Paris (Including day trips to Versailles, Chartres, & Fontainebleau)

---

After spending two weeks in England and Wales, we left Bath early in the morning on the 27th of September, taking the train into central London. From there, we took the Eurostar high-speed train directly to Paris. We spent a full week in Paris, visiting many of the well-known sights, and took several day-trips outside of the city to places such as Château de Versailles, Château de Fontainebleau, the town of Chartres and it's famous Cathedral, and the Paris Disneyland Resort. This blog entry covers the week we spent in Paris.

Lodging: We chose to stay at Hotel Muguet, based on a combination of Rick Steves' recommendation and the great reviews it received on Tripadvisor.com. The hotel was located in the charming Rue Cler neighborhood, a traditional Parisian neighborhood near the Eiffel Tower. We paid 125 Euros per night for the room, which at the time was about $160 USD. The hotel had just recently undergone a huge renovation prior to our stay, so most of the rooms had just been remodeled, ours included. The room was gorgeous, with lots of character, and even included a great view of the Eiffel Tower. It was more than we could have ever asked for for our first visit of the city.

Noteworthy restaurant: We ate at numerous restaurants in Paris, all of which were good. In fact, I think most people would have a difficult time finding bad food in the ultimate foodie city of the world (unless of course, they went out of their way to eat at touristy, Americanized restaurant). Everything we ate was absolutely delicious; from the buttery and flaky croissants for breakfast each morning, to the savory and sweet crepes we often purchased as a snack, to the amazingly rich and flavorful sauces that accompanied our meat dishes, to the incredibly delicious desserts, all of it was truly marvelous and some of the best eating I have ever had in my life. That said, our favorite restaurant was definitely Cafe du Marche, located on Rue Cler. The restaurant prides itself on being able to serve affordable but high quality meals to the average hard-working Parisian. It's popularity with locals has caught on with visitors who stay in the Rue Cler neighborhood, and now it's extremely busy during meal times. It didn't seem to matter what we ate there; it was always delicious and moderately priced (around 10 Euros per person for a main dish meal).

Eiffel Tower: Designed and built by Gustave Eiffel in 1889, this defining and beloved landmark was once scorned and hated by the people of France and actually considered an eyesore (GASP!). As we all know, it's now considered an icon and is probably one of the most recognized things in the world; funny how things change over time! Riding up into the tower was the first major landmark we conquered on our first night in the city. Unfortunately, we were both exhausted from a long day of travel and I was still fighting the horrific tonsillitis I had contracted back in London. Needless to say, I had a difficult time admiring and appreciating the views from up above, especially with the hoards of tourists. As a result, we didn't spend too much time at the top and would prefer that our next visit occurs during the daylight hours. Aside from visiting the tower on our first night, there was also a few more moments during our trip where we were able to enjoy views of the tower from down below. I was able to get some truly amazing shots of the beautiful structure.

Château de Versailles: Without argument, this was definitely the site I was most looking forward to visiting on our trip to Paris. At the beginning of my freshman year in high school, I began taking French class. It was in this class that I began my long love affair of French culture, food, and history that continues today. It was during this time that I was introduced to the incredible history of France, more specifically of it's royal family and their lavish homes. After completing two years of French, there were two places in France that I yearned to see more than anything else; Mont Saint-Michel (located between Normandy and Brittany) and Château de Versailles. Due to my huge interest and fascination with the palace, we chose to spend one full day at Versailles so that we could have enough time to visit the palace itself, it's sprawling grounds, Marie-Antoinette's Hameau de la reine (the Queen's Hamlet), and Petit and Grand Trianon, the latter three all being located quite a distance away from the palace.

In order to gain entrance to all that we wanted to see, we opted to purchase Le Passeport, which also included the cost of train transportation from central Paris to the town of Versailles. This ticket enabled us to bypass the massively long lines we encountered as soon as we arrived at the palace; I highly recommend it! Our ticket to the interior of the palace came with an excellent audio guide, which provided great narration of each of the many rooms we visited. Within the palace, my favorite rooms were Marie-Antoinette's bedroom with her exquisitely embroidered linens and blankets, the magnificent baroque theater (unfortunately, no photos were allowed to be taken inside), the glorious church (which was rather large, but also quite light and airy), and finally, the Hall of Mirrors, which was partially under renovation during our visit.

