Versailles - finally!

Finally, because we stopped in Versailles on our way home from our trip to Normandy which was a month ago already and finally because although we've been to Paris several times, we have not been out to Versailles yet. And finally because I haven't blogged in ages. More about that later (there is a somewhat valid reason).

It was a beautiful day in August and we thought it would be a good time to stop in and see the Chateau de Versailles since we were driving right by on our way back from Normandy. Versailles is about 20 km southwest of downtown Paris.

The Chateau de Versailles.

The gold gates at the entrance.

View of the gardens from the palace.

The chapel in the palace.

The Hall of Mirrors - you can see how crazy crowded it was when we were there!

Ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors.

View of the fountains and gardens from the palace.

Standing just outside the gardens at Versailles.

Since the palace was so crowded and we had to wait in line to get in, the boys were tired and ready to head home when we were done with the tour. It was seriously hot and we decided it would be best to tour the gardens another time. We assume we will be back through Paris at some point.

On other unrelated news, we have now started school, life is busy and full of schedules and I have completely filled my laptop's hard drive with my pictures from our first year here. Yes, it's been a year! So, I will have to get an external hard drive and clean up my laptop so I can download pictures from the last month and blog again sometime.

The boys are in school - all three of them - and it's going good so far. Piper's not too happy about being away from Mommy and I'm a bit sad about it, too, but it's good for us both :) The older boys are loving school and back to the routine of it all and enjoying being with their friends again. Our oldest is going to start football (soccer) here next week and I'm going to make myself continue his piano lessons (ugh) and maybe even start CJ as well. We've also done some hiking and had my cousin and her family here for a week from Germany. So that's a quick picture-less review of our lives in the last month. As soon as I clear up my computer memory problem, I'll post pictures of all of that!

Last week I was also very homesick. I'm not sure why the whole back to school routine made me long for the USA, but it did. I'm happy to be here, but there are definitely days when I miss the ease of living in an English speaking country surrounded by friends and family. So know that we love and miss you all and will see many of you in a little over a month!