Snow flurries at Versailles

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We learned our lesson already - no breakfast in the hotel. So we walked out of the hotel around 8:00am to find something to eat. It was still dark out and the city's cleaning crews were sweeping Champs Elysees. We walked by a French pastry shop that was still in the process of opening up. A few doors down, we walked into a building with a Starbuck Coffee in the middle of the lobby. A man and a woman were still cleaning and setting up. But the man indicated to us that they could serve us. So we ordered our muffin and latte and found a corner table underneath the heater. We were the only 2 around. And I thought we had a late start.

After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel again to get ready. There were more people on the street now - the French pastry shop had a few clients and we did not see the cleaning crew anymore. The sky was still gray … not a good sign.

By the time we walked out of the hotel again, it started raining already. I had to go back to my room to get my camera bag. Fortunately, we were both prepared for the cold and rainy winter. We both purchased our own LL Bean Goretex jackets before our trip and we were glad we did. The down lining kept us warm while the Goretex kept us from getting wet. In addition, both of us brought along our waterproof boots. So the rain was merely an inconvenience but would not stop us from going out.

We headed northeast on Rue de Berri and then turned left at Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. Lauren had a taste of French chocolate from La Maison du Chocolat in New York before and we received directions already from the hotel on the location of the closest shop in Paris. When we arrived at the shop, we were surprised to see its size - rather small. I went to Fazer in Helsinki and Sprungli in Zurich before and had expected La Maison du Chocolat to be around that size. Didn’t matter - once we walked inside, we felt like we were walking into an art gallery. White chocolate, dark chocolate, truffles …. elegantly presented all around the store. There were quite a few people shopping inside also. We took our time to make our selection while the store clerk kept asking if we were ready. I love dark chocolate and we both have friends in Texas who love chocolate. So we were not about to be rushed.

Done with our shopping, we now headed towards Arc de Triomphe. It was still raining - not heavy but certainly enough to get us wet if we did not have our jacket. We circled back to Champs Elysees to find the tunnel to the base of Arc de Triomphe. Once we came out of the tunnel, we were in the middle of a rather large crowd. Everyone was staying underneath the arc due to the rain outside. The tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I, together with its single flame, is on the eastern edge underneath the arc. Hanging from the top of the arc, we could see the flags of European Union and France. There is a staircase that can take us to the top of the arc but it was not opened. We stayed around a bit to read some of the names inscribed on the wall. Then we circled the arc before we headed back to the tunnel and returned to Champs Elysees.

We walked around but we did not want to walk too far away from our hotel. We were going to be picked up from the hotel at 1:30pm for our journey to Versailles. Lauren managed a find a pair of shoes that she really liked across the street from our hotel. She saw it on our first afternoon and finally decided to get it. We then went to Plaza Berri, an Italian restaurant across the street from our hotel, for lunch. Lauren figured out already that Italian and Chinese food are my comfort food.

We were picked up at our hotel earlier than scheduled. Our driver was also our multilingual guide. There were 2 Russian couples already inside the minivan and we had to pick up another American couple from Le Meridien. The guide was great - he was able to give us lots of facts and statistics that were educational. And to do that while navigating Parisian traffic takes a special skill.

Versailles is a western suburb of Paris and is located about 10 miles away. But getting there certainly took us longer than anticipated. Traffic was bumper to bumper and our guide warned us that we might get some snow since Versailles is on an elevated plateau. True to his words, we started seeing snow flurries when the minivan exited the expressway. I prefer snow over rain! Traffic was very slow as we approached our destination.

Versailles is famous because of the Chateau de Versailles or Palace of Versailles. Back in 1623, Louis XIII built a hunting lodge - a little gentleman’s chateau at Versailles. He liked it so much that he kept enlarging it. His son, Louis XIV, followed his father’s path and continued the expansion. By May 1682, Versailles became the official residence of the Court of France, supplanting the palaces at the Louvre. Thus, Versailles was the unofficial capital city of the kingdom of France.

We were all dropped off in front of a coffee shop on the northern corner of the palace. We then had to walk up a steep cobbled stone street to reach the entrance to the palace. That was an adventure in itself when we just had snow flurries. It was so slippery that everyone was looking for something to hang on to. Our guide was the one wearing black leather shoes and he was walking on ice - slipping and sliding. Fortunately, Lauren and I were still wearing our water proof boots with a rubber sole that grabbed the sidewalk.

Once we arrived at the entrance, we saw the long line of tourists waiting to purchase their entrance tickets. Fortunately, our tour included the entrance tickets and our guide took us to the front of the line, gave each one of us our entrance ticket and told us to be back at the minivan in 1.5 hours.

That was the only good news. Once inside, we were in the middle of hundreds or thousands of people - all following the same green arrow. Our first stop was the chapel of Versailles where Marie Antoinette got married to Louis XIV. We had to push and shove our way to reach the door to the chapel. And that was as far as we could go … just the entrance door! Then we followed the green arrow to the second floor. While each room is magnificent with its frescoes or paintings or antiques, there was no time for us to appreciate them. Every room was packed … some were standing still and listening to tour guides; some were pushing their way to go to the next room; children were crying and it was very warm inside.

We were hoping that it would get better as we got deeper into Versailles. But it was just wishful thinking. You have hundreds of people in one room, funneling through one door to go to the next room. And these tourists on a guided tour did not want to lose their tour guide. So once the tour guide moved and made his/her way to the next room, the whole group followed - pushing and shoving their way. In the meantime, most of us were still dressed for that below freezing temperature outside and we were now packed shoulder to shoulder inside. Very uncomfortable!

We finally made it to Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) - one of the main attractions at the palace. This is a very long room with arched mirrors on one side of the wall, reflecting the arched windows on the opposite side that look down to the gardens. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling that is full of paintings of Louis XIV’s military victories. A very impressive room! Most of all, the room was so large that it dispersed the crowd and gave us ample breathing room.

We didn’t spend too much time afterwards inside the palace. Instead, we decided to wander around the gardens of Versailles, which along with the palace is in Unesco World Heritage list. The garden - with its well manicured lawns, water fountains, sculptures - was such a welcome relief from the crowded palace. The rain and snow flurries had stopped and there were still some traces of snow on the ground. It was cold but the fresh air felt great. None of the fountains were working as a sheet of ice blanketed the pond. Amidst the afternoon fog, we couldn’t see the end of the garden.

Heading back to the minivan, we had to go back through that slippery ice-covered sidewalk. If I had a video camera, I was so sure that I could have lots of material for America’s Funniest Home Video. People were walking down slowly - hand in hand which made it worse. One slipped and everybody slipped. If you were wearing heels, you might as well find another way unless you wanted your behind to have an imprint of the sidewalk. We went into the coffee shop to warm up while we waited for the rest of our group to show up.

Back at the hotel, we opened up the map again and tried to pick our evening destination. As a former ballerina, Lauren suggested going to see the famous Paris Opera (Place de L’Opera). In no time, we were back on the road taking our version of bus number 11 - in another word, walking again! We turned right at Boulevard Haussmann - heading west. The rain had stopped and it was actually a pleasant evening - not as cold as the night before.

Once we got close to the Paris Opera, the streets became extremely crowded and busy. Paris Opera is located across the street from two department stores - the flagship store of Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps next to it. All the buildings around us were fully decorated and lit. Holiday shopping was still in full force and both stores were packed. Lauren and I went into Galeries Lafayette from a side door and took the escalator to the second floor. It was not a great idea to walk around the food department before we had dinner. But that's what we did - we were surrounded with fresh food, prepared food, seafood, chocolate and more chocolate. This is the Harrods of Paris! Again, just be prepared to deal with wall to wall people. That had been our story of the day.

Walking out of Galeries Lafayette, we circled the Paris Opera. This grand landmark designed by Charles Garnier was inaugurated in 1875. We tried to see if we could come in to tour the building. But with a performance coming up, we were left to admire the building from the outside.

We continued to explore the area - musicians were heading into the Paris Opera; a Chinese tour group was coming out of Galeries Lafayette. I took pictures of the brightly lit buildings. We found a French restaurant, La Taverne, that was rather busy. That was usually our signal - busy restaurant should mean good food. So we got ourselves settled, with a bottle of red wine. It had been another long day and we were getting exhausted. After all the walking we did and the fighting with the crowd, it was great to be able to sit down, relax and enjoy a good meal accompanied by a nice bottle of wine.

After dinner, with no rain, we decided to take a different route back to our hotel. We walked on Boulevard des Italiens, passed Place de la Madeleine with La Madeleine church and arrived back at Place de la Concorde. This seems to be our daily routine in Paris so far - walking back to the hotel in the evening along Champs Elysees from around Place de la Concorde.

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Photos

Arc de Triomphe
With EU and French flags hanging from the top

Chateau de Versailles
Snow flurries just stopped.

Chapel ceiling
From an open door on the second floor

Galerie des Glaces
Hall of Mirrors inside Versailles

Gardens of Versailles
Yay -- fresh air!

Can I have one to bring back?
From the gardens of Versailles

Gardens of Versailles
Still partially white from the snow flurries earlier

Galeries Lafayette
Flagship store in holiday spirit

Paris Opera
Prefer to be inside the building