Liv in a Life Well-Lived

  Technically, the Palace is not a Museum. It's a Historical site and an important landmark in French History. Also, technically, it is not in Paris at all. It is found in Versailles, which is 40 minutes away by train from the center of Paris. It makes for a good day trip and has chock-full to offer on history and culture so I treated it as I would treat a museum outing.

I always make it a point to visit at least one museum in every country I’ve been to. I have to say that Paris is the holy grail of art museums though. There’s one in every quarter mile or so! I wish we could have visited the smaller ones like the Rodin Museum, which I heard has a lovely garden with sculptures of the famous artist. However, we only had time for a few, and for us, it has to be the Big 3. That’s The Louvre of Mona Lisa fame, Marie Antoinette’s Palace of Versailles and Musee d'Orsay that features all our favorite Impressionists.

  My last blogpost told you how Japan messed up my head within the first two hours of my arrival. I swore I will not be caught unprepared again. But then, you see, I had to take a bath. The booking website said that onsen facilities were available in my capsule hotel. It did not mention that it only had onsen facilities in the entirety of the building. I just wanted to wash the grime off my face, and maybe refresh my sweaty armpits. I did not expect to open an automatic door and find a dozen naked nymphs doting on their already flawless pale faces, brushing jet-black, well-oiled tresses and walking around holding a towel when my every instinct would have been to wear the towel and cover my bits. I wish I can say I walked bravely into that unknown without a moment’s hesitation. But I let the doors close again, and stood there for a full 2 minutes deciding if maybe sleeping dirty is not such a big issue after all. No, I decided I will not back down. But I retreated back to my cap...

  I was lost. I arrived two hours before midnight at Kansai International, found the right train to ride and got to the correct station. But what I wasn’t ready for was my cellphone provider’s data roaming not kicking in. I did not rent a portable wifi device for my trip because I erroneously thought my data will be available anywhere on the globe (hint, hint). But alas, no, and I was lost without Google maps. Lost in Japan. Well, that had an exotic sound to it, at least. I mean, the idea of it sounds exciting now. But it was raw and unnerving during that time because I rarely get lost. I am only stating a fact when I say that I have exceptional navigation skills. Coupled with the amazing technology that Waze and Google Maps provided, I haven’t been lost for quite a long time now. But there I was with a screen capture of my supposed “path” to my hotel which looks so simple on the map. But when I looked up, I am accosted by a thousand blazing neon lights and a warren of tiny litt...