A Visit to Versailles

The 16km walking loop of Paris yesterday meant it was a slow start to the morning. Made even slower after Ella insisted that I purchased tickets for our trip to Versaille online. Switching from the metro to the RER C, the train trip took an hour with one change near the Eiffel Tower, with the second train decorated with photos of Versaille and full of tourists!

From the station, we followed the crowd arriving at the palace some 15 minutes later. There was a small line going through security at the main entrance. On our way up to the Palace, we were looking for Entrance A where we could flash our prepaid ticket to enter. A long line snaked down through the courtyard to the end before curling halfway back up. We chuckled and I congratulated Ella on making me buy the tickets online before we left. Continuing up to Entrance A it soon became obvious that the long line was in fact the line for Entrance A!! Slightly dispirited we hustled back joining the line that was slowly moving forward.

  Line for the main entrance.

 The line looping down and back in the courtyard

 Nearly there.

Some 50 minutes later we arrive at Entrance A. We felt so sorry for the Japanese group before us who arrived at the front of the line without tickets - they thought this line was where you bought tickets! Another scan of our bags and we were finally in.

Versailles began as a hunting pavilion for Louis XIII in 1620's, before it was transformed and extended by his son, Louis XIV to a majestic palace. In 1682, the royal court moved from Paris to Versailles enjoying opulent rooms, lavish gardens and magnificent fountains. Then for nearly 100 years, the royal family with the succession of kings continued to embellish the palace and reign from Versailles. All this of course ended in 1789 during the French Revolution.

Due to restoration works, some areas of the Chateau were off limits for our visit. We began our tour at the State Apartments. Through the one way system, we were ushered past the Royal Chapel into the Salon of Hercules, Abundance, Venus, Diana, Mars, Mercury and Apollo. Each room was dedicated to a Roman deity and had a specific function - gallery that housed expensive art, rare objects and jewels; refreshment rooms; billiard or games room; guard room and a throne room. All were lavishly decorated with magnificent ceiling frescos; huge paintings often taking up the walls; intricate gilded cornices, marble panelling; twinkling chandeliers and stylish tapestry upholstery and passementerie.

 

Through the War room, which pays tribute to the military victories that led to the peace treaties of Nijimegen, we enter the most famous room in the Chateau de Versailles - the Hall of Mirrors. And yes it was impressive. This gallery celebrates the political, economic and artistic success of France. In its day, courtiers and visitors crossed the Hall of Mirrors daily; it also served as a place for waiting and meeting; occasionally was used for royal weddings or diplomatic receptions. The Treaty of Versailles was signed here on 28th June 1919 bringing an end to WWI.

The principle feature of this 73m long gallery is the 17 mirror-clad arches that reflect the 17 arcaded windows that overlook the gardens. I would have loved to see the Hall of Mirrors at night twinkling in the traditional way - light was provided by candelabra on large glided gueridons lining the hall and the 24 crystal chandeliers.

 

The Queen's apartment, the Dauphin and Dauphine's apartment and Marie-Antoinette private chambers were unfortunately closed. We opted to skip the Gallery of Battles and instead headed to Louis XV's daughters' apartments. Madame Victoire and Madame Adelaide lived in these apartments for 20 years until the French Revolution. These rooms reflected the refined atmosphere of the time as well as the taste for the arts, reading and music of each girl.

We were ready for some fresh air! Exiting the Chateau, we wandered outside finding ourselves in the South Parterre. Carefully manicured hedges created detailed patterns between which bare soil was waiting for spring blooms to arrive.  Our gaze is drawn to the fountains of the lower parterre before continuing down a long green lawn and then finally in the distance the Grand Canal. On each side, deciduous forests provide a cover for the labyrinth of paths leading to many more fountains, statues and hidden gardens. I hoped the girls were up for a walk!

