June 8 - Versailles
Back in Paris!!! We were fortunate enough to get to stay with Min's friend, who had an apartment pretty much right in the city - very near the l'Arc de Triomphe I believe. I don't actually know, because we never got out to see those places - I had been to Paris once before and Min of course was there frequently so I skipped the Champs Elysees, the Eiffel Tower (although we saw it from afar), the Place de la Concorde...all the usual touristy stuff. I kind of missed it, but we got to do so many other cool things that I really can't complain.
My main priority was to see the palace of Versailles, which was Louis XIV (the "Sun King's") main residence. Louis XVI also lived there. The last time I was in Paris I hadn't gotten to go, so I was really looking forward to this. Another lucky thing is that although Versailles is rather far outside Paris, where Min's friend was living was on the closer side of the city to Versailles - so it wasn't such a bad train ride, only about 1 hr. (Figuring out the train system - RER vs. metro and how to find the right train to get onto was another story, but with my broken French I somehow managed. Quite proud of that achievement, actually - I feel like an RER pro!)
Finally got there kinda late - it was 12:30, almost 1:00? And it was like a 15-20 min walk up from the RER station to the palace itself. Luckily I had a beautiful day - really sunny, clear sky, but a trifle on the hot side. The palace was amazing, but after 2 weeks of travelling to remote French countryside locations, it was a bit of a shock to be back among the throngs of tourists swarming the grounds. Another problem was that it was Monday, and according to Lonely Planet that is a very busy day for Versailles since most museums etc. in Paris were closed.
So rather than wait in line to get into the other entrances, I paid the fee for the group guided tour, paid again to get into the gardens, paid AGAIN to get an audioguide for the non-guided part of the palace...and was finally inside!! Yay!!!
I had been warned by Min and her friend that the inside wasn't so grand, it was really the gardens that were worth the money (and it was a lot of money)...and I guess I didn't feel overwhelmingly impressed, but it was still very rich and elaborate feeling inside. Almost everything looked like gold - and there were huge marble staircases, a big marble chapel, richly decorated bedrooms, etc. Unfortunately there was a whole lot of renovations going on, so the hall of mirrors was mostly covered up and under reconstruction - I saw maybe 3 mirrors out of the "hall" of mirrors. And then some of the decorations from the hall were still on display, but in the other bedroom area of the palace which my ticket did not allow me access to. So really, if I wanted to see the whole palace, I probably would have ended up paying like $40-$50. Rip-off.
Chapel:
King's Bedroom:
Throne Room:
Famous pic of Louis XIV - on the wall of the throne room?
Queen's Bedroom:
Room full of portraits of Napoleon, and war scenes:
View of the gardens from the palace rooms:
Marble staircase:
I was lucky enough to time it so that I had just finished my non-guided audio-guide tour of the bedrooms, then ran back to the meeting place for the guided tour. Of course, no time for food or bio-break, but seeing the entire palace was much more important. :) The guided tour was cool because it took you to places not open on the regular tour. They vary which rooms you saw - on my tour, we saw the opera (yes, they had a private opera theatre built in the palace - was very cool looking but hardly ever used) as well as the king's private rooms. No pics of the opera (too dark), but here are the king's library and dining room:
Then - still no time to eat - ran to the bathroom (had to pay), then ran out to the gardens. More renovations - WHY WOULDN'T THEY TURN THE FOUNTAINS ON???!!! It was JUNE for goodness' sake!!!!! So my fountain pics look retarded because there's no water. :(
Still, as you can see the gardens were incredibly designed and maintained. Who comes up with this stuff? Nice that in the 18th century they had nothing better to do. :)
So anyway, the grounds of Versailles were extremely extensive - I didn't realize that besides the palace itself, there were also a number of other buildings - like the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon - separate buildings where Louis XIV could escape from the palace, be close to his family and eat light meals. There were also nice gardens behind the buildings. Besides the Trianons, there was something called the Queen's Hamlet (l'Hameau de la Reine), which I'd heard was really nice but didn't know what it was.
