Versailles me baby

This day was pretty much all about Versailles. Took the RER train (a little confusing from the metro) to Versailles, grabbed my tour group, and headed up to the palace. At that point the group of say twenty people split up, with the rest going on an Italian tour. That left the English group with four people, including me. Awesome! By the way, heres the normal queue. mwah ha ha har.

Had a brilliant guide who also was pretty easy on the eyes, so had a good tour. Told us heaps of the stories behind it all, including the fact that the royal family was on display for everything, and I mean Everything, including first wedding night and childbirth. Ewww. The palace was so ornate, and so lushly decorated. Like everyone else, I liked the Hall of Mirrors best.  Don’t know if I’d like my place decorated the same, but would love the same budget as them.

Basically left on our own for the gardens and the battle hall but that was great actually, could wander around at my own leisure. Tuesdays were supposed to be the musical gardens and fountains, but today was just the musical garden as the main fountain is getting renovated. However the tour company gave us a helpful hint, and we found a working musical fountain. Very cool. Exploring the gardens was exhausting and I only saw a fraction of it. I needed one of those golf carts or a Segway to explore it all. That would have been fun actually, zooming around the gardens, knocking over pedestrians and generally being a menace to society.

I spent way too much time at Versailles Palace, so slightly amended my plans a little. I didn’t get to go see the Villa Savoye (and I know most of you have no idea what this is – its a famous Archi building), but one the outskirts of Paris so thought I’d put my 5zone day ticket to good use. But no, was to buggered to be blunt. So went shopping instead. I managed to find a Christmas shop in Paris. I have mad skills I know. And found Laduree, home of some very famous macarons. And a few other shops that I found. I had a bigger carryon now, so I could shop away. And saw these too.

I met up with L+l for dinner before they left for home, via London. After a few language hiccups found somewhere cute to have dinner.

 

Paris checklist

Started with the big guys of Paris – the Louvre. I must admit the big attraction for me was the pyramid in the middle, not the Mona Lisa. I know, I’m completely uncouth. But seriously, the Mona Lisa I don’t think is that great. But that is just my opinion. Anyway, the louvre. Managed to skip the line again. Woohoo for my museum pass (plus L+l bought one at the arch, so didn’t have to wait for them either.) Tho the annoying thing was that it wasn’t that long. I wanted to walk past a queue like in Eurotrip, completely with robo fights. Alas, not to be.

So I won’t bore you about everything we saw. We wandered through about a third of the actual museum, so we probably saw about an eight of the actual exhibits. That place is massive. Not that I’m complaining, just you would need a long time there to see everything. Don’t know which is bigger, but the Vatican Museums have calculated that a minute at every exhibit would take 20years. So, we didn’t spend that long there obviously. We did see some of the key ones, like the Venus de Milo, Ramses/Ramesses II, and I did see the Mona Lisa. Didn’t push my way to the front though, I was more entertained by the crowd.

After walking and walking for the entire morning, lunch and shopping held our attention. And it held it for a while. After that it was Notre Dame Cathedral. The stain glass in here was so impressive. Also got some fun photos outside. Plus there was a hunchback of Notre Dame there. Some guy in a mask was sneaking up to people, startling them, completely playing to the crowd. Was absolutely hysterical. Could have stayed for longer watching him. But I had an appointment with the Eiffel Tower.

So the plan was to leave L+l at the tower since I had my ticket already. So we sat on the Champ de mars waiting for 7.30. Anyway at that point it didn’t seem like too long a queue, so I ended up meeting the couple up there. So basically it’s all about the view from here on in, though must point out that there are bathrooms on the Eiffel Tower, who would have thought. Well not me anyway. So the view…we had a beautifully clear sky, and when we got to the summit the sun wasn’t far from setting. Watching the sunset from the summit of the Eiffel Tower was pretty special, gotta admit.

Anyways, our night just ended up being one of those great nights. Crossed the Seine, had some good music, and ended it with a great dinner. Really good end to a pretty great day.

Hellooo Pareee

(Sorry am a bit behind, gonna try and quickly catch up)

My arrival in Paris was a little annoying actually. I’d arranged a shared shuttle bus to take me directly to my hotel since I arrived around 9 at night and didn’t feel like navigating the train/metro system at night with luggage. But didn’t work out so well originally, with the driver having issues and not even showing up. So an hour after I arrived (at least) they arranged a private taxi to take me to my hotel. Nice in that I didn’t have to share with anyone. But still annoying. Was nice to drive through Paris at night though.

So next morning, (Sunday) bright and early I was off exploring the raining city of Paris. Can be a bit dreary with not much open on Sunday, and the rain in addition. Surprisingly Australia has Europe beat with Sunday opening hours. Anyways got my info and museum pass, pretty much straight away decided to use it. Pompidou Centre first. Again another museum I studied. It’s very cool seeing these places in real life. Love the external services to the building.

Had a little of a wander down one of the main streets and got a bit more familiar with the metro before meeting up with Lawrie and Lien. Was nice to break up the solo travel with some familiar faces. Anyways they stayed a block away from my hotel. Very convenient.

We all decided to head to Arc de Triomphe, then parade down the Champs-Elysées. Not a bad idea, even with the almost 300 stairs to the top. We’ve had worse. So we climbed and climbed to get to the very top, and it was quite a view, even with the rain. Couldnt see that far, but was wonderful seeing the organisation and Parisian boulevards. Loved the giant flag flapping about under the arch too. Very patriotic. It was quite confusing watching the traffic around the arch – there’s basically a ring road around the arch, with 6 boulevards feeding onto it. I don’t think there are any rules, just a basic free for all. Why there’s not at least an accident a day, I don’t know.

 

The walk down the Champs-Elysées was enlightening to say the least. I felt like a poor slob. Who hadn’t showered ever, and didn’t know what shampoo was. Ok, not exactly that bad, but a little underperforming. Me and the other tourists. Is quite glam in some spots, then it normalized down for me. So shopping, checking out the boutiques and a couple of cafes made it a fun afternoon. Actually evening, it’s just very light still at 8, then you realize you prob would eat dinner sometime soon.

So speaking of which, dinner was interesting. We went to a nice place near the Opera, however Lien and I ordered a beef dish. What we didn’t realise was that it was a raw beef dish. It looked pretty, and I can’t blame the restaurant but it wasn’t really our thing. I ate enough to know it wasn’t bad, but that yeah I wasn’t going to finish the whole thing. Or even half. So basically we went for a second dinner. Yay. Cooked meat! So exciting.