 

We ambled down the stairs skirting around Latona's fountain and continue along the Royal Way, hoping to find lunch. Tucked a short distance into the forest, we spy a small cafe and stop for lunch. Refreshed, we head back along the Royal Way, arriving at the Apollo Fountain and the Grand Canal. It's a busy place - people area rowing on the lake; people area exploring the estate on foot, on bikes and in golf carts; people are enjoying lunch at a restaurant overlooking the canal and people are relaxing in the sunshine on the grass. We decide to join the latter lazing in the warm sun but with an ice cream!

Creating the gardens was a monumental task spanning 40 years. Our straight-line route avoided the hidden fountains and there are many. I read somewhere that water features and statues are an important part of French gardens and so to live up to the grandness of the palace, there were over 50 fountains and 400 statues scattered around the estate. Providing water to these fountains was a challenge too as back in the day they used up as much water as the city of Paris did in one day!! Despite the impressive work done by the hydraulic engineers of the King, not all the fountains could run at the same time. Obviously those fountains seen from the Chateau were active most of the time while others would be turned on and off as dictated by the direction of the Kings promenade! During our time at the Versailles, we only saw one fountain working - Latona's.

Located 2km from the Chateau is the Estate of Trianon. To gain respite from the courtly etiquette, the King, Queen and their family would escape to the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon or the Queen's Hamlet. With the afternoon getting away from us and the patience of the girls dwindling just as quickly, we chose to wander through the Grand Trianon before calling it a day and begin the return trip back to the apartment. 

A Lap of Paris

Today it was a girls only tour of Paris while Andy was at work. Our first destination was the Lourve with a time stamped ticket of 9.30am. Entry was fairly straight forward...stand in line, through security and then through the ticket gate.

  

Of course the Mona Lisa was on top of our list so we beelined straight to the famous painting. Already a crowd had gathered in front of this masterpiece. We joined in, slowly jostling and getting jostled to get our turn at the front. Both girls were surprised at the small size of the painting especially after walking through numerous galleries where most painting took up entire walls!

 

With that ticked off our list, we aimlessly wandered admiring not only the pieces of art work but also the building itself. The sheer size of the Louvre is impressive and there was no way that we were going to see everything in the few hours we had. We did manage to swing by some of the more famous pieces...

Ella was particularly interested in the Greek god and goddesses thanks to the recent immersion into Percy Jackson books. 

Winged Victory of Samothrace, the marble sculpture of the Nike the goddess of victory

 

Venus de Milo - a marble statue representing Aphrodite the greek goddess of love and beauty.

Pallas of Velletri, another marble statue representing Athena the greek goddess of wisdom, warfare and handicraft.

 

Katy was interested in the Eygptian area in particular the hieroglyphics after hearing about her classmates back at Aranda learning about ancient Egypt.

 The Great Sphinx of Tanis - a 24 ton granite sculpture

  

And so a few hours later, with tour groups infiltrating and filling up the Louvre, the girls had had enough. We departed the Louvre passing beneath the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, a monument built to commemorate Napoleon's military victories. Interestingly it is modelled on the Arch of Constantine that we'd seen in Rome only weeks ago. The girls spotted a labyrinth of hedges off to the side and disappeared to play hide and seek tag!

 

From there we walked through the Jardin des Tuileries, an expansive 17th century garden dotted with statues and ornamental lakes with fountains. We paused for a rest in the beach chairs by the central lake soaking up the warmth of the sun which is offset by the coolness of the breeze. Continuing on we pass Place de la Concorde and are soon strolling along the Champs Elysees.

  

  

Chatting as we walk along this famous wide avenue, the park gives way to the shopping boulevard. Closer to the Arc de Triopmhe, we sadly notice the damage inflicted on the shopfronts presumably from recent gilets jaunes protests.

 

Standing 50 m tall, the Arc de Triomphe was built in the early 1800's and honours those who fought and died for France in war. Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Solider from World War 1.
Unfortunately for us the Arc de Triomphe was closed for the President of China, so we were unable to climb to the top. From here, we took the metro towards Sacre Coeur.