Now, Versailles has a "petit train" that runs around the grounds - basically like those open-air trams like you find at Universal studios which drive you from the main chateau to the Grand and Petit Trianons, and the Hamlet. Or so I thought. So at first, I figure I could walk it - it's only like a 45 minute walk in 30+ degree weather!! I grab an ice cream and water for lunch (remind me - I don't like violet ice cream!) and set off. Of course, me being me, I walk in totally the wrong direction and end up after 45 minutes right back at the chateau! Fortunately I was on the side of the palace where the petit train leaves from so at someting like 4:30 pm (the park closes at 6 pm) I pay an additional fare for the train, go painstakingly slowly around the park (although I was grateful not to have to walk anymore - soooooo tired), back to all the stuff I'd already seen when I got lost, and got off at the Petit Trianon, thinking I'll see the 2 Trianon buildings since no way would I be able to make it all the way out to the Queen's Hamlet. Turns out, Queen's Hamlet was really close behind the backyard of the Petit Trianon - so if I'd just walked there to begin with I would have saved myself like an hour!!!!! Figures!!!
It was worth the trouble though - Queen's Hamlet was this adorable little collection of thatched-roof houses and this little tower-looking thing with a nice big pond - soooo picturesque. I took millions of photos and wasted the rest of my afternoon there. Completely worth it though - one of those unexpected rare finds - almost better than the palace itself!!!
On my way back to the Petit Trianon building, I walked through the back gardens. Apparently these were the gardens of love that the King had made for his Queen. There was this little temple/pantheon-looking thing (the "temple d'amour") which was under renovation, as were most of the rest of the gardens, so I couldn't go and see it. Grr. There was also this little grotto (I think it was called a "Belvedere") which was pretty cute - I could almost see the king & queen standing on the little bridge and "courting". The romantic atmosphere was only slightly dampened by the yucky mosquitoes and spiders buzzing around.
So ran back to the Petit Trianon to try and catch the last train back to the chateau - was already late to go back to Paris and meet Minora. To actually go inside the Petit Trianon you had to pay another fee (total rip-off, this place), so I said forgettabouttit - it's just another building. Took a picture of the outside instead and I count that as having seen the Petit Trianon.
Saw the Grand Trianon on the train's trip back - too hot and tired to lift up the camera at that point. No pics.
Made the loooong walk back to the RER, got into the city, eventually found Min after her amazing haircut ("This is the most perfect haircut I've ever had! The gay hairdresser just read my mind, I didn't even have to tell him what to do!") and then we roamed around the Marais district trying to find good food on a patio (doesn't exist in Paris - their patios have crappy food) while Min showed me her fave haunts in Paris.
Wow...dead tired...but a really really great first day in the city of lights!!
Time for bed...without getting to shower....long story...but went to bed completely gross and sticky from an entire day of pure sweat....ewwwww.....
My main priority was to see the palace of Versailles, which was Louis XIV (the "Sun King's") main residence. Louis XVI also lived there. The last time I was in Paris I hadn't gotten to go, so I was really looking forward to this. Another lucky thing is that although Versailles is rather far outside Paris, where Min's friend was living was on the closer side of the city to Versailles - so it wasn't such a bad train ride, only about 1 hr. (Figuring out the train system - RER vs. metro and how to find the right train to get onto was another story, but with my broken French I somehow managed. Quite proud of that achievement, actually - I feel like an RER pro!)
Finally got there kinda late - it was 12:30, almost 1:00? And it was like a 15-20 min walk up from the RER station to the palace itself. Luckily I had a beautiful day - really sunny, clear sky, but a trifle on the hot side. The palace was amazing, but after 2 weeks of travelling to remote French countryside locations, it was a bit of a shock to be back among the throngs of tourists swarming the grounds. Another problem was that it was Monday, and according to Lonely Planet that is a very busy day for Versailles since most museums etc. in Paris were closed.
So rather than wait in line to get into the other entrances, I paid the fee for the group guided tour, paid again to get into the gardens, paid AGAIN to get an audioguide for the non-guided part of the palace...and was finally inside!! Yay!!!
I had been warned by Min and her friend that the inside wasn't so grand, it was really the gardens that were worth the money (and it was a lot of money)...and I guess I didn't feel overwhelmingly impressed, but it was still very rich and elaborate feeling inside. Almost everything looked like gold - and there were huge marble staircases, a big marble chapel, richly decorated bedrooms, etc. Unfortunately there was a whole lot of renovations going on, so the hall of mirrors was mostly covered up and under reconstruction - I saw maybe 3 mirrors out of the "hall" of mirrors. And then some of the decorations from the hall were still on display, but in the other bedroom area of the palace which my ticket did not allow me access to. So really, if I wanted to see the whole palace, I probably would have ended up paying like $40-$50. Rip-off.
