Day 3: Versailles

So, I thought the Louvre was extravagant, and then we went to Versailles.  The "country chateau" that became the home of Louis XIV when he decided to move the monarchy from Paris to the country village just outside the city.  This place was unreal.  Rick told me he had read that at some point the Palace of Versailles had housed around 20,000 people.  That's no place of residence, that's a city.  That's a larger population than Crawfordsville, Indiana, the town I grew up in.  It was astounding to walk around and imagine life living in such a place.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  We left the hotel early, stopped at the same creperie we had the morning before, got crepes to eat as we walked, and caught the train out to Versailles, which is about 25 miles outside of Paris.  Luckily for us there was a very friendly information guy working at the train station that morning, cause it was a little hard to tell which train we were supposed to get on.  I'm not sure we would have made it on the right one if it hadn't been for him.

Here we are in front of the Palace of Versailles.  There was a pretty long line to wait in to get inside, and it was kind of chilly that morning, but the line moved quickly and we were inside in no time!

One of the first things we saw was the chapel.  Louis XIV lived to the age of 77, having been king since the age of 5 (obviously he had a little help ruling in those early years).  Towards the end of his life he became more and more religious, and had this chapel built.  He attended every day.  He had the chapel constructed such that it would be the tallest part of the palace, and indeed it is.  It's also very beautiful and ornate.  Somehow I can handle the extravagance a little better when it is intended for God.

That's me in the forefront with a little handheld audio tour.  This was how things worked most places that we went.  Each room or display would have a number that you would enter in, and then you'd get the audio guide, in English!!  Rick and Dallin became a little annoyed with me, since I did like to listen to the info.  As a side note, we did not pick up the audio guides at the Louvre, and we all were glad when we saw the number for one display- in the 4000 range.  Yikes!!  You'd have to be a the Louvre for weeks for listen to all of that!

Everything, everywhere, was so ornate.  From floor to ceiling.

Unbelievable.

This is the Hall of Mirrors.  The treaty to end WWI was signed here in 1919, as well as many other important treaties and meetings of heads of state.

The ceiling in the Hall of Mirrors

Just some more pictures of Versailles.  We kept commenting on the amount of space taken up by staircases both here and at the Louvre.  At Versailles I believe there were 64 staircases, all this grand.

And then there were the gardens.  Beautiful and magnificent.

A pretty view looking back at the palace through some lovely Spring flowers.

Doesn't it look like the gardens go on forever?  That's because they do.  We saw only a small fraction of the gardens, but everything we saw was beautiful.

Including this Grotto of Apollo, tucked away in the middle somewhere, not visible unless you took a certain path.  Click on the photo to view it larger and get a glimpse of those statues in there.

So, out beyond the palace, in the far reaches of the garden are the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon, "little" cottages that Marie Antoinette was particularly fond of.  This is a room in the Grand Trianon, you know, the little side cottage of Versailles.

The back of the Grand Trianon.

Out past the Grand and Petit Trianon was this little ditty, titled "the Temple of Love".  We told Dallin he HAD to take a picture of the two of us at "the Temple of Love".  He obliged us.

The Petit Trianon.  Much more cottage like, don't you think?  It was still bigger than my two story house.

A tree lined walkway in the garden.

As we walked back toward the palace, the fountains were going, with music playing, and the sun had come out!!  It was very lovely.

After leaving the palace, we decided to wander into the village of Versailles to try to find the tennis courts (more on that later).  We came across this lovely bed of flowers, and I was intrigued by this little guy.  Anyone out there know what it is?  It's in a bed with tulips and daffodils, as you can see, but I can't say that I've ever seen it before.  Curious.

Dallin had his own interests and things he wanted to see in Paris, and if you know Dallin you are probably not surprised to find out that most of them were not common tourist sites.  They were "off the beaten path", shall we say.  This was one of them.  When we told him we were going to Versailles, all he cared about seeing were the tennis courts.  He had learned in World History class that during the French Revolution, the Revolutionaries had camped out on the tennis courts in Versailles, proclaiming that they would not leave until they had written a new constitution for France.  We found the tennis courts, and there is a museum, but apparently you need to make an appointment to be able to go inside, and we had not, and no one else had either.  Oh well, Dallin was happy anyway.  We had dinner in the quaint little village of Versailles, and watch all the people walk by with their baguettes.  It was all very French : ).

We then rode the train back into Paris and got off at the stop for the Eiffel Tower.  Have you heard of it before?  Ha ha!!  So Dallin had expressed some disinterest in going to the Eiffel Tower.  Ultimately, he knew we would go, and that he would enjoy it, but he expressed frustration that it is ALWAYS used as the symbol for France.  After seeing it, he admitted to changing his tune.  It really is quite impressive to see this thing in person.

And to WALK up it (that's right, more stairs) and look out over Paris from the top of it (technically the 2nd platform, but that was as far as you could go this night).

And to see it lit up at night.  We really had great timing.  We went up while the sun was still up, and it set while we were up there.  So we watched as the tower and the city came alive with lights.  Very cool.  Plus, at the top of ever hour, the lights on the tower twinkle, and we got to see that too!! 

Looking over the City of Lights.

Can you see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance?

And when we reached the bottom, we were able to take a few cool in the dark photos.  What an amazing work of engineering and architecture this is.  Very cool.

Day 2: the Louvre

*first of all, I added some more pictures and text to day one, if you had viewed it before in it's incomplete state, you might want to look at it again.  Also, if you're my friend on Facebook, sorry for the repetition.

I love that we walked most places.  You truly get a feel for a city by walking.  We occasionally took the Metro, but for the most part we walked.  So, Thursday morning we got up and walked to the Louvre.  On our way, we stopped at a creperie.  I had a crepe with Nutella, and Dallin and Rick got omelets.  So delicious.  The above scene is just a picture to give you a feel for walking about Paris.

The Louvre.  The pyramid was built to create an entrance that would not detract from the original palace.  Maybe all of you already knew this, but I did not realize that the Louvre was orginally built as a palace, a very LARGE palac, but then again, they all seemed to be very large. 

In the 12th century, there was a fortress, or castle on this site, and you are actually able to walk around in the original moat, which is what Dallin and I are doing in the picture above.

Here's a replica of the original building on the site of the Louvre.

And then, things got a little more extravagant.  In the 14th century it was converted into a residence, and was added on multiple times.  The artwork housed there is truly amazing, but the building itself is incredible.  It is SO big, and SO overwhelming.  Everywhere, every room, extravagance.  It was hard for me to take at times.

This is coming up onto the first huge crowd we saw.  You could always tell when there was something REALLY famous, from the flocks of people around it.

 

The Venus de Milo.  Pretty cool.  We got used to seeing naked people.  I warned Dallin before we went that we would see a lot of nudity.  We did, but luckily just in artwork : ).

This boy wrestling a goose was one of Dallin's favorite things at the Louvre.

There were displays from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.  I mean, they have everything at this place.  These tablets were cool.

I was impressed with the preservation of color in this.  It's like 4000 years old or something.

I liked the ancient Egyptian jewelry, and these carved spoons were cool.

Ramses

The book of the dead

Just look at this room.  Extravagance.

Rick wanted to capture our faces as we first walked into a room, so he ran ahead and snapped this one of us in awe.

Another crowd, the biggest one.  Can you see why?  It's the Mona Lisa.

On the opposite wall is "the Wedding Feast".  I thought it was pretty cool too.

 There she is.  I had been warned it was small.  It is, and you can't get very close to it.

 Looking back at all the people looking at the Mona Lisa.  Oh, wait, no they aren't.  They are looking at their phones and cameras while they take a picture of the Mona Lisa.  Too funny.

Some crown jewels.

Napolean III's apartment, in the Louvre.  Again, extravagent.

More of Napoleon III's apartment.

We walked through the Tuilleries, the gardens outside of the Louvre.  They were beautiful, but I didn't put any of the pictures, because it was overcast, and they don't do it justice, and I have to make choices, people.  The next stop was the Musee de l'Orangerie.  On display in this museum are several of Monet's water lilies.  They were so great to see in person.  When you stand right next to them, they don't look like much, but walk to the other side of the room, and they are lovely.  How do you do that?  We were not allowed to take pictures at this museum, but the woman sitting at the doorway said we could take one, from the doorway.  I thought that was kind of strange, but oh well...

 Arc de Triomphe.  We decided to walk down the Champs Elysees.  Again, I'm so glad that we did.  It was very commercial, and looked a lot more like an American city, with all the stores.  I didn't shop.  The company I was with was not interested in shopping.  They told me I could go in anywhere that I wanted, but I was ok not to.

 More climbing, climbing, climbing.  Here's a look down the center of the spiral staircase we took to the top of the Arc.

 I'm so glad we have this picture.  It's the only one we took with all three of us.  It was unfortunate that is was so foggy the day we were at the top of the Arc, but it was still very cool.  Look closely, and you can see the Eiffel Tower in the background.

 We took the Metro home from the Arc, and stopped for dinner on the way back to the hotel.  We ordered Escargot, and I ate one.  It was fine, not as revolting as I worried it would be, but the texture was still kind of weird for me, and I didn't eat another one.  Dallin and Rick liked it so much they ordered it on another evening.  I had salmon and creamed spinach.  Dallin had duck confit, which I tried, and it was delicious!!  Rick had some stuffed vegetables.  Also, we ordered some lovely chocolate cake for dessert.  Yum!

A view of the River Seine at night, with Notre Dame in the background.  So pretty.