French Word(s) of the Day: en panne (awn panne)- out of order, broken

My camera is en panne (technology doesn’t like me very much), so this post contains blackberry pictures.  Though blurry, they’re probably less blurry than any my camera could have produced.  I got into picture-taking mode this weekend.  This probably means that my blog entry will take 8 times longer to load than usual, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Versailles was lovely, as always.  We got a special tour of the king’s private rooms.  The king had a ceremony every morning when he woke up and when he went to sleep.  People would watch both occasions.  In between these two ceremonies, he would be woken up by his valet and moved to a completely different bed in a completely different room.  This means he fell asleep and woke up twice everyday.  As if being king wasn’t work enough.

Being woken up twice everyday would suck, but I can feel his pain.  My neighbor’s alarm clock rings everyday a half hour before mine does.

We got to go into the chapel at Versailles, which I’ve never been able to do before.  They don’t let you go in, normally.  You just stand outside the chapel entrance and try to take pictures over everyone’s heads.  Not this time!  I was a VIP; I got to cross the red gate.

You want to cross the red gate.  The non-gate-crossers were jealllllous.  They tried to get in with us, but Shelley weeded them out.

Not too shabby, eh?

This is where the king sat for mass…  Higher than everyone else.  Nowadays, this is where the people with the loud babies go.  And choirs.

And this is the beautifully painted ceiling.  You can’t see that behind the red gate.

On Sunday, Théo and I finished off my cake.  This was, of course, a very trying task.  Who likes eating delicious, critically-acclaimed cake?

It really was well-received.  Everyone at the party raved about it, and even Arnaud asked me who made it.  Théo has informed me that its deliciousness came from intense amounts of butter, sugar, chocolate, and eggs.  I don’t expect it will appear in any health food cookbooks.  But it really was fabulous.

Théo posing with his masterpiece.  He doesn’t know I’m putting this on here… I might have to take it down if he finds it, so shhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Even the cat wanted some:

(He sat on that chair and stared at the cake of his own free will, btws.)

Ok, I leave you now with this photo I took while walking through the metro:

It reads “Vivez la magie de l’Egypte!” which means “Enjoy the magic of Egypt!”

Maybe not right now.

Pain au chocolat count: still 50, but I had CAKE!!!!!!