To Versailles and back again

This morning I woke up around 9:00 to some weird noises. Turns out that when people in the city move, they use what I would describe as flat bed cherry picker. I tried to get a picture but gave up. Sweet Jason was sound asleep, so I took to eating some “Frosties” (in other words Frosted Flakes) and watched some French Loony Toons.

Again we got a late start, but no big deal. I mean, we are on vacation and we’re just not as young as we use to bed. So off we went to the métro and then on to the RER (the suburban train) to Versailles. When we left the apartment, we basically had some flurries with no accumulation, but on the outskirts of town it was a whole different story. As we rode the train, we discussed how crazy our short walk from the train station to the palace would be until we were joined by a Santa playing the saxophone and someone else playing the accordion. You may not know this but I love accordion music in all it's stereo typical French glory. Enjoy the brief Christmas music video; I don’t show them because I didn’t want to give them any money.

The picture behind us is an advertisment for the ballet we're going to see at the Opera.

Trains go by fast

Window picture

We arrived, took the walk over to the castle (passing a McDo and a Starbucks) and headed through security. I’m sure some of you are unaware how crazy security is in these monuments but it’s basically like going through airport security.

Security Line

Gates to Versailles

In Versailles Jason impressed me with his French history knowledge explaining this and that, but what really got me was when we got to specific rooms and he was able to tell me the names of each room just by looking at the ceiling. At first I thought he was BS’ing me, but then he explained how he knew from the mythological symbolism and I could believe it. I took pictures of a few of the ceilings so you can experience them as well. This was by far my favorite part of the trip. Funniness ensued as we were swallowed up by an obviously American tourist group. Jason said to me, “Where the hell did all these people come from?” and I responded “America”. It was funny.

I loved that each room was a different color.

The Sun King



The Mars Room



The Diana Room

The Apollo Room

The Mercury Room

The Hall of Mirrors

As we finished up our adventure we headed to a brasserie. It was okay, but regardless we were hungry and the place was warm. I had chicken with mushroom sauce and Jason had steak haché. We then took the long way around town back to the train station by accident but it was fun and snowy.

Somewhere in town

The train back into Paris

Back in Paris it was finally snowing. As we transferred from the RER to the métro we saw the Liberty Torch replica (the underpass where Princess Diana died) – with