We started our day off again with breakfast at the hotel – I had the hot chocolate instead of coffee and it was quite impressive. We woke up a bit later than planned so rushed through the food and headed out quickly. We were headed for the C5 train to Versailles and finding it was actually rather easy. Once we were on board it appeared that the rest of the city had conveniently followed us – including a group of Spaniards that was sitting near us that decided everyone would like to know what they were talking about and thus screamed the entire 40 minute train ride.
We get off the train and thanks to one of Lora’s friends that lived nearby for a semester we had a general idea where we needed to go without looking at a map. I’ll started with a quick bio of the Chateau de Versailles – it used to be a hunting lodge for one of the Kings of France and then later was turned into the King’s Palace by Louis XIV in 1664 and then multiple kings and queens lived there until the French Revolution when Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette fled in 1789 . We arrived and the place was enormous and there were 2 large lines – one for tickets and one for entry. Previously we had bought a Paris Museum Pass that allowed us to skip ticket and entry lines and had worked before flawlessly – today had some hiccups. We found the sign that matched our pass and proceeded to enter only to be met by a lady that said there were too many people trying to get in and our pass wouldn’t allow us to skip everyone – well what in the hell is it good for then. I really thought that the reason we bought this thing was to skip the masses and sure enough if the masses are too large we can’t skip them. Today included another part of the pass that upset me but we’ll get to that later. After waiting in the line to get into the Chateau which moved pretty quickly we were immediately confused. We wanted to get a listening device for the audio tour as well as go on a guided tour. The information desk told me however that the tickets for the guided tours were back outside – the same line for the entry tickets – the one that was extremely long. We angrily vetoed that and went to pickup our listening devices. If you’ve ever been on an audio tour this was the same as them all basically – enter the # that’s listed in the room and it’ll tell you about the room. I was impressed with most of it and it was very informative. We snapped a bunch of pictures of the inside where we were allowed to go and then headed out to the gardens – to say gardens doesn’t do this place justice – maybe a vast array of gardens that stretched miles might be a better description. We walked what seemed to be miles but in fact it was only 2km or so until we got to the King’s home away from home – the Grand Trianon. I’m assuming sometimes the queen was just too much to put up with – where do I sign up for my own Trianon, heh . Let’s note here that there was a 6 Euro round trip tram that took you here and back that was packed solid every single time it passed us – bunch of pansies if you ask me – at this point our feet would slap us if they could but we trudged on. We toured the Grand Trianon and it was your typical bachelor pad – complete with a pool table and a bunch of beds for your friends. After this we decided enough was enough and it was time to head back to Paris. I found a shortcut on the map and convinced Lora to follow me on it – it seemed like a great idea but Lora was highly skeptical – in case you’re wondering…which I can’t imagine why you would be...it worked out in our favor.
We high-tailed it back to the train station and I fell asleep on the ride back only to be woken to Lora to say that our plan to go to the Eiffel Tower was cancelled and it was nap time – I grunted and went back to sleep until she told me we were at our stop.
After nap time it was dark and time to head back out. We made it to the Eiffel Tower pretty quickly after a minor setback - Lora hasn't seemed to be able to get the tickets right just yet. Part of the problem is that we aren't 100% certain when our tickets are good and when they've expired - so we typically just use the same ticket until the turnstile beeps at us and won't let us through. I just let Lora run at it first while I watch and once she fails I sweep in with a new ticket and breeze right through. Instead of being prepared, Lora digs through her bag for a few minutes and finds her ziploc baggy of tickets - finally after fumbling with it with her gloves still on she finally convinces a ticket to escape from the bag. By this time we've missed the train we were trying to make and I'm laughing hysterically at the whole situation - I get to see this at least twice per day (the best one was at Versailles where not only the ticket had expired but our tickets were no good altogether and we had to purchase a new one. We didn't get to the point of realization though until Lora had tried the old ticket at least twice and a new ticket probably three times. Eventually we gave up and went to ask the ticket lady - she nodded that our tickets were no good - we then were pleased to have to buy 2 more tickets to Paris). Once we finally arrived at the Eiffel Tower we were presented with a few different lines to get in to make our way to the top. None of them mentioned our pass that I was rather sure that I read got us up to the top for free. After talking to a security guard – by talking I meant showing him our pass and him waving his hands franticly in a fashion that could only mean NO – we decided that since it was only 30 degrees at this point that we’d love to wait in line for 30 minutes to buy a ticket to the top. While waiting to buy our ticket there was a large LCD screen that flashed a few messages – most notably that once you rode the first elevator up to the 2nd stage (about 2/5 of the way up) that there was another line to the very top that was about 45 minutes long. Lora was not happy about this but I told her that there was no way in hell we came all the way to Paris and I’m not going to the very top. 24 Euros later and we have our tickets – the line to get to the 2nd stage elevator was fairly short and then once we got up there – the next elevator line was only about 15 minutes. We made it! We were on the top of the Eiffel Tower – the lower level was enclosed and the top was outside. I looked at Lora and she looked back upset knowing what I was about to say – it’s outside time. We head out there to do a slow lap and the cold wind was so ridiculous that if I had a sleeping bag I’d have gotten in it and crawled around out there – all you could do was laugh at how insane the cold was. I tried to snap a few pictures but they were pretty unsuccessful – oh well. We headed down and were on our way to dinner.
They had these markings all around the Eiffel Tower to well known locations.We rode the train back to the St. Michel stop (the closest train to us that went to the Eiffel Tower) and just off the stop spotted place that seemed decent so went in and ordered. We got a bottle of Rose wine and I ordered a crepe and Lora got a beef dish. Both were decent but not very impressive – this was our least favorite meal so far. The only upside was that the wine was good and cheap to boot. We can’t tell whether or not this is a place we should tip or not but since the food wasn’t impressive we decided to just leave quickly – it was probably included.
Our plan now is to head over to a Chocolatier that we had read about and have some dessert. Even though it was Saturday night – both of the ones we tried were closed. We settled on this place we saw on the way there and ordered 2 things that looked delightful – once we got back to the hotel and opened them up to eat them it went south quickly. They both now reside in the bathroom trashcan – we should have just waited until the places we wanted to go were open.
It was a long day but we didn’t go to that many places – both were pretty amazing though. Tomorrow we head off to Montemarte to do a walk there and then perhaps a tour of Notre Dame and St. Chapelle. With only 2 full days left it looks like we’re going to be able to do the things we had wanted and have some time to relax as well.
As a closing note – if you’ve ever been to the Biltmore house in Asheville, NC – the Chateau de Versailles makes it look like a guest house. The vast size and exquisite ornate décor were definitely impressive.
p.s. I have uploaded the past 2 days pictures to
http://picasaweb.google.com/alan.roberts/ParisPart1#
http://picasaweb.google.com/alan.roberts/ParisPart2#
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