7.17.09 Paris

So day five in Paris, and another long one it was! I was also way excited for today because we went to Versailles.

The back view and patio of the palace

Versailles was build by Louis the 14th as a new royal palace and also as the new capital for France. This was a shocker to suggest moving the capital from Paris. Also a shock was when he was crowned as king, he declared that he would not have a Prime Minister. Unheard of for the time. Originally Versailles was the place of the royal hunting grounds and a "small" 18 bedroom lodge to stay at for the weekends. Why? Because Versailles is 15 miles from Paris. Way to farr for a king to go back and forth from without making a vacay out of it. When King Louis decided to move permanently to Versailles, the actually grounds were about 19,000 acres, but now are only around 7,000 acres.

The view from the back of the Grand Canal and lawn

The king hired three men, an architect, a designer and a painter to oversee the building of the palace. It took 50 years to complete the entire estate, which I thought only included the main palace. Oh, how wrong I was. There are many villages on the grounds, including a large Italian villa inspired annex, an entire country village developed for Marie Antoinette, as well as acres and acres of pristine, gorgeous gardens, mazes, lawns, lakes, fountains and canals.




This place is a city in and of itself. To take us around the grounds was tour guide Sid. Not only do we still not know the actual ethnicity of Sid, or what his accent really was, but he sported a suit coat that also doubled as a cardigan somehow. Lest we not forget...the rat tail. When will this padawon learner receive the force? We arent sure; but he will make a great Jedi master.

I was in the back of the group and managed
to zoom in and snap this little gem...

His Jedi senses must have kicked in cause right
after I took it, this happened. Whipped his head right at
me and gave me the stink eye...sorry Sid.

Sid was thoroughly entertaining throughout the, SIX HOURS that we were at Versailles though. So with a skip in his step and some spastic hair whispies on the back of his head, Sid lead us inside the palace. Inside the rooms and parlors are incredibly ornate and detailed.

The Hall of Mirrors

But the thing that sold me was the views of the grounds and the manicured gardens.

This section was patterned after some Turkish tapestry.

They were unreal. We stopped after touring the inside for a lunch break by the grand canal,

Ali and I with our killer panini and crepe

...then met back up with tour guide Sid to go see the home of Marie Antoinette.

Oh no, not her house. Just a garden house. For tea of course.

...and the Queens Hamlet, aka The Shire. The Hamlet was created to help Marie feel more like she was back in the countryside where she grew up. And then Disney stold the idea because I could have sworn we were at an amusement park or Downtown Disney because everything was too perfect. Too perfect!

I was semi expecting Winnie the Pooh the waltz out.
Or Frodo and Sam.

This place was an idealistic slice of heaven wrapped up in thached cottages and rolling green hills. The Shire I tell you. This entire area of Versailles was gorgeous and made for some great pictures. It basically turned into me snapping cool pictures and not listening to anything Sid was saying.

Love this. Caught the little bumble beezy
scoping out some necta.

I loved this snail. It had a cool shell.

Found a cool wall...and a bench...it happens.

Once Sid let us go, we were pooped as all getout, and made out way slowly home. Oh wait, we forgot that first we had to walk the miles back to the main palace past the great lawn and canal, then walk the miles to the train station, then ride the train and metro for about an hour....and then we got back. It took awhile but we all feel like seasoned travelers here in Paris. When we got back we decieded that we again needed some pasteries. And yes, we needed them. So we went to our favorite pastery shop that is crazy good and got a whole assortment of sweets.

The sweets. They were great. So great.

Again, we're artsy. Even with our pasteries.

Probably one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten. It also helped that we had just been walking constantly for the last seven hours too. But hey, we all enjoyed them. And now its been hours of sketching and blogging cause its pouring rain outside and we are tired. Done and done. Great day, saw a lot, walked a lot. Au revoir!