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Published: October 24th 2010
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After a long day with LOTS of walking you would think that you'd get a solid nights sleep. Well our apartment (more specifically the front bedroom) offers some challenges for a solid 8 hours of sleep. Even though we are on a small side street, we are challenged with the echos of sounds up and down the street. Late last night a truck pulled up and parked outside the front bedroom, and guys started unloading building material. They worked on the shop below us throughout the night. It wasn't so much hammers banging and saws whirling, but they were making just enough noise to keep us awake. I got enough sleep, but Charlene was up all night. By early morning, I just got out of bed and tried to leave Charlene resting. Brandee and Bruce got up shortly after me, got ready for Versailles, and were off. Charlene got up some time later, and we were out the door by 11:00am.
Yesterday's venture into the metro sparked some confidence in our ability to get around. Bruce text'd me changes to their travel into the suburban city, so Charlene and I had an idea what to expect. We walked the 5
Chapel
Just a quaint little Chapel for the King and his buds...minutes down to the Bastille station, picked up the metro 5 trail, and took it two stops over the river to the Gare D'Austerlitz station. It was starting to drizzle by now, and Bruce's texts told me they were getting full on rain out at Versailles (glad we went back for the umbrella) From D'Austerlitz, we transferred to the RER C Train, but we ran into a little snag. Because of the strikes, the Versailles-Rive Gauche station (which is a short 5 minute walk to the Palace) was closed, and we were instead heading to the Versailles Chantiers station - a 25 minute walk. Charlene and I took a few minutes to figure out that we still had to purchase the Rive Gauche ticket even though we had a different final destination. Our reference book told us the trains ran every 15 minutes, but that too was wrong. We had to wait an hour for the next train - no worries. By 1:30pm we were on our way to Versailles.
Versailles is a suburban city about 10 miles west of the center of Paris. The train ride, with it's dozen or so stops, got there in about 40 minutes.
Ceiling and Organ of Chapel
Very nice painting on ceiling Off the train we followed the crowd as it meandered through the streets of Versailles on the way to the Palace, and oh my God was it cold... We were probably lucky the rain had stopped because it really could have been snowing with how low the temperature must have dropped. Brandee and Bruce had already completed their tour of the Palace and Gardens, and via text messaging we coordinated the trade-off of their garden tickets (our museum pass got us into the actual palace). Shivering, we met them in the courtyard of the palace to switch off tickets, and Bruce let me borrow a memory card for my camera (left mine sitting in the laptop back at the apartment). Versailles Gardens would be a shame to visit without a camera. Bruce and Brandee headed back to the train station as Charlene and I began our tour.
The
Palace itself is so huge it's hard to explain. It was originally a hunting lodge for France's King, but Louis XIV went on a building spree in the 1600s, and at one point diverted half the nations gross national product to it's construction. The buildings and grounds are so huge that
photos really don't do it justice (kind of like pictures of the Grand Canyon or something). The main Palace is so massive, but the interior tour is relatively short - probably 15 rooms or so. We made our way through the tour in about 40 minutes, but we were admittedly rushing (you see one overly opulent room and you've seen them all). It was extremely packed inside and photos were only allowed in the first few rooms. The rest of the crowd either ignored the signs or simply didn't care and just shot photos anyway. The Palace was showcasing the works of some Japanese artist (Takashi Murakami) throughout the tour, and we all agreed that the pieces really distracted from the tour itself - they simply didn't fit in with decor of rooms, and it furthered our desire to just get to the Garden.
Once through the tour we headed to the
Gardens - we all agreed that this is the true gem of Versailles. On weekends they play classical music throughout the massive garden and synchronize it with the various fountains throughout the
grounds. It really was impressive, and we were ultimately glad we came here today -
Royal Walk
Looking out over the Royal Walk to the Grand Canal in the distance. even though it was cold and wet. The
map of the gardens really doesn't accurately depict the true size. It's blocked out into different sections, but each section is huge - like Coliseum huge. Charlene and I spent over two hours walking around the garden. We saw most of it, but you really could spend a full day taking in it's beauty. The other thing we really liked was that it probably had several thousand people meandering around throughout, but it never felt crowded.
If you ever come to northern France, you MUST see the Gardens - they truly are something special and unique. We started heading back to the station shortly after 5:30. We bought our return tickets, and after a little confusion (again) about the return train, we were off on our way back. It rained, again, most of the way back, and the train was packed full of people - a lot of people must head into the city at night for dinner.
We arrived at D'Austerlitz shortly after 7:00, jumped on the metro 5 and were back at Bastille in no time. We hit up a wine store and bakery on our way back to the apartment.
Bruce made a reservation at a little Tapas restaurant down the street from the apartment, so we went there for dinner and Sangria - great meal. Back to the apartment for some relaxation, a little planning for the next day, then off to bed. Hopefully Charlene will get some decent rest tonight....
au revoir pour l'instant....
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Meri
non-member comment
Cool!
I'm so jealous you had the chance to go here! Mark and I wanted to go but just couldn't fit it in. Nice pictures! Glad you're having a good time. Get some sleep. Meri