Chapel:
King's Bedroom:
Throne Room:
Famous pic of Louis XIV - on the wall of the throne room?
Queen's Bedroom:
Room full of portraits of Napoleon, and war scenes:
View of the gardens from the palace rooms:
Marble staircase:
I was lucky enough to time it so that I had just finished my non-guided audio-guide tour of the bedrooms, then ran back to the meeting place for the guided tour. Of course, no time for food or bio-break, but seeing the entire palace was much more important. :) The guided tour was cool because it took you to places not open on the regular tour. They vary which rooms you saw - on my tour, we saw the opera (yes, they had a private opera theatre built in the palace - was very cool looking but hardly ever used) as well as the king's private rooms. No pics of the opera (too dark), but here are the king's library and dining room:
Then - still no time to eat - ran to the bathroom (had to pay), then ran out to the gardens. More renovations - WHY WOULDN'T THEY TURN THE FOUNTAINS ON???!!! It was JUNE for goodness' sake!!!!! So my fountain pics look retarded because there's no water. :(
Still, as you can see the gardens were incredibly designed and maintained. Who comes up with this stuff? Nice that in the 18th century they had nothing better to do. :)
So anyway, the grounds of Versailles were extremely extensive - I didn't realize that besides the palace itself, there were also a number of other buildings - like the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon - separate buildings where Louis XIV could escape from the palace, be close to his family and eat light meals. There were also nice gardens behind the buildings. Besides the Trianons, there was something called the Queen's Hamlet (l'Hameau de la Reine), which I'd heard was really nice but didn't know what it was.
Now, Versailles has a "petit train" that runs around the grounds - basically like those open-air trams like you find at Universal studios which drive you from the main chateau to the Grand and Petit Trianons, and the Hamlet. Or so I thought. So at first, I figure I could walk it - it's only like a 45 minute walk in 30+ degree weather!! I grab an ice cream and water for lunch (remind me - I don't like violet ice cream!) and set off. Of course, me being me, I walk in totally the wrong direction and end up after 45 minutes right back at the chateau! Fortunately I was on the side of the palace where the petit train leaves from so at someting like 4:30 pm (the park closes at 6 pm) I pay an additional fare for the train, go painstakingly slowly around the park (although I was grateful not to have to walk anymore - soooooo tired), back to all the stuff I'd already seen when I got lost, and got off at the Petit Trianon, thinking I'll see the 2 Trianon buildings since no way would I be able to make it all the way out to the Queen's Hamlet. Turns out, Queen's Hamlet was really close behind the backyard of the Petit Trianon - so if I'd just walked there to begin with I would have saved myself like an hour!!!!! Figures!!!
It was worth the trouble though - Queen's Hamlet was this adorable little collection of thatched-roof houses and this little tower-looking thing with a nice big pond - soooo picturesque. I took millions of photos and wasted the rest of my afternoon there. Completely worth it though - one of those unexpected rare finds - almost better than the palace itself!!!
On my way back to the Petit Trianon building, I walked through the back gardens. Apparently these were the gardens of love that the King had made for his Queen. There was this little temple/pantheon-looking thing (the "temple d'amour") which was under renovation, as were most of the rest of the gardens, so I couldn't go and see it. Grr. There was also this little grotto (I think it was called a "Belvedere") which was pretty cute - I could almost see the king & queen standing on the little bridge and "courting". The romantic atmosphere was only slightly dampened by the yucky mosquitoes and spiders buzzing around.
So ran back to the Petit Trianon to try and catch the last train back to the chateau - was already late to go back to Paris and meet Minora. To actually go inside the Petit Trianon you had to pay another fee (total rip-off, this place), so I said forgettabouttit - it's just another building. Took a picture of the outside instead and I count that as having seen the Petit Trianon.
Saw the Grand Trianon on the train's trip back - too hot and tired to lift up the camera at that point. No pics.
Made the loooong walk back to the RER, got into the city, eventually found Min after her amazing haircut ("This is the most perfect haircut I've ever had! The gay hairdresser just read my mind, I didn't even have to tell him what to do!") and then we roamed around the Marais district trying to find good food on a patio (doesn't exist in Paris - their patios have crappy food) while Min showed me her fave haunts in Paris.
Wow...dead tired...but a really really great first day in the city of lights!!
Time for bed...without getting to shower....long story...but went to bed completely gross and sticky from an entire day of pure sweat....ewwwww.....
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home