Bonjour from Angers!
(it's pronounced ahn-ZHAY)
(it's pronounced ahn-ZHAY)
I'm sorry I'm a day late on this update. We did a lot yesterday and I basically just got home and slept.
After literally flying through the night (flying East as the sun is moving west), we landed in Paris. We got off the plane at around 6:00 Paris-time and hit the road. It was interesting trying to learn the Parisian roads and traffic. My dad, the driver, said the following on his shiny new blog for the trip:
"1. On a Monday morning anyway, the work rush is already in full sway at 6:45 AM. We crawled all the way from the airport to just outside of Versailles.
2. Parisian rush hour traffic is incredibly polite. Cars are constantly jockeying for position and changing lanes with little warning, but the entire time we were flowing with the traffic we heard maybe 4 horns (all when someone cut in a little too close).
3. Parisian motorcyclists are insane. There were a lot of people on motorcycles, and all of them were lane-splitting as the cars moved along slowly. Even when the traffic picked up the pace, the bikes were still zooming along between the lanes. The speed at which they moved seemed completely unrelated to the space in which they had to maneuver, mere inches most of the time..."
It was interesting being in a new place with such different traffic. Once we got out of the city center, all the traffic was managed by merging or splitting the road rather than using lights, for one thing. Another thing we all enjoyed was the small cars compared to their American counterparts. We saw an American work van (the make and model used as one, that is) and thought it was huge compared to everything else driving around France.
But I digress.....Anyway, the first thing we did to kill some time was head to Versailles which, as it turned out, is closed on Mondays.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1250
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1250
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1600
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1000
Because we couldn't take a tour of the inside, we walked around Versaille's gardens instead.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/800
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/2000
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/3200
Apologies to those who don't wish to see a semi-nude statue. There were many more showing much more at Versailles. I just added this picture to show how incredibly well-preserved the marble statues are all over the gardens.
Being there really felt like sitting in on a dress rehearsal for a show, as everything was being cleaned and prepared for the visitors the next day.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/2000
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/200
[à la nature documentary] Here we see a picture of my family in its unnatural habitat. We don't normally get many of those around here, but I think we're likely to see a few more of them in the coming weeks.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/125
After Versailles, we got back in the car for another long drive. We drove through the beautiful French countryside until we got to Chartres, where we stopped to see the cathedral and eat some pastries.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/2000
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/3200
Because the cathedral is undergoing a long-term cleaning project, some areas were bright white and clean stone while the rest more closely resembled the Mines of Moria.
ISO 3200, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/40
ISO 2500, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
ISO 500, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
ISO 3200, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/25
ISO 250, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/3200
The following picture was taken of the vertical spiral parking garage (we need more of those in the States) through a blueish window, which caused some fun things to happen to the color.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/500
Finally, after even more driving and even more pastries, we ended at the apartment we're staying at in Angers. I'll pick up there tomorrow.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/125
That's it for today. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you stop by for more pictures as I continue to update this series.
Au revoir,
Alec
Alec