After touring the amazing palace, we ventured outside into the formal gardens, where we hopped onto a tacky but efficient tourist train that took us all the way to Marie-Antoinette's Hameau de la reine. Walking to this area from the palace probably would have taken a good 30 minutes, so the "train" was a great time saver. The Hamlet was built for Marie-Antoinette as a rustic retreat, meant to look and appear like a small pheasant village in Normandy. The Hamlet was almost exactly as I had envisioned it would look like; quaint, with exceptional attention to detail, and an overall "fairy-tale book" appearance. Much to my disappointment, we were unable to tour any of the small cottages or buildings in the village; I'm not quite sure if they are every open to the public though.

From the Hamlet, we hopped onto the "train" again, this time stopping at Petit Trianon. This "small" (relatively speaking) chateau was constructed between 1762-1768 for Madame de Pompadour, who was the long-term mistress of Louis XV, but was later occupied by his next mistress, Madame du Barry. After Louis XVI ascended the throne, he gave Petit Trianon and the surrounding park to Marie Antoinette, where she often spent much of her time as she hated the strict and formal court life at Versailles. We wandered through the palace, enjoying the casual elegance and light colors that were used to decorate the interior of the building.

Next, we headed over to Grand Trianon. This other "small" palace was built in 1688 for King Louis XIV, as a retreat for him and his maîtresse en titre of the time, the Marquise de Maintenon. This building, while still much smaller than Versailles, was quite large on it's own accord. For the most part, I found the interior to be rather dull and uninteresting, at least when compared to the other two palaces we had toured. I did however enjoy the beautiful gardens that surrounded Grand Trianon.

Afterward, our final stop was the formal gardens. Unfortunately, we were running out of time, so we were unable to dedicate as much time as we would have liked to those gorgeous gardens that appeared to go on forever. On that first visit, I vowed to return again, so that I could more fully appreciate the entire complex of Versailles. This vow will be fulfilled rather soon, on our month long trip to France, which is planned for September of 2009. I am fortunate enough to be able to spend another full day at Versailles.

Chartres: We visited the charming town of Chartres and it's famous cathedral as a day trip from Paris. The town was easily reached by train from central Paris, which only took about one hour. Chartres Cathedral is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of a Gothic cathedral in France. Construction of the massive church began in 1205 and took 66 years to complete. The church was placed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, which is quite an honor. We had hoped to take a tour of the church with Malcolm Miller, who has dedicated his life to studying the cathedral; unfortunately, our visit occurred while the church was being prepared for some sort of concert, so no tours were available. As a result of the concert, we also had an obstructed view of the interior of the cathedral, which was rather annoying. There was electronic equipment, cable cords, and all sorts of lights everywhere, which made it difficult to enjoy the church. On the interior, I was impressed with stained glass, and on the exterior, the West facade with it's two strikingly different towers. The tower on the right was a plain pyramid dating from the 1140s and of the Romanesque style. The tower on the left was an early 16th century Flamboyant spire on top of an older tower, and was taller than the right tower. After touring the church, we walked through the cobbled lined streets of Chartres, which were filled with many half-timbered buildings. Things seemed to be very quiet that day, as we did not see many locals or tourists.

Paris Disneyland Resort: In hindsight, I'm not quite sure why we decided to spend an entire day away from Paris at a theme park, but I'll make sure to never make the same mistake again. The park was easy enough to reach from central Paris via train. We arrived at the park just at it was opening, although it took us quite a bit of time and frustration to obtain the tickets we had purchased ahead of time. Once inside the park, my initial impression was that Main Street reminded me very much of the original park in Southern California. Aside from that however, we were not at all impressed with the park. There were far less rides and excursions than I had expected there to be, and it was filled with a ridiculous amount of people. As a result, the small number of rides all had long lines attached to them, so we only ended up riding on probably five to six total. The only highlight of our experience was lunch. We were somehow lucky enough to snag waterside seats at the Blue Lagoon Restaurant, which was located inside the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Our meal even came with several shouts of "Bon Appetit!" from guests who were riding through the ride. Aside from that, neither of us had a good time. The park just simply cannot compare to the original Disneyland. I guess if Paris Disneyland is more convenient than the one in California, and if you are one of those who truly enjoys theme parks, than you will probably have a better time than Mike and I did. I recommend that all others stay far, far away and instead enjoy doing something else in Paris, where there are hundreds of other things to choose from.

