To Paris again! To see opera again!

So I have some bad news: I am drowning in university work, and in particular group work, and it is impeding on travelling. And this are some shots of St Gallen today:

 View of the town

 View of the town & cathedral

 View of that staircase from previous photos

 What a vista.

 My university, brimming with life.

Now for the good news! I spent the weekend in Paris with Ji Nin where we had lunch in a palace and went to the Parisian Opera! Both of those were amazing, and I think it'd be quite hard to describe in words what going to Opera Garnier and Versailles are like, so I think my photos can only do an adequate job. Losing our return train tickets and having to fork out for new first class train tickets wasn't as fun or amazing as this, but these things happen. We did get a whole train carriage to ourselves, which was pretty cool though. We just ran up and down it yelling "We're in first class!" waiting for some announcement to come on to say "Could the passengers in First Class please sit down and shut up?" It didn't happen. So we kept running. Anywho, photos!

 Paris

 Meanwhile, at Opera Garnier...

 You'd be smiling too if you were here

 "Pardon Madame, pouvez-vous prendre un photo pour nous?"
"Oui. Where did you want to stand?"
"Oh. You're American."
"Canadian, actually"

 In my opera box.

 Yes, there are a ton of photos here, but I mean, LOOK HOW PRETTY IT IS

 This was voted "Best photo of Luke in Europe"

 Then we had to go home :(

Our next day after our swell evening at the opera took us to Versailles, where we got to check out King Louis XVI's old house. And no wonder he was beheaded...

 Gate No. 1

 Gate No. 2

 Because every house needs a private chapel...

 Painting of Versailles

 See the tiny little model near the bottom of the photo? That's the palace. Everything else IS THE GARDENS.

 Oh! Here's my lunch. It was delicious veal with green beans. I can finally tick "dined in a palace" off my bucket list.

 This is the room before The Hall of Mirrors...

 And this is the Hall of Mirrors! It's kind of fancy

And so we start of the Gardens, which are probably more impressive than the Palace itself. Don't agree with me? I have 800 ha of manicured gardens to back up my case.

 I am not kidding when I say "everything in this photo belongs to the Gardens."

 This place was just strange. You forgot you were in a palace gardens; it was just a giant, deserted meadow.

 "Hey Ji Nin! Let's frolic!"

 He looked so sad and cold, so we decided to give him a hug

 This isn't even the quarter mark of the gardens, and this is only how far we went.

So unlike my last venture to Paris, Ji Nin and I decided to venture out at night and take photos, which were quickly instagramed by me, because if there ever was a city at night that should be instagramed, it's Paris.

 Ok, so this isn't exactly a photo of Ji Nin and I in Paris at night, but it is a great shot at demonstrating our ability to squeeze into a lift with enough space for half a hamster

 Meanwhile, at Place de la Concord

 Champs Elysée - almost got killed here trying to get these blurry shots of the Arc de Triomphe

 You'll notice that the Eiffel Tower is a bit truncated. Sadly, it was an overcast night and our yelling at the cloud to move did nothing.