We woke up today to go to Versailles and spent all day there. Breakfast was once again simple and fun before we had to leave to get on the tram to get to the tram that would bring us to the train bringing us to Versailles. Once again, thank public transport for the really confusing layout of the system. The tram to Versailles was only about an hour long, and when we got there, we followed the sea of people all going to the same place. As we rounded the last corner, we saw the tops of the palace glimmering gold in the small amount of sun that could break through the clouds. After walking through the gates, one of our group went to go wait in the huge entrance line while the rest of us went to go get tickets in a different line. Along the way, half of us got separated and went back to the group, while me and two others stayed in line. Our plan was to switch out when we got our tickets and keep our spots while the other group got their tickets. When we got to the actual ticket counter, the guy gave us a weird look when we handed him our visas and told us to go show the people at the entrance our visas and we'll get in for free, we didn't actually need a ticket. Gosh I love our visas, they get us into such nice places for free.
We met up with the other half of our group and realized that we had gained the twins in our absence. We told everyone the news and settled in to wait in this line. Just to give a good idea of how long this line is, it folded back on itself about 10 times over about 50-75 yards. We were in for a long wait. Somewhere along the line, a group split off and went somewhere else while the rest of us waited patiently. When they got back, they told us that they had gotten tickets for the Gardens and that we should get some too. We did, waiting in a much smaller line, and headed back to the entrance line to once again wait to get through the golden gates. Finally, we passed through the entrance and handed our visas over in the place of a ticket, getting us through the doors and into the palace of Versailles. It was beautiful! There was some reconstruction going on, but most of the roofs and windows were gilded gold. We of course took pictures before heading inside to take a look.
The first thing we saw past the entrance hallway was the chapel. I wish I could show you the pictures I took of it because it was gorgeous, especially the huge organ towering above everything else. throughout the ground floor was a collection of paintings depicting the royal families, especially of King Louis XIV and Lois XV as they were the ones that built the place. The exhibits took us though the history of the building from a hunting lodge to a museum like place, and it was amazing to see the various pictures that were painted during that time period. Upstairs was a hallway that showed marble statues of important people, including LaPlace and L'Hopital (both mathematicians who gave us many days of grief for their famous rules). Down a different set of rooms were the living quarters for the royal families, which were all exquisite and richly decorated. At the end of that hallway was the war room with huge paintings and artifacts pertaining to fighting. After leaving that room was the hall of mirrors spanning all the way down the side of the palace to the peace room, which was once again decorated with large paintings and artifacts. Then came the queen's room, which held a lot of flowery decorations and vanities. Beyond that was what would have been the kid's room. In that room was a painting of Marie Antoinette and three children. The reason why there were three, and not the two everyone knows about is that the smallest one, a girl, died at the age of about 1. As children weren't given names before their second birthday, not much is known about her.
I know I'm going fast, but there was a lot to see. Beyond that wind was a wall of paintings from the renaissance era depicting scenes from Napoleon's era, the American Revolution, and a lot of other wars. I met up with four others at this point and we started the small walk back to the exit by the queen's bedroom. Along the way, we saw more statues and generally enjoyed ourselves until we arrived at the exit. At this point, we were sick of staring at paintings, so we exited and went to the gardens. We saw all sorts of statues and fountains, but not a lot of flowers. We even saw a hole in the hedge and decided to explore a bit. We got really close to what we thought should be an exhibit, and actually started climbing the structure, but a guard saw us and started blowing her whistle at us, following us as we turned around. It felt like a Zelda moment. We slipped passed a gate and saw the guard, who told us we shouldn't have gone where the gate was blocking, but we told her that there was a hole in the hedge that we went through. She stopped talking to us and took off in the direction of the gate, I'm assuming to close it before some other wayward travelers went through. So we got to see some exclusive content because we got into a restricted section. It was pretty awesome.
By this point, it was well past lunch time, so we stopped at a restaurant in the middle of the gardens and had a great lunch before continuing our trek. We wandered around some more until we got to the back of the gardens and exited the park so we could get closer to the water that was only a little ways from us. We had fun spooking the swans, jumping over water between corners, and putting flowers in one of the guy's beard. Yes, you heard me right. We picked little daisies and threaded them through his beard so he looked like they were growing out of his face and took a ton of pictures. During this time, the water came on to the fountains and we decided to see more of them before the water ran out. We must have seen 20 different areas and 10 different fountains, taking funny pictures and laughing at the weird looks that the flower beard was getting. We stopped at a fountain that had a choreographed show every 10 minutes and met up with the other half of our group, who had brought a guest. Apparently he was a PT and was touring Europe before his next job started in 2 weeks. he ended up hanging out with us as we looked through the rest of the gardens.
At 5:10, we headed over to the Neptune fountain to see the show that would be going on in 10 minutes. We arrived and sat down to wait for the water to start. When it did, we were really excited...until we realized that nothing was changing. It turned out to be a major disappointment for those of us expecting something exciting. We left really soon afterwords to get back to Paris proper and had a great experience at dinner. We had snails and I had Chantilly, which was made out of tripe (cow intestine). I didn't know it at the time, but the snails were really good and the Chantilly was...OK. I finished it, but I don't think I'll have it again. After that, we went to the store to grab some drinks and headed back to the apartment. I was really glad because for the last few hours, by legs had been killing me.
Tomorrow is Easter, and Melissa and I were planning to go to the Notre Dame for Easter mass, which is super exciting. After that, I don't really know what we're doing, but I do know that we're planning on climbing the Eiffel tower at night. It's supposed to be beautiful at night, so I'm really excited. So for those who are like em and it's now officially Easter Sunday, Happy Easter! For those like my family for whom Easter is still a few hours today, Have a great weekend and I'll wish you a Happy Easter tomorrow.
Till tomorrow!
Erin Z
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