First stop from our hotel was to our favorite bakery. After getting a bag full of pastries and a delicious ham/egg/cheese sandwich to go - we headed to the Metro. A short ride later, we boarded a train that would take us to Versaille. I must say, the Metro in Paris is wonderful. The map is a little intimidating, but if you just look at the beginning or ending destination of one of the train lines, you know you're good. We took the Metro everywhere and never got lost (wish I could say that for London, but that's an upcoming story).
We arrived in Versailles in about 30 minutes, and I really didn't know what to expect. The area looked like any other part of the city, that is until you walk up to the tall wrought iron and gold gates that guard the entrance to the Versaille estate.
The estate is huge. It's more than huge. It's freakin huge! I can't even describe it. There a palace, two mini palaces, and a giant lake, and acres of land. Wow. See the sky from the picture? I wasn't exaggerating about the dark and gloomy day.
Our museum pass got us into the main part of the palace, but we had to pay extra to see the King's Apartments. We would have had to pay to see the gardens too, but we decided to skip that.
The palace is pretty sparse, but amazing all the same. To think someone actually lived there... The furniture was very ornate. Lots of gold - on the ceilings, the furniture, the fireplaces. Just gold everywhere.
This is the ceiling from the 'in-house' chapel.
A couple of random shots of bedrooms and furniture. Most of the furniture looked the same - but with different color schemes. I loved this light blue color. The fireplaces were so big, they didn't just have logs on display to make them not look as emty - they were trees.
I think the most famous part of the palace is the Hall of Mirrors. Wouldn't you know it? Half of it was covered for renovations. So, while pictures in my tour book look amazing, this is all I got.
So during the whole walkthrough, I could see a 'train' taking tourists from the main palace to the Grande Trianon and the Petite Trianon (the summer palaces on the grounds) from the windows. I could also see the large downpours of rain. By the time we were done with the main palace and walked outside, there were large puddles everywhere, but luckily it had stopped raining.
We asked 4 people, "Where do we catch the train to the Grande Trianon?" Our French is not that bad, but no one could or would tell us where to get that darn train. We ended up walking about 2 miles around the gardens to the Trianon. I was so irritated by then, I didn't even really care what it looked like. In short, it's a smaller version of the main palace. Same kind of furniture, and a couple more 'game' rooms. Still beautiful, but the thought of having to walk back to the main palace kind of destroyed the mood for both of us.
Turns out, you have to buy the garden ticket (which we had decided to pass on). You catch the train in the garden. It takes you to the middle of the garden, and then up to the Trianon. Well, we managed to walk through the public part of the garden (which is very beautiful, by the way) and caught the train back to the main palace. It was pouring again - and my poor hubby was sitting on the seat on the outside of the train. His whole right side, sopping wet.
But check out these pictures. Can you imagine waking up and seeing that lake right outside your window? There were rental boats for the lake, but with the weather the way it was, we decided against it.
At this point, we walked from the main palace back to the train and headed back to the center of Paris. But we did make one important stop first. The Eiffel Tower! Five days and we hadn't seen it yet.
Folks, I don't care how many pictures you see of this structure, there is nothing like walking towards it and just basking in its massiveness. It's incredible. I was in awe when I saw it from a distance my first day in Paris - and I was just dumbstruck when I saw it in front of me. It's amazingly beautiful.
We bought our tickets and went up to the way top. What a sight. Paris is just such a beautiful city. Although the weather was horrible for most of the day, it was sunny when we were at the tower. And though I was freezing from the bitter cold wind at the top, look at what was waiting for us.
Not just one rainbow, but two! If you click on the picture for the bigger shot, you'll see the second one on the right.
I think we were up there for a little over half an hour - and it was time to go. We were tired, and again, our poor feet had been pushed to the limit already. We crossed a large park and were able to get far enough away from the tower to get some full structure shots.
Also at the end of the park was a unique exhibit. I dubbed it "the peace exhibit" only because the white writing on these large glass plates said 'peace' in various languages.
We tooke the Metro back to the hotel for a rest, and then we went back to that fabulous Italian restaurant, Fuxia, for another incredible meal.
One last day in Paris to go. But there's really nothing to tell. As you may remember, we had saved our shopping day for our last day there - Sunday. Everything was closed. We ended up walking along the Champs-Elysees and the neighborhood where our hotel was. It was a nice relaxing day. We found the Four Season's George V Hotel (if you look at the link, check out the pictures of the rooms). I had to go in. It's beautiful. It's another world in there, but one where you don't feel comfortable talking too loud - and there's constantly someone watching over you. We did a quick walk through the lobby and continued on our 'wandering' self tour. I forgot what it's called, be I saw the hotel where they filmed the last episode of Sex and the City.
We also found the Laduree patisserie that was recommended to us by my friend. They're famous for their unique flavored macaroons. But we looked at the prices and decided to skip them this time. They were about $3.50 for a small cookie. Plus we were full from lunch, so we didn't want to force it down either. Next time though, I would like to try one.
This was perhaps the only day our feet didn't feel like they were on fire by the time we got back to the hotel for a rest. We lounged around until dinner time - and unfortunately, the restaurant we picked for our last meal wasn't all that.
After dinner, we walked back through to the Louvre and wandered a bit through the courtyard. The last visitors of the museum were coming out of the massive glass pyramid. The buzz of the day was winding down. It was almost 9pm and we settle on the steps in front of the Grande Arc (a smaller verion of the Arc de Triomphe) - they actually face each other - separated by the long Champs-Elysees. We tried to get some pictures, but it was hard to zoom in with our little digital camera.
9pm came, and we looked over to the Eiffel Tower. The soft pale glow of the structure was replaced by a billion flashing lights. It was like a giant Christmas tree. Amazing.
My husband and I just huddled in the cold and watched the lights for the full 10 minute show before heading back to the hotel to pack (the show comes on every hour at night, just so you know).
What a romantic way to end our visit to Paris.
Last stop... London.
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