Versailles

Tuesday - April 23, 2013

We did a little better today - we (and by we, I really mean me) woke up around 6 am.  Yay!  We're on a relatively normal schedule now!  :)

After talking my dad into going to the boulangerie by himself for breakfast (I love this aspect of Paris - a fresh loaf of bread every morning rather than buying in bulk from Vons and eating the same loaf for a week), he returned with a baguette and 3 croissants.  We got the coffee going and I was in food heaven slathering my baguette with the magic Speculoos spread while cramming my face with a croissant at the same time.  Sigh.  Seriously, I ate more carbs in those two weeks than I have in the last 16 months combined.  

Our meeting time for the Versailles tour I booked was 9 am at Le Pont de Seine Cafe in the 5th Arrondissement, just off the Bir-Hakeim metro stop on the 6.  Once we were all gathered, our group of 12 then shuffled BACK to the station and got on the RER C (regional train) headed towards Versailles Rive-Gauche.  The trip was a little over a half hour if I recall correctly - I just remember being squished on the train that was full of commuters and our tour group broke apart as we all wandered off to secure seats on the double decker train.  The farther away we got from Paris, the emptier the train car got until everyone was comfortably seated.  My dad became very excited and began taking unflattering photos of us on the train - he said we should memorialize our very first train ride in France (which was incorrect - we took the train the year before from Villefranche to Eze, but who am I to burst his bubble?).  See?

do you see the jet lag and exhaustion on our faces?  I assure you, this is not just due to my dad's lack of awesome photography skills.  

Once we arrived, we walked about 10 minutes from the train station (below)

Versailles Rive-Gauche station

to this little farmer's market thingyamajig they've got going on.  Apparently the village of Versailles grew as the French nobles migrated from Paris at the behest of Louis XIV - but since they all had families of their own (and servants as well) and they couldn't all fit into the palace, a village grew around the palace where the families of the nobleman as well as the servants settled.  Maybe this farmer's market would have been more fun for people not from California, where there are farmer's markets everywhere.  But the half hour we spent there bored me.  We were on a day trip and couldn't pick up any groceries anyway (not that the Versailles security was going to let you through with 5 pounds of sausages and cheese stuffed in your bag), so the sight of all the cheese and fruit and meat just kinda tortured me.  What I did note though - fruit is freakin' expensive in France!  My mom ended up buying a couple of bananas because they were a little less than what Carrefour sold them for, and she stuffed them in her backpack purse where they got kind of beat up by the end of the day.  While the rest of the group oohed and ahhed at the display of culinary delights (including $18 rotisserie chicken.  WTH??) we wandered around and just found a place to sit until it was time to head towards the main attraction.  

see how excited (not) we are to be there?

After we all got back together we headed towards Versailles palace.  Finally!  The plan was for us to tour the gardens in the morning (when the chateau was more crowded) and then tour the chateau itself in the afternoon.  Just a word on the tour.  It was...average.  Which was kind of a let down since the tours from the same company the day before were both pretty awesome.  I think our tour guide had something to do with it.  She was a nice bubbly Irish girl (once again, don't remember her name), but she was a terrible guide in the sense that she just charged forward without paying attention to whether or not her group was actually with her.  She would get caught up in conversation with someone in the group and lose track of the others.  She was fine with the information and history she imparted when we toured through the gardens, but I felt that she was a little too...scatterbrained(?) to be an effective tour guide.  Overall, I'd give this a B-.  However, that doesn't take away from the entire experience itself.  I got what I paid for - a guide to take us to Versailles so we didn't get lost on the train, front of the line access so we didn't have to stand in line for a thousand years, we got a tour guide who worked at Versailles who took us to a number of rooms (the private apartments of the king, his library, private chapel, their dining room, study, etc) that are not open to the public, and lunch was included as well as a return ticket on the RER.  I do think this was a little pricey for what you get though.  We paid 145€ per person for this, bringing the total to $561.59 for the three of us.  That's a pretty nice purse yo!  But I don't regret doing a tour of Versailles, we saved hours of time by having  a guide.  I do want to go back someday though, since we didn't have time to adequately explore the gardens (by not have time, I really mean my dad was freakishly tired and his feet hurt and if I made him go visit the Grand and Petite Trianons and Marie Antoinette's little hamlet he may have sobbed) and there's still a lot I want to see.

