Paris: Sunday

On Sunday morning, we took the commuter rail out to see the grand palace of the French kings during the 18th century called Château de Versailles.  When you think of the word "chateau" you might think of a quaint, countryside home, but this is really an enormous palace that was built and expanded upon by all the kings beginning in 1668.  It has 700 rooms and 700,000 square-feet of floor space!  King Louis XIV made Versailles the center of political power when he permanently moved his whole court there.  The royal court lived in lavishness there until Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were forced to flee in 1789 because of the French Revolution.  

With so much history and grandeur to draw people in, Versailles is one of the top attractions visited in the world.  And in the middle of tourist season, the crowds can get very large.  With poor planning on my part, I think we went to Versailles at one of the worst times.  We showed up at 10 am on a Sunday and the line to get inside was already very long.  At the beginning of the trip, we had purchased Paris Museum Passes, which get you into most of the Paris attractions for a flat rate.  They also some times allow you to get into a special entrance line.  However, there was no such line at Versailles, so we had to wait to get in with everyone else.  The lines snaked around three times and it took us an hour to actually get inside the palace.  Luckily, the weather was great and so even though waiting in line is boring, it was nice to soak up some sun.  

Though, I was upset to see that the palace staff were not doing a good job managing the line and people were just obviously cutting at the front of the line.  When we got to the front of the line, these two French girls cut in right behind us, so I started questioning them about whether they had been in line the whole time and they just blatantly lied to me.  Another group of Americans help me gang up on them so that they finally got out of line.  The staff standing right there did nothing.  I felt a little sense of triumph, though only 15 minutes later, I saw them in the palace, so they clearly had just waited until we left to cut in again.  Ugh!

Waiting in the horribly long line to get in Versailles

Still waiting in line, but getting closer to the entrance

Finally inside the palace gates, where we then waited in another line for audio guides

Our first stop on the tour, the beautiful royal chapel

A view of the gardens from an open window in the palace

Enjoying the view

Stopped in the corner and snuck in a quick snack, a common occurrence on trips with me

The upper floor of the royal chapel, where the royal family worshipped

The famous Hall of Mirrors (thronged by tourists) where the Treaty of Versailles was signed

Darren in the Hall of Mirrors, where great state occasions were held

The Queen's bedroom, where Marie Antoinette escaped from the mobs through a secret door

All the palace rooms, especially the state apartments, were richly decorated in gold, marble, and beautiful paintings.  There were many exquisite rooms, but I've just highlighted the most famous ones here since this post is already going to be long.  The detail and amount of work put into each room for just this one residence is astounding.  After touring the palace, you can understand why the French became disenchanted when the royal court lived in utter extravagance and the common people had nothing.

After touring the palace, we went to go out and see the gardens, but there was a show going on that we hadn't paid for, so we weren't able to see them.  We had thought about coming back later on in the day or the next day, but we ran out of time.  Instead, we had a quick lunch at the café there and then took the commuter rail back into town.  As we were heading out of Versailles, the line was only half as long as it was when we got there, so I guess we should have come later in the afternoon.  Just a tip for anyone else going soon.

After that, we ended up near the Louvre and thought about going there, but saw the really long line and decided to try again the next day.  We instead walked along Jardin des Tuileries to Place de La Concorde and on to Champs-Elysées.

Next to the Louvre

Another Arc de Triomphe built by Napoleon in 1805

Walking in the Jardin des Tuileries, heading towards Place de la Concorde

This square is called Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde has had a long and infamous history.  It first featured an equestrian statue of King Louis XV, which was torn down by revolutionaries and replaced with the guillotine in the 1790s.  It was here that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded.  A few decades later, the Luxor obelisk was added as a gift to the new King Louis-Philipe from Egypt.  We couldn't go near the monument though, because they were already setting up for Bastille Day festivities in the square.

