Day 7-Versailles

Today we went to Versailles, which was probably the thing I was most looking forward to.  We woke up and went to a cafe down our street that we'd already been to once.  The waiter remembered us and he is super funny.  He pretended to steal my purse to tell me to watch out for thieves.

Actually getting to Versailles took a little longer than we planned because we got on the wrong train, and then had to get on a train to go back, and then had to get on the right train.  About an hour into our ride we arrived.  We followed the wave of our tourists from the metro to the Chateau and voila: It was beautiful!  We got inside and toured the rooms that the Kings of France slept in, planned wars in, ate in, etc.  The Chateau is huge but there are obviously many rooms that are not open to the public.  The rooms were so ornate, with some of the furnishings covered in plastic to protect them.  It seemed to me like there might have been a lot of modern refurbishments, as there are with other tourists attractions, but you had to concentrate on what was original.  For example, most rooms had vents for air conditioning, some of the doors were wood that were painted to look like marble, and some of the curtains looked artificially vibrant. There were so many crowds--we were herded like cattle into each room.  But each room had so much to look at.  The ceilings especially were covered in gold and paintings.  It was also interesting to see the rooms that were decorated in the style of Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon.

I like the different colored wallpapers from this view

The Hall of Mirrors

in the Hall of Mirrors

the King's bed

We ate lunch in a cafeteria-like place on the grounds.  We toured the gardens which are gorgeous.  I think the gardens at Versailles are one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.  The hedges were molded into perfect shapes and there were dozens of statues throughout.  People were riding bikes and I would love to picnic there someday.

Oops...sideways

I spent nearly an hour in the sun trying to find Marie-Antoinette's estate.  I finally found it on a map--and it was a 30 minute walk.  I was exhausted and couldn't decide whether or not to go to it.  Finally we decided to walk through the hot sun.  You get there by walking through the gardens so that was really nice, but the sun was beating down on us and people were getting cranky.  We arrived at a smaller palace first that we walked through but which was not nearly as grand as the Chateau.  We decided not to make the rest of the trek to Marie-Antoinette's Estate.

Instead we jumped on a "petit train" that takes you back to the Chateau for a small fee.  The train ride allowed to see what happens when people of different languages and countries get hot and tired.    An Italian man on crutches wanted a ride to the top for free.  No go says the French train driver.  The Italian man, who looked like John Turturro, made his eyes really big and he and his friend got in the guy's face and started cursing at him in Italian.  The train driver started cursing in French.  "Animale!!!!" they shouted and then gave an inappropriate hand gesture to the train.  Then we got on the train and the Russian guys in our compartment said, "This seat is occupied.  Stalin says you cannot sit here." They didn't say the Stalin part but that was the tone.  We sat there anyway.

We took the metro back to Paris and tried not to burst into flames from the heat.  We rested and decided not to do any walking that night.  So much for that.  On the way to dinner we stopped and did some shoe shopping.  We both got shoes and then went to dinner at a cafe across from the Luxembourg Gardens. That was the end of the day though because Versailles wiped us out.  The end!