But when we walked up to Versailles, it looked like this:

tour buses up the wazoo!

There was this swanky statue of Louis XIV at the front - and as I gazed on it, I couldn't help but wonder what he'd say if he knew his fancy schmancy palace was one day going to turn into a parking lot for ginormous buses and hordes of crazy ass tourists clomping our way through his gardens, halls, his bedroom and even his toilet.  Weird.

I imagine he's saying "get the hell outta my house you peasants!"

Anyway, once you get past the wall of tour buses, this is what you see:

tada!  hordes of tourists with their noses pressed up against the golden gates.  I wonder if this is what the French Revolution looked like when the people stormed into Versailles and took the king and queen captive.  But without all the Nikon cameras and fanny packs.  And rather, with pitchforks and chamber pots or something.  Let's just say that when I saw this line, I was never so glad I spent the money on the tour, because we literally just walked in.  In fact, we straight up cut in front of another tour group.  Hehehe.  Once again, I felt superior (like a douche).  Once we entered the gates, we went through into the gardens for our tour there.

we're past the gates!

Let me tell you, it was cold.  And a little rainy.  And cold.  And dreary.  We went at a time of day where the garden was not shown to advantage.  Everything I'd read before I went raved about how the garden was way more awesome than the chateau itself.  Well, I couldn't see it.  It didn't help that the fountain that faces the back of the chateau was drained and being repaired and the landscaping around it was being torn up.  

it's so cold!

But we gamely walked on and saw some other stuff.  We saw a fountain that had Apollo being pulled by his horses, which apparently was suppose to be Louis XIV since he's the sun king.

you could sorta see the Apollo figure, it's the thing the little bald man in the background is taking a photo of

Aha!  Here's a better photo of it

Then we wandered through other parts of the garden for about another hour or so while the tour guide was telling us anecdotes.  We were lucky enough that we managed to catch one of the fountains actually turned on - I'm not sure why it was since the fountains are only turned on during the weekends during the Summer, but I'm glad I saw them - they were accompanied by Baroque music being played.  The thing is, if you've been to the Bellagio, Louis' fountains really aren't that impressive.  What is kind of cool though, is when you realize you're looking at the same fountain(s) doing the same things it did 300 years ago when the King of France walked by (albeit in a wig, patch, heels and hose) with his entourage.  So even if the display itself isn't everything you hoped it would be, the fact that there's history there is what makes it worth viewing.

a little less exciting than the Bellagio, eh?

Doesn't he look excited to see the fountains???

there were lot of these long stretches of lawn.  I'm not sure why - did they have dancing clowns on the lawns back then?

you can see the chateau in the background

After wandering through the gardens, we walked up a LONG flight of stone steps and saw the queen's gardens.  This was the pretty part, as this was the portion that the queen's apartment faced when she would look out the window.  Instead of just hedges, there were a lot of flowers.  While it was merely pretty when it was overcast outside - when I looked out the window from the queen's bedroom in the afternoon (when it was sunny), it was stunning.