We then arrived at the Champs-Elysées, the famous Parisian boulevard, to find some kind of parade going on.  At first, it seemed exciting to stumble upon a local celebration, but as we got closer, it was more of a disaster.  Some sidewalks were blocked off because they were setting up for Bastille Day festivities, so the sidewalks that were open were just jammed with people.  The parade seemed to be some kind of Caribbean(?) pride parade, but then there was one Chinese group in there?  Either way, mobs of people were just were running up and down the streets blowing whistles, so it was not very fun.  We cut our losses trying to see the Champs-Elysées and took a long way around to get to the Arc de Triomphe.

Standing in the middle of the street, with the parade up ahead

Finally made it to the Arc de Triomphe after a lot of walking

This arc was also commissioned by Napoleon, but wasn't finished until 1836

Walking up lots and lots of stairs to get to the roof

The visit to the arc made up for the chaos of the Champs-Elysées.  First, we were able to bypass the long line with our passes, and second, the view from the roof was just amazing!  You could see for miles and the great Parisian landmarks were all around us!

Looking down the Champs-Elysées at the totally disorganized parade

Montmartre and Sacre-Coeur 

Our favorite Paris landmark: the Eiffel Tower

We really enjoyed the design of the Eiffel Tower

After touring the Arc de Triomphe, we decided to head out to the Eiffel Tower.  We did not go up it because there were really long lines and I was getting tired.  We did walk around it to take some pictures and tried to sit down for a bit, but we were constantly bothered by peddlers trying to sell us their cheap things.  We didn't spend much more time there as I wanted to get away from the crowds and the peddlers.

The Eiffel Tower

Sun-burnt Darren in front of the Eiffel Tower

We took the metro back to the area around the Opera House and the Palais Royal to eat dinner at a French café that was off the beaten path.  The service was great, the food was good and inexpensive, and it was not crowded, so we really enjoyed our meal.

Enjoying dinner at our authentic French café

Paris: Saturday

Wow it's been a while since I've posted!  We had two vacations back-to-back (I know, tough life) where we first visited some Swiss and French highlights with my dad and step-mom, and then jetted off to Paris for the 4th of July weekend after they left.  My dad has posted all about our trip with them on his blog, so I'm still deciding if I'm going to post about that, too, but in the meantime I will share our trip to Paris.

Darren is still on the US holiday schedule for some reason, so we decided to use his extra day off this past weekend to go to Paris.  Since Paris is only a one-hour flight away, we just left early Saturday morning from Zürich.  As with any new city, it took us some time to get train tickets, figure out the transit system, and drop off our luggage before we got to any sightseeing.  With all that out of the way, we finally arrived at our first stop, Notre-Dame, around noon.  Now that we are in prime tourist season, there were tourists all over the place and lines for everything.  So we took some pictures outside of the cathedral and then went to wait in line to go inside the cathedral.

Me in front of the famous Notre-Dame

Notre-Dame really is a beautiful and unique cathedral, which we enjoyed touring.  The first stone was laid in 1163, but it took 200 years to finish.  It's interesting to reflect that all these pre-modern structures always took so long to build, and that many generations of workers would pass before it was ever finished.  Most people would never see their work come to fruition, but we are lucky enough to enjoy it now.

Inside of the Notre-Dame

Another view of the beautiful interior of Notre-Dame

Unfortunately most of the statues and detail work had to be extensively restored in the 1840s after the French Revolution.  The cathedral was ransacked, renamed the Temple of Reason, and used as a storage space during that time.  Strangely, Napoleon I was crowned Emperor here in 1804, though the building must have not looked its best at the time.

The North Rose Window from the outside

The back of the cathedral, featuring the flying buttresses

The South Rose Window

Darren in front of Notre-Dame

One last shot as we were walking away

You can actually climb up a very long staircase to walk around the towers and the bridge that connects them.  We were interested in doing this, but unfortunately the line was always really long and we didn't have time to wait.  Instead, we headed over to another French Gothic masterpiece just a block away from Notre-Dame called Sainte-Chapelle or Holy Chapel.  This was built in the 13th century for Louis IX who was a pious ruler and wanted his own place of worship.  The result is one of the most beautiful chapels I've ever seen.  There are fifteen 50-ft. stained-glass windows surrounding three sides of the chapel.  Each window is only supported by thin columns that transfer the weight to the ceiling.  The design leaves the effect that you are surrounded by a room full of color.  The stained-glass depicts 1,000 biblical scenes beginning in Genesis and ending with scenes from Revelation.

