Well, this day started out with once again a wonderful breakfast here at Les Jardins du Marais, I tried, for the very first time, Nutella and I think I'm in trouble- it was good, no actually it was great. I'll have to figure out a wway to incorporate this into my diet at home- in moderation. Then about 930am we were off to the races and headed to the train station to catch the subway, then connect to the RER train towards Versailles.
A few challenges at the train station- I had to face my not so favorite ticket machine again and it was not kind today either, but eventually we were able to get our tickets for the RER train- although it was a bummer that the machine didn't give us the option to purchase round-trip. We made our connection and I think my husband is very glad that I do have a sense of direction and some knowledge of the French language- I have felt very confident in working with the metro/train schedules to figure out what we needed to do. I just needed to get my feet wet and now I'm good to go! We arrived at Versailles just around 1045am and what can I say- WOW is an understatement. The Palace of Versailles is such an absolutely incredible work of architecture!! We picked up the free audio guides and then started going room to room and it was pretty amazing to see everything, I think that inside the Palace itself, I was most impressed with the chapel- which is more like an "in-house" cathedral! I will admit, I am not much of a history buff, I'm not a big fan of museums but I can appreciate the architecture that I am seeing throughout Paris and today specifically at the Palace of Versailles. We spent close to two hours going through the Palace.
Afterwards, we began to explore the gardens- which are quite expansive in themselves and feeling the day slip away from us- we decided to purchase tickets for the "Petite Train"- which took you down to the Grand Trianon, Petite Trianon and Grand Canal- like a "hop on/hop off" service. We ended up only hopping off at the Grand Canal and walked around, then had lunch at the restaurant there. We had Croquet Monsieur - which is basically a ham & cheese sandwich served hot- not quite what I expected as the ham was in between two slices of bread and then cheese melted on top of the top half..but it was still good. We of course has real "french fries'- yum! After lunch, we walked back up to the Palace and headed to the train station back to Paris. I did get a good chuckle at lunch today. My husband really does not know a lick of French and I had told him that the Croquets were highly recommended and he said, "I don't see them, except for the child's menu"-- well he thought "Chaud Buffet" was the child menu instead of the "hot menu"- so cute!
Something to note, we did have to purchase our return train tickets and the lines for the electronic booths were fairly long. We first got in a line only to find that the machine was broken, we switched lines to another only to find out that it would not read my credit card and it would not take paper Euros- only coins- so we ended up having to purchase the tickets with the attendant (another line), it all worked out in the end. But it is a good idea to have coins if possible and don't expect your credit card to work at the train station machines- they are supposed to be encoded with some sort of chip in order to work.
We got off at the Notre Dame train station and I have to say that I love how in this city when you get off the train or metro- you come up from the tunnels and voila- there is a beautiful monument staring at you! We come up from the stairs and there is Notre Dame Cathedral in all her glory! Just beautiful! We were able to go inside and actually the 630pm mass was just underway when we arrived- so that was a little interesting to see the mass in progress and hear it in French. Afterwards, we walked around the area and into the Latin Quarter- the cute cobblestone streets are just so lively and inviting...we did what I was "told" by friends to do- we sat outside at a cafe, ordered a glass of wine and people-watched. We also ordered Crepe's since we had not had those yet and YES, twice in one day I had Nutella!! My crepe was a "Crepe Nutella"- yum! Our view from our table was Notre Dame all lit up for night time! So we were off and running after that "snack"- little did we know then that it was going to be dinner.
We wanted to make sure to see the monuments at night as that is when they are so beautiful- since it was already night time- we decided to hit the Metro and head towards the Eiffel Tower. How breathtaking that Tower is all lit up! I had tears in my eyes once again! We did want to go to the top and this was the perfect opportunity- so we waited in line, during our wait we did get to see the tower "blink" at 10pm- it was pretty cool to see...and when we were getting ready to leave the tower after our viewing from the top- it was already 11pm and the towers were blinking again! They blink these twinkle lights at the top of the hour! Very romantic evening atop the Eiffel Tower! We then got back to the Metro and headed to the Arc du Triomphe so we could photograph her at night, then off on the Metro again- heading for the Louvre. Well, that didn't work out as planned- the actual exit for the Louvre was closed that late (not almost midnight), we should have gotten off the stop before at Tuilleries to get that nighttime picture. Maybe tomorrow. So back on the metro heading back to our hotel, where we arrived about 1230am, only to find that we don't have 24 hour room service and the bistro's on our block were all closed up this late on a Sunday night. So we go dinner-less. As I type this Bill is already snoring- but it is almost 3am! I am wired for sound and tummy is starting to growl!
My final note for the night- whenever you decide you will be traveling and WALKING a lot!! Make sure you pack the "Dr. Scholl's first aid essentials". I would be lost without moleskin right now- I fixed up both my feet this morning with moleskin on both heels and over the blisters that had started on the balls of my feet just below my big toes- after all the walking today, I can honestly say that they didn't get any worse- thankfully. I am so glad that I put that stuff in my bag for this trip!! It has come in handy!
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