set up all along the gardens and palace.  Our professor really wanted us to see this.  Unfortunately, construction was going on and there was this horrible plastic tarp over some of the palace.  It did ruin some of the view, but it was still very beautiful.

Walking up to the palace

See the ugly tarp:(

A close up of the front door

A hall inside

One of the many beds

The Man in the Iron Mask!

The symbol of Vaux-le-Vicomte is a squirrel.  I knew my dad would love this place...

The gardens

UGLY TARP!

At the end of the gardens is a very long pond/lake.  This structure was so cool and you had to walk a long way to get to it...

Once we walked around (which took about 45mins halfway!) we got a closer look at it

The whole place had great stonework and sculptures

Cute French couple walking along the lake.  It really was a perfect place for a picnic.

A shot of Vaux-le-Vicomte at night.  It's a little hard to see the candles, but it was beautiful in person.

Blurry, but better to see the candles and how amazing Vaux-le-Vicomte was at night.

          When our professor explained what we where going to see at Vaux-le-Vicomte, he said it would be one of the most beautiful sights and one of the best experiences of our lives.  He was right.  My only wish was that we could have gotten there earlier so we could have spent more time hanging out and experiencing the incredible Vaux-le-Vicomte.  I definitely want to go back when I'm in France again.

          I'll try to write again soon and include music in my next post.  Until then, au revoir mes amies!