The next morning we woke up bright and early to make it to the wondrous place known as ... Versailles. Versailles has always been on my to-do list. It's only a short train ride outside of the city. Then it's only a short(ish) walk from the train station to the HUGE complex that is Versailles.
There were people everywhere, everywhere we turned. It was a bit obnoxious. But, at the same time, the palace can hold something like 20,000 people. So a few tourists wasn't that bad. Especially with Mom's uncanny sense of timing (or force) we've managed to avoid some crazy lines.
The chapel is below.
Of course, exploring the rest of the palace is just biding time until you get to the Hall of Mirrors. This is ... it. You know? Living the dream.
There were some cool things outside of the Hall of Mirrors. For example, there's the door Marie Antoinette used to go hide somewhere when the revolution was occurring outside her door. It's interesting to think about all the opulence and the state of the peasants. There's a serious gap there that's strikingly similar to some of the things we're seeing today in America. Hopefully we're not headed towards a violent, excessively bloody revolution!
After Versailles, Mom, Dad, and I headed north to where the Grande and Petite Trianon were hiding. They're smaller little palaces. It was pretty nifty.
There were two awesome things about the part of Versailles that was not the palace. The first is that Marie Antoinette basically recreated an Austrian village (see below). She would dress up in a simple white dress and walk around "overseeing" the people who worked there. It's a cute little hamlet that is so quaint. I think I must like this idea - of recreating villages, because it was something I adored about Barcelona (the Poble Espanyol). The second WONDERFUL thing about going north was that we got to take a 3 euro tram back to Versailles. You think that sounds expensive? I suppose it is a bit expensive for a short tram ride. Until you consider the fact that the tram drops you off in the gardens of Versailles. The same gardens that they were charging 9 euro for admission to visit. So, Mom, Dad, and I just sauntered right past the ticket booths in order to explore the gardens a bit. It was lovely, and it's definitely something I'm glad we were able to see after all.
After that, we headed back to the city of Paris. This is where we decided to check out the Eiffel Tower. Well, only one of the elevators was running. Of course, the sign says something about technical difficulties. So I ask information when the other elevator will be operational. I was then politely informed that they just don't use it until July! So the line to go up the Eiffel Tower was approximately four hours long. Ha! Yeah right!
Instead of waiting four hours, we decided to go to Les Invalides - a old military hospital where Napoleon's tomb is located. We figured we could go back to the Eiffel Tower and see if the line decreases at all. (Spoiler alert: It didn't).
Napoleon's head is resting closest to the camera in the below picture. I know that's not super important, but luckily Rick Steves included it in his guidebook so that I knew I was looking at Napoleon's head instead of his feet. Everyone knows I hate feet...
The chapel of Les Invalides was pretty cool. Granted, at this point, my father thought we were the holiest family ever. We were probably averaging 1.7 churches/chapels a day at this point in the trip. Very impressive considering we hadn't actually attended a service yet...
Les Invalides had a lot going on. There was also a pretty cool WWI and WWII museum. I walked through it pretty quickly. As could be expected, I focused on information about America joining WWI and anything about Poland. They had some cool military costumes from different countries in different regions. The uniforms from Africa were especially interesting. I was shocked to realize that the British were still wearing bright red military uniforms in WWI. Didn't they realize that was a bad idea when the patriots defeated the loyalists/British in the American Revolution? Seriously, dudes.
After that, we took Rick Steves' advice and wandered down a cute pedestrian street that we never would have explored ever. We sat at an outdoor cafe and enjoyed happy hour. It felt very Parisian. Except, we were drinking beer and not wine. Well, I was having a cocktail - but it was called something like "St. Germain hearts Manhattan" or something equally silly. I imagine cocktails with shorter names probably get ordered way more frequently. Me ordering this cocktail had nothing to do with the fact it had something to do with America. I swear it. It just looked delicious!
Next we went to a little outdoor creperie, and I ordered some sucre crepes for the family. Oddly enough the crepe place used to be... a horse butchery. Gross.
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