Notre-Dame: We visited not only the interior of this 700 year old church, but also climbed 400 steps to the top of it's tower. Construction of the cathedral originally began way back in 1163, and was finally finished nearly 200 years later in 1345. As with Chartres Cathedral, Notre-Dame is also considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Upon my first glimpse of Notre-Dame, I was struck by it's imposing facade, which stood out proudly on the banks of the Seine River. The small square in front of the cathedral was filled with hundreds of tourists, most of which had their heads tilted up as the gawked at the magnificent structure. The interior of the church was surprisingly dark and cavernous and appeared to go on forever. The stained glass was definitely the highlight of the cathedral; even on the cloudy day we visited, the natural light shone so brightly from behind the colorful glass.

On a different day, we chose to stand in a huge line in order to climb to the top of the tower. Unfortunately, an older German couple happened to blatantly cut in front of us, which really pissed me off. At first, I attempted to speak to them in French, but I quickly realized they were German, so I switched right to English. I know they understood every word I spoke to them, but they didn't budge from their "cut" spot in line and pretended as though they couldn't hear me. Later, after our group was at the top of the tower, the German couple (who, just earlier, couldn't understand my English) magically offered to take our picture. While the offer was nice and I accepted, I found it interesting that their guilty conscience for cutting in line had finally kicked in. As previously mentioned, the ascent to the top of the tower required climbing 400 stairs. On any normal day, this wouldn't have been fun nor easy, but given the fact that we were nearly three weeks into our trip and in quite good shape from all of the exercise, it was fairly easy. Although it was quite cloudy, the view from the top of the tower was simply stunning and worth every minute that we had stood in the long line for. We especially enjoyed looking up-close at the many gargoyles that seemed to be placed everywhere and were incredibly interesting to look at.

Deportation Memorial: This free memorial is a beautiful and moving tribute to the 200,000 people deported from Vichy France (government of France) to the Nazi concentration camps, many of which ultimately lost their lives during the Holocaust. As it is located practically right next door to Notre-Dame Cathedral and right on the Seine River, there is really no excuse for one not to stop by and pay their respects.

Sainte-Chapelle: Visiting this small but gorgeous Gothic chapel that was originally built in 1248 was one of the highlights of our trip to Paris. While we had heard much about Notre-Dame Cathedral, and even some about Sacre-Coeur, we had heard almost nothing regarding Sainte-Chapelle, so when we first stepped inside the church, we were both pleasantly surprised and enamored with what we saw. It appeared as though beautifully colored stained glass made up the majority of the walls of the chapel. The multi-colored glass shone so incredibly bright as the sun filtered in behind it. All our eyes could see everywhere around us was brilliant color that flowed together in perfect harmony. I had never in my life seen so much stained glass at once and in such a small but powerful setting; not to sound cliche, but it was definitely one of the few moments in life where the beauty laid before my eyes truly took my breath away. To this day, this mesmerizing chapel remains one of the most beautiful structures I have ever laid my eyes on.

Conciergerie: We stopped in at this former prison in order to visit the re-created cell where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned during the French Revolution. While the interior of the building was rather plain and barren, it was quite fascinating to see where Marie Antoinette was kept before her execution.

Chateau of Fontainebleau: We visited this beautiful palace as a half-day trip from Paris. We took a train from central Paris into the town of Fontainebleau, then took a local city bus for about ten minutes in order to reach the palace. The current palace is the second one to occupy the site, and was designed and built by an Italian architect for Renaissance King Francis I in the 16th century. Unfortunately, our visit occurred on a very rainy day, and we were without an umbrella, so we opted not to tour the gardens, and only visited the interior of the palace. While I was impressed with some of the rooms, I was mostly disappointed with the rest. Many of the rooms featured dark wood paneling, so the atmosphere of the chateau seemed very dreary to me; in hindsight, the rain and dark clouds that day might have slightly altered my opinion. The rooms of the chateau didn't seem to evoke the light or airiness I had felt while visiting Versailles. I would definitely give Fontainebleau a second chance, but only on a sunny day so that I could visit the gardens.

Cluny Museum (Musée National du Moyen Âge): This museum contains various forms and pieces of art from the Middle Ages, including tapestries, beautiful stained glass, and jewelry. Our favorite display was definitely the stone heads of the Biblical kings of Judah that once decorated the exterior of Notre-Dame Cathedral. During the French Revolution in 1793, an angry mob thought that these were the heads of French kings, and decided to destroy the statues by decapitating them. Someone decided to take the heads and buried them in their backyard near the present day Opera Garnier. The heads of the statues in Notre-Dame we see today were later reconstructed. In 1977, the stone heads were found by shocked diggers and eventually brought to this museum to be put on display. Fascinating story!

Carnavalet Museum: Housed in two museums in the beautiful Marais neighborhood of Paris, this museum is dedicated to the history of the city and contains a hodge-podge of items. There were lavishly decorated Louis XIV period rooms, thousands of photographs and drawings, sculptures, furniture, coins, signs, etc. You name it, and this museum has got it! It was a fascinating museum to wander through and had lots of interesting things to see, but with little English descriptions, the details were hard to appreciate.

Sacré-Cœur Basilica: Relatively speaking, this gorgeous church was only recently finished (when compared to most churches) in 1919 after having been started 44 years earlier in 1875. Upon first glimpse of the church, I thought it was placed in one of the most beautiful spots of the city, perched up on a hill, with all of Paris looking up at it. We ventured into the interior of the church for a bit, enjoying it's Roman Byzantine appearance.

Monmarte Neighborhood: After visiting Sacré-Cœur Basilica, we walked behind the church to the charming Montmarte neighborhood. This area was filled with quaint shops, lots of small cafes, and many artists painting in the squares. It was definitely the picturesque "Parisian" image I had conjured in my mind prior to our trip. Aside from Sacré-Cœur Basilica, there was no other major sights to see or visit; instead, we just simply wandered through the neighborhood, enjoying the atmosphere.

Opera Garnier: This grand theater was designed and built during the Belle Époque period in 1875 for Napoleon III. Unfortunately, due to a later show performance that day, we were unable to view the auditorium. As a result, we only walked around the multi-level lobby, including the Grand Staircase, which was ornately decorated with richly dark shades of colors. On a future, visit to Paris, I would like to time my visit so that we could take a tour of the auditorium.

Orsay Museum: Compared to the Louvre, this art museum was refreshing to visit and we actually felt as though we had done the museum justice upon our departure. This museum was originally built in 1900 as a railway station called Gare d'Orsay, and remained in operation until 1939. In 1977, the French Government decided to convert the defunct railway station into a museum. The Orsay contains mostly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, and has a huge collection of impressionist works. Some of the paintings we most enjoyed were Monet's Water Lilies, Vincent Van Gogh's self portrait, and Renoir's Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre. The museum also had an awesome exhibit of a large scale model of the Opera Garnier, which was fascinating to look at. The museum was well laid-out and extremely easy to follow. I recommend that all who visit the city come to this museum as it was an immensely enjoyable experience that made it easy for two non-art lovers to appreciate the beauty of art.

Les Invalides: This beautiful glittering, domed building was located within walking distance of our hotel and contains several museums and monuments within it's complex. The famous Emperor Napoleon lies in this building along with other family members of Napoleon and some French military officers and heroes. My personal opinion of the tomb was that it was quite grand of a place to bury someone in; famous or not, it was a bit too much extravagance for my taste. During our visit we had wanted to see the Army Museum (also located within the Invalides complex), but unfortunately, it was closed for renovations.

Catacombs of Paris: Located several dozen feet underneath the streets of Paris, these tunnels contain the bones of more than six million former residents of Paris. In 1786, the Parisian government decided to empty the cemeteries of the city in an attempt to improve sanitary conditions. Those living close to the cemeteries were suffering from different diseases, due to contamination caused by improper burials and the open mass graves. They decided to create an official ossuary in the underground tunnels. It took several decades to complete this intensive project. The bones were carefully (and often, artistically) placed into stacks, and signs listing the church and district where the bones had come from were attached nearby. It took us several minutes to climb down the spiral staircase that led into the main entrance, which caused us both to feel quite dizzy. Once inside, we were basically free to wander through the corridors of bone piles. It was eerie and quiet here, with very few visitors. The worst part of the experience was the dripping condensation we felt as we walked along; every now and then, we would feel a drip of water hit our head, which was really gross (I wondered; where did that water originally come from?!). All of this dripping made an already scary experience worse for me. I had a difficult time comprehending the sheer number of bones that were down in the Catacombs. To help put it into perspective for me, I thought; each one of these bones once belonged to a living, breathing person and after seeing literally thousands of heads, it became much more real to me. I don't think that I would ever visit the Catacombs again (once was enough for me) but I'm glad that I took the time to see it.

Arc de Triomphe: Recognized by many as one of the important landmarks of Paris, this monument was completed in 1836 after a few decades of on and off construction. The Arc was built to commemorate those who had fought for France, but more specifically, those who participated in the Napoleonic Wars. Our visit occurred just after the Arc had undergone a renovation. As a result, we were able to climb the circular stairs to the very top, where we were rewarded with amazing views of the Champs-Élysées and the rest of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower. I was surprised by the level of artistic detail and intricacies that had been used to design the exterior of the structure; it was much more beautiful than I had expected it would be. Below the Arc was The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, whose flame is always lit. Getting to the Arc was quite easy and ingenious; the city had created an underpass (underground walkway) below the street so that visitors could walk to the structure without having to worry about dodging the hundreds of crazy cars that zoomed around it as they drove along the Champs-Élysées.

Champs-Élysées: After visiting the Arc de Triomphe, we began the long walk down the Champs-Élysées where we would eventually reach the Louvre. This famous street is one of the most expensive areas of real estate in Europe, with rents as high as $1.5 million per 1000 square feet. We walked past numerous cafes, expensive designer stores, and thousands of tourists. While the street was certainly interesting, I don't think that one would be able to obtain an accurate assessment of the city if they only walked down this avenue. The Champs-Élysées certainly did not have the same down to earth feeling that so many other areas in Paris had (i.e. Rue Cler, Montmarte, etc). We followed the Champs-Élysées all the way to Jardin des Tuileries, where we eventually made our way to the Louvre.

Louvre: We were smart enough to purchase the Paris Museum Pass, which allowed entrance to many different museums and other sights in Paris. At several of the museums, the pass also allowed people to bypass the regular entrance line and instead go through a very short line, which was quite nice and a huge time saver. Thankfully, the Louvre was one of these museums, as their regular line was atrociously long. The Louvre is one of the world's largest museums, with more than 35,000 objects that range from the 6th millennium BC to the 19th century AD. This massive collection is exhibited over an area of 652,300 square feet and it would be physically impossible to see all of the exhibits in less than a few days. Originally, the gorgeous building was used as a royal residence, first begun as a fortress by King Philip II in the 12th century. Many years later in 1546, the palace was redesigned and built in the French Renaissance style by King Francis I. It was used as the main residence of the French royalty until 1682, when King Louis XIV chose Versailles as the main palace. Over 100 years later, the Louvre was transformed into a public museum after the French Revolution, and officially opened in 1793, and still continues strong to this day.

As the Louvre's collection is absolutely massive beyond belief, we knew ahead of time that it would be ridiculous to even think that we would be able to visit a majority of the museum in the time we had allotted for our visit (three hours). As a result, we decided to focus on the art and exhibitions that were of most interest to us, including the obvious choice of the Mona Lisa and others, such as Napoleon III Apartments. Overall, we were both completely overwhelmed with the Louvre; the sheer size of the museum is difficult to put into words. In terms of the famous Mona Lisa, we were, like many other people, underwhelmed by the painting. It was so much smaller than I had anticipated it would be, even though I had been warned that it would be small. Truth be told, we were probably more impressed with the interior of the Louvre itself than with the art on display. I know, the SHAME, but we really aren't huge fans of art, and would much rather spend our time wandering through a giant palace enjoying the architecture and decorative elements than analyzing a piece of art hung on the wall. I would definitely recommend a visit to the Louvre for any first time visitor to Paris, but I personally have no huge desire to return again.

Overall, we had the most amazing time in Paris. I instantaneously fell in love with the city in a way that has forever captured my heart. It's so difficult for me to pinpoint what I love and enjoy most about the city; sometimes I think it's the gorgeous architecture whose facades have so many decorative intricacies; other times, I think that the city captured my heart byway of my stomach, as the food is so ridiculously delicious. There is just absolutely nothing else in the world like a fresh Parisian croissant that melts in your mouth in the early morning hours. Then again, Paris is also amazing for it's plethora of museums, sights, grand monuments, and it's easy access to so many nearby attractions, such as Versailles. Or, could it simply be the way of life in Paris? Everything is meant to be savored in this beautiful city, from the food that hits your mouth, to the long and intimate conversations that occur between close friends, to the many couples who appear to be so in love that nothing around them seems to matter. All of this was very much infectious and caught me by surprise. While I always figured I would like Paris, I never had any idea just how much I would come to love this stunning city. Time and time again throughout my life, I know I will often find myself going back to Paris, the most amazing city in the world.

---

Photos

Montmartre neighborhood of Paris
One of my all-time favorite photos

Les Invalides
Napoleon's tomb is located within this building