The upper chapel of Sainte-Chapelle

The altar and the beautiful stained-glass windows

Sainte-Chapelle standing out from behind the Palais de Justice

Sainte Chapelle is in the same complex as the Palais de Justice, where the courts of Paris reside.  So as we exited the chapel grounds, we walked by the front facade of the justice building.  I think you can tour the inside of the court building, but it was a Saturday, so it wasn't open.  After that, we left the little island (Ile de la Cité) where these sites above were located and walked across the Seine River to the Latin Quarter.  This area is named so not because there is a huge Spanish-speaking population here, but because this area used to be dominated by the famous French school, the Sorbonne, where students spoke Latin.  It seems today, though, that it is mostly an area with lots of shops and inexpensive restaurants that tourists flock to.

A busy street in the Latin Quarter

 The St-Etienne-du-Mont church on the left

While in the Latin quarter we stopped in another church where someone was giving an impromptu organ concert.  So we sat down to listen while the organist played through some pieces he selected from the sheet music in front of him.  It was fantastic.  We also learned that this church houses the shrine to the patron saint of Paris, Genevieve.  Who knew every city and country had a patron saint?  Guess I have a lot to learn about Catholicism.

The interior of St-Etienne-du-Mont

We then walked across the street to see the Panthéon.  Again, this is another building that was affected by the French Revolution because it originally was supposed to be a church to honor Saint Genevieve commissioned by Louis XV, but was turned into a resting place for the revolution's great heroes.  The most famous people buried here are Voltaire and Rousseau.  For some reason Pierre and Marie Curie's ashes reside here, but I don't know why.

The outside of the Panthéon

The beautiful interior of the Panthéon

Just outside of the Panthéon, with the Eiffel Tower in the background

We then walked over to check out the Musée d'Orsay in the late afternoon.  This museum houses French works of art from the 19th century, which includes the famous Impressionist period.  We only had an hour or two to explore the museum before it closed, though the museum is undergoing extensive renovation and so only some of its galleries are open.  I was already aware of this because, as some blog readers might remember, I saw some of the Musée de Orsay masterpieces in San Francisco with my grandparents last August as the collection was touring.  Even though some of the famous works are off touring, there are still plenty of great pieces to see that make it worth a visit.  We couldn't take pictures inside, but we can say that we enjoyed the paintings as well as the interior architecture.  The building used to be a major train station before being turned into a museum, and so the interior design is really interesting.

The outside of the Musée d'Orsay

After visiting the museum, it was time for dinner (well, for me anyway).  So what did I pick for us to eat?  Japanese food.  Yes, I am a bit tired of European food and needed a break and Paris had a great solution.  Just down from the Paris Opera House are several blocks of Japanese restaurants.  For this homesick West Coaster, it was heaven on Earth.  We ate at this restaurant below and even though it was Japanese food, all the staff were speaking good old mainland Mandarin.  I was back with my people!  Sorry to all the Paris purists out there, but I'll take Japanese food over French food any day.

The Japanese restaurant

Delicious Katsu Don and Gyoza

After that delicious, delicious dinner we walked around the area and stopped by the Paris Opera House and the Ritz before heading back to our hotel.

The Paris Opera house that was built in the 19th century

The opulent exterior with busts of Beethoven and Mozart among other famous composers

The very expensive Ritz Hotel with fancy cars in the front

After a very long day, we were ready to go to sleep around 10:30 pm, but it was still a bit light out!  Since France is on the western edge of the Central European Time Zone, it stays light out very late.  We went to sleep soon after and that covers our first day in Paris!