the pretty garden in the afternoon, from Marie Antoinette's bedroom window

After our walk through the queen's garden, we trooped out and went to lunch.  I had pretty low expectations for lunch.  But once again, I was pleasantly surprised.  When I heard we were going to a French buffet, I had visions of a Hometown Buffet with French people in berets going "hee hee hee, haw haw haw" while serving us slop on paper plates.  Instead, the guide lead us to a little place about a five minute walk outside of Versailles called Monument Cafe.  It was empty when we walked in around noon - but within minutes of being seated, the lunch rush began and the place was packed!  It was a small buffet (what you see on the website is accurate), but each dish was done very well.  They had a little table with desserts and appetizers and on the sideboard there were assorted entrees to pick from.  There were soups as well, but the only thing that stood out as really memorable was a beef and potato dish that came in a little cocotte though everything there was tasty.  My dad seemed to like the escargot.  I remembered eating a lot of brie and bread, and the desserts (tarts, mousses, chocolate, etc) were good as well.  There was a mushroom mousse and a cold mushroom soup in a shooter glass that was tasty too.  Apparently this was modern French cuisine.  I don't know anything about French cuisine other than the fact that there's a lot of bread and cheese, but I found it tasty and filling.  I liked the variety that was represented though this was not an expansive buffet by any means.

appetizer dish - salmon, brie, mushroom mousse, mushroom shooter and some kinda pressed meat thingy

mmm...bread and cheese

dessert: coffee, almond gelatin, chocolate mousse and a mango thingy

my favorite of the entrees - beef with potatoes and onions

We sat there for about an hour, and after our appetites were satiated, we walked back to Versailles and entered the chateau.

and there were still lots of people trying to get in

Instead of going through the entrance we went in last time, they took us in through one of the side entrances on the wing to the right.  This was where the private apartments of the king and queen were located.  Apparently Louis XIV liked to live in public, and his bedroom in the center wing was completely open to the public - there would be courtiers watching him as he awoke to when he slept, but Louis XV didn't like that and ended up building himself some private apartments and only living publicly on Sundays.  Those were the apartments we got to visit.

I think this was the antechamber to the king's bedroom - but you should note the black and white art on the walls - all the original artworks were confiscated by the Republic during the revolution and they're now housed in the Louvre.  When Versailles became a museum and requested their return the Louvre gave them the finger.  Bastards.

Louis' XVI clock - original and has been running for hundreds of years

King's private bedchamber.  There's actually no bed.  The beds were all destroyed in the revolution and because this was his private chamber, no written description of the bed exists, though the fabric on the walls and windows were just reproduced last year according to the pattern the weaver had on file from hundreds of years before for the king.  Kinda awesome, huh?

the king's porcelain throne. Well, wooden throne.

his desk in his private study.  The carpet is the original as well

I'm not sure what this is.  But my parents became very excited when they saw this random picture of what appears to be a China man.  Then they started arguing over which emperor this was.  For all we know, this guy could've just been the Chinese cook or something.

dining room in private apartments

sitting room for entertainment.  The furniture in this was was just assembled weeks before our arrival and this room has only been open to tours in the last few weeks.

When the tour through the private apartments were done, the guide then took us to the king's private chapel. Now this part was awesome.  Not only because we got go INTO the chapel when everyone else had to stay outside and take photos from the outside, but because this place was gorgeous.

mama excited that she is not outside with the horde

their family seal, 3 fleurs-de-lis, in the middle of the chapel

view from inside out - all the peeps were looking at us wondering why we got to be inside.  One of the guys actually climbed over the barrier and our guide had to usher him out.

my mama.  She was tired.  And her feet hurt.  (hell, so did mine)

After our tour of the chapel, the guided portion of the tour ended.  Our regular guide then gave us an option - we had one hour of free time to wander the grounds or the rest of the chateau that was open to the public before we could meet at the statue of Louis out front and leave with her.  If we wanted to do the rest of the day on our own, she would give us our train tickets and we would make our own way home.  My parents decided to do it on our own, so we got our RER tickets from her and we took off, fighting the crowds.  We then went and saw the public bedrooms of the king, the queen, as well as the dauphin and the princesses.  We wandered through ballrooms and saw more paintings of fat men in tights than we ever wanted to see.  Then we saw the hall of mirrors, which excited me because this was where the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI was signed more than anything else. I  mean yes, it's extravagant and over the top, but it was a lot more awe inspiring at the time it was built because mirrors were the equivalent of diamonds in the 18th century.  Only the Venetians had the skill to create mirrors and even the  richest noblemen usually had one small hand mirror for their toilette.  For Louis XIV to line the walls of an entire hall with them was literally like paving the place with diamonds so high was the cost.  According to our guide, the Venetians who were bribed into showing the French craftsmen the secret to making the mirrors were assassinated by the Venetian government for treason.  Huh.  Their definition of terrorists and traitors are a little different than ours today.

King's public bedroom.  A little...red, doncha think?

Marie Antoinette's bedroom.  Very...floral

King and Queen's public dining room

Dauphine's bedroom (that bed is tiny!)

Dauphine's private study

Dauphin's library

Dauphin's bedchamber (his wife got gypped in the bed department)

another one of our lopsided self-portraits!

After this, we were pooped out man!  My dad looked like he was about to pass out (and his feet hurt like crazy because he wore the wrong shoes) so instead of renting a golf cart and driving the grounds like I wanted to, we opted to go back instead.  BUT - before we actually left, I saw a vision of beauty inside the chateau.  That vision of beauty was this:

have you ever gazed upon such beauty before? (sigh)

Even though I'm a country bumpkin, even I know what Ladurée is - and I was determined, DETERMINED I tell you to have macarons from Ladurée during my trip.  There were lots of little sweet shops near our flat, there were a lot of places that sold macarons - but dammit, I wanted Ladurée macrons.  It would be like settling for Thrifty's ice cream (there's nothing wrong with that, I had plenty of it growing up) when what you really want is Häagen-Daz.  I SOOO wasn't settling for no Thrifty's, so when I saw the Ladurée, literally 10 feet away from the chateau's exit, I was drawn there like a moth to a flame (or a mouse to cheese.  Or hell, just me to anything edible) and pointed at the very last box of macarons and kept nodding my head up and down.  And I forked over 30€ (I think, I may be wrong, but I remember it being a pretty penny) and grabbed the box of macarons, stroking it in a creepy manner like Gollum when he croons "my precious" to that stupid ring.  Yes, I am creepy and weird.  That's not new.

So after my religious experience in Laduree, we trudged our way out of Versailles, walked the 10 minutes to the train station and took the first of 3 legs of public transportation back to our little flat.  Ahhh...

dude, the cobblestone?  crap.  The most unevenly laid ground evah!

Duuude.  It took us about an hour or so to get back to St. Germain des Pres.  We ran into the after work commuters and ended up standing most of the time.  Blech.  Once again, my plans for a sumptious French dinner were out.  1) we had a big ass French lunch and if I made my parents eat more buttery French food for dinner they were going to cry and 2) I was too damn tired for a restaurant.  So we walked to the market street a block from our flat and we ended buying a freakin' rotisserie chicken the size of my fist (okay, maybe my dad's fist) for 12€.  That's almost $16.  For a rotisserie chicken.  What the hell???   

tiny expensive ass chicken.  And I have to say, Costco chicken tastes better too.  I really wished I had some sriracha to drown this in.  'cause sriracha makes everything taste better

A big ass chicken at Costco only goes for about $5.  I felt bad for the French when I was there - their meat is exorbitantly expensive, I don't know how they can afford to eat it.  My mama wanted to make chicken soup so we were going to buy a chicken at the market, until we realized that a chicken  - just a carcass - would run us about 20€.  WTH???!!!  So we ate crazy overpriced rotisserie chicken and my mama went to the market and bought some broccoli and cauliflower and that's what we had for dinner.  The fact that I ate expensive not-so-tasty rotisserie chicken and broccoli and cauliflower for dinner without even a token protest while in PARIS should tell you just how exhausted I was.  Then we sat around, vegged, and conked out.  Ideally, we should've taken some after dinner strolls along the Seine and all that other good stuff, but realistically, we were so wiped out at the end of each day we could barely move or stay awake.  Not to mention the jet lag that still dodged our heels.  I think you'll have to stay in Paris for a solid week or two before you can adequately digest all the sights and be able to adjust to party the night away like the Parisians.   'cause I just wanted to go to bed.  

The next day - we get to sleep in!  And we visit the Louvre, where I'm greatly disappointed by the Mona Lisa (sob!)