Carol blogging about day in Paris

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Sunday was a free day for all of us. The day started with some of us meeting to go to Versailles. Before we left, Sarah and I went to get pastries, while wandering around some of the smaller streets behind our hotel. After meeting the group, we walked to the metro stop by Museum d'Orsay. The train ride to Versailles took about 40 minutes, which was a lot quicker than I thought. The line to get in was surprisingly short and moved fast, given that most of the shops are closed on Sundays and tourists are out visiting museums and other Paris attractions. Everything about Versailles was spectacular. I couldn't get over the ornate decorations and colorful rooms. The famous Hall of Mirrors is a must see. One thing we didn't get to do was to go out to the gardens, which was a separate admission. We could have easily spent a few hours wandering around, but we spent about an hour or so there, partly because we all had other things to do and see.

After Versailles, Sarah, Kate and I started our walking adventure around the city. We started at the base of the Eiffel tower and walked through the Parc du Champs de Mars. Then we hopped on the Metro to Champs-Elysses to grab lunch. By this time, it started raining (pretty lightly though). We continued our walk along the river and stopped a few times to look at the street paintings. We made our way over to Notre Dame. The inside of the cathedral was amazing. It was also cool to see a mass in session, but we couldn't tell if it was for the public or not. On our way back, we walked through the Latin Quarter. By this time the rain had stopped, and the sun had come out again. It was so sunny that it didn't feel like it had rained at all. We got back to the hotel around 7:30pm, and it felt so nice to sit and relax. Future note: bring some comfortable walking shoes. We probably walked a good five miles today.


-Carol

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