A bite of lunch was required before climbing up the steep slope of Montmartre, the hill which the Sacre Coeur is located at the top of. Another famous landmark, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, or commonly known as the big meringue, was built in the late 1800's and consecrated in 1919. We soaked up the views over Paris before taking our time doing a lap inside this large church.

 

Our route then took us back to the metro, a different station though via a street packed with African hairdressers. Exiting from underground, it was a short walk along the river Seine to Notre-Dame. We didn't enter the cathedral but preferred to sit, pause and take in the moment.

How efficient were we? We'd completed our 'to see' list with a few hours of the afternoon left. Discussing potential fillers, we opted for a river cruise to fill the void of time, give our weary legs a rest and see Paris from a different angle! On the way to the boats, we came across a bubble lady! She had her work cut out for her with a rather strong breeze, but the girls still loved to chase and pop the rapidly moving bubbles. Down by the river, the boat cruise was a failure - the ticket office was closed. Instead we wandered into souvenir shops as the girls were desperate to complete shopping for gifts intended for family and friends back home. We had moderate amount of success before calling it a day and heading back to the apartment.

 

Paris Fun

And finally Paris! The express TGV trip took 3 hours covering the 600km from Grenoble to arrive at Paris Gare de Lyon. We chose Sunday morning to avoid the potential meeting of any Yellow Vest (Gilets Jaunes) protests that seem to occur every Saturday afternoon in varying sizes. Andy was also to work at the Sorbonne Université on Monday and Tuesday.

Our plans had been constantly changing in the preceding week of our departure. However we had purchased tickets to the essential sights - The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. The list looked something like this...

Much discussion took place. Lots of things to consider - opening times, location / transport, and the constraints of luggage shaped our plans. Eventually we settled on going to Parc d'Acclimatation on Sunday afternoon.

It was straight forward trip from the train station to the parc on metro line 1 except that Katy and I became separated from Andy and Ella. In the hustle of getting on, the cabin filled up with Katy and I left on the wrong side as the doors closed. We waved the others goodbye and patiently waited the 5 mins for the next train. Some 25 mins later, we pulled up to the platform and were reunited. Not a great start but a good life lesson!

Climbing out of the metro, we parted ways once again although this time it was planned! Keen to get rid of our backpacks, Andy headed off on a side trip to drop them off at the apartment while I walked on with the girls to the parc.

Entry to the parc took much longer than expected with a decent line at the ticket office. The Parc d'Acclimatation can be best described as a cross between a fun fair and amusement park. We headed to the aviary, played on the forest adventure playground then on to the farm animals before halting for crepes.

  

 

As Ella was waiting to do the high ropes course, Andy joined us. Unfortunately Katy was too short to do the high course and she didn't want to spend her tickets on the lower one. Ella whipped around the rectangular course quickly.

Andy and the girls then had a fun time on the Flying Chairs.

 

Next we again joined a queue for the Speed Rockets, a rollercoaster. It was excellent!

Closing time was quickly approaching so we headed to Wild Immersion, a virtual reality film exploring wild life on five continents. A fun experience!

With possibly just enough time for one more ride, we split up. Ella and Andy went off to the free jump launching herself from the second level (~5m)  tower onto an air filled mat. Meanwhile Katy wanted to go back on the Flying Chairs so I joined her. And so that ended a fun filled afternoon.

Ella had teed up a restaurant for dinner conveniently located near the Eiffel Tower. After a short metro trip, we emerged from the Trocadero station and walked through the wide esplanade of the Palais de Chaillot to find the tower looking beautiful in the evening light. Dodging the multitude African guys selling tower statues, we wandered down through the Jardin de Trocadero and across the Pont d'lena skirting around the base of the tower all while snapping lots of photos.

 

Dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby was delicious. Then retracing our steps past the Eiffel Tower, which was now lit up, we caught the metro to the apartment. A super day and lovely way to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary!