Day 8 - Versailles

Ah, Versailles.  I do believe this is my favorite place in France.  When we were planning this trip, when my friends and husband asked me what was a ‘must-see’, Versailles was at the top of my list.

We had bought tickets in advance, to both the palace, gardens, and then the night show.

When we got off the train, we immediately saw sisters doing cart witnessing in English.  They were in the English group there.

Because it was a Saturday, it was INSANELY busy.  We waited in line for probably 2 hours just to get in (with our pre-printed tickets)  But that’s okay.  We had plenty to look at.

We toured the palace first.  Saw the King and Queens bedrooms, and the Hall of Mirrors of course.  It was very crowded.

Then we decided to rent a golf cart.  We had about an hour and a half to tour the gardens before they closed (they close from like 5:00 until 8:00).  So we grabbed our stuff (including our wine and cheese ha ha) and took off. 

We saw fountains.  Some set to music.  

Then we drove to the Petit Trianon, given to Marie Antoinette by her husband.  Inside was really cool (this was also new to me, it was just too cold the last time I was there). 

Then we drove to Marie Antoinette’s hamlet that she had constructed while she was there to ‘escape’ her princess/queen life.  It was amazing.  You couldn’t go inside any of the buildings. They all looked pretty untouched.  It was so pretty.  There were swans, and they even had donkeys, chickens, goats, etc.  

Then we made a mad rush back to our golf cart because we HAD to have it back by 5:00 and it was about 4:59.  With about a 10 minute drive back to the return place.  So Nancy, kept yelling “Attention” as she was plowing through the crowds of people in our cart, only in French (AH-TAUNT-SEE-ON!!) to get people to move out of the way (our golf cart didn’t have a horn).  It was so funny.  We decided that she will be the one to drive our getaway car.

Then we left the park to go have some dinner.  It was a good place with good beer, and then we ordered a ginormous mojito that served 4.

Then we went back into the park for the fountains and fireworks.

We kept seeing all of these people dressed up going into the park, so we asked one of them what was going on and they said that one Saturday night per year, by invitation only, there is an event at Versailles where people dress up in period costumes and then after the fireworks (after all of the common folk leave) they have an event inside the palace (like a dance or something).  It was so cool to see everyone dressed up and walking around as the music played.

The fountains were so pretty all lit up at night and the fireworks were amazing.

It was a SUPER late night.  We missed the last trains to Cormeilles, so we took a cab from Paris to Cormeilles (at like 1:00 in the morning).  But it was totally worth it!  The cab drivers in Paris are just as insane as the ones in London.  Yikes.

Day 7 - Paris

We had begun our morning at the local bakery right by the train station (which is how we started most mornings off).  We would always get croissants, sometimes some quiche or an éclair, and then eat it while waiting for the train. 

 The trains in Cormeilles showed up about every 10 minutes or so.  Once we arrived at St. Lazare, we took the metro to Montmartre.  We hiked up the stairs to the Sacre Coeur.  

It’s a beautiful church.  Again, we didn’t go inside, just walked all around and took in the views.

Then we found this little tunnel on the back side of the church and found a spot to drink our wine and eat a bit. 

And then we walked to the artsy part of Montmartre and found a little café right near where some music was playing.  Then we ate some more.  Ha ha, it seems like all we did on this trip was eat.  And drink.  We perused around the paintings.  We ended up buying a painting that we both really liked.  The artist told us he was from Normandy and lives there too, but comes to Paris every other week to sell his work.  He was very nice.  We spoke only in French. 

Then we found the Moulin Rouge windmill and took pictures.

We then headed to the Rodin Museum.  I was excited about this because I hadn’t done this before (everything else up to this point was a repeat as far as museums, churches, etc. go).  I am super glad we went, but was a tad disappointed because they are doing extensive remodeling to the museum (outdoors).  So while we got to see all of the famous stuff (like the Thinker), a lot of the other statues were relocated and the backdrop was lots of construction noises going on.  But the park itself is so beautiful and the indoor museum is super pretty too.  And we got discounted tickets (only 7 euros) because of the construction.    So I am still really glad we went.

That evening our friends treated us to a nice dinner.  We went to Chartier, a place that had been recommended to us by a friend.  It was delicious and the atmosphere was great.  It’s very popular.  We got there early and didn’t have to wait for a seat, but by the time we left, there was a line out the door waiting to get in.

Here’s an upside down picture of what we ordered.  The waiters write down your order on the table and then check everything off as it is delivered.  And then when they do the bill, they just come and look at your tablecloth to see what you’ve ordered.  Very quirky and fun.

My husband tried escargot for the first time (I’ve had it once before)….it doesn’t taste like much except for garlic and butter.

I didn’t snap pics of our food, but I definitely took a picture of our dessert.  It was sponge cake soaked in rum.  I mean….soaked.  The first bite I took was just so surprising….like I had just taken a shot ha ha.  

The really funny thing is that we asked our waiter what he recommended for desert and he said the rum cake and we said ‘oh we didn’t see that on the menu’ and he smiled and said ‘oh it’s not on the menu’.  Things like that tend to happen a lot in France.  Everything is laid back, menus are a bit outdated, etc.  It’s always good to ask!!

It was a great dinner.  And afterwards there was a gelato place right across the street, so we had to stop there too (because when in Paris, why NOT have two desserts?).  They shape each cone into a flower.  Mine was melty so you can’t really see it well, but they were super cute.

Another full day!

Day 6 - Paris

Day 6 started out with the Louvre.  The four of us started off together but then split up as soon as we got there.  My husband is a history buff and I knew that he and I would be there most of the day.  Whereas our friends only wanted to stay until 2:30 or so, and then they wanted to go see the Catacombs (which neither my husband or I were interested in).

The Louvre was busy, as always.  I had to kind of move my husband along to each section so we could see as much as we could, but he did pretty good!

I also discovered that I only took pictures of the ‘big’ stuff and also the headless items.  ???  I didn’t even realize I was doing it until after I got home and looked through my pictures.  I already knew I was kind of morbid, but this just confirmed it ha ha.

Oh and this guy looked like he was taking a selfie so I had to take a picture of him:

We had a plan to meet up with our friends outside the pyramid, so while we waited, we sat down and listened to a guy play the cello for about 30 minutes.

After we met our friends, we hunted down a creperie that had gotten great reviews on Yelp.  It did not disappoint.  It was delicious!

And then we decided to take a cruise on the Seine River (with wine of course).  It was so pretty to see everything lit up at night.  The cruise was timed just right so that we saw the Eiffel Tower light up and sparkle.  It was a jammed pack day, but wonderful. 

It was so late when we got back to Cormeilles de Parisis that we walked from the train station to our hosts house (at like 1:00 a.m.)  We were soooo tired on the walk, so my husband started teaching us Army cadences (you know…the songs that Army people march and/or run to).  It was pretty funny.  I will always remember singing about the ‘wart on a frog on a log in a swamp’ in a little village outside of Paris at 1:00 a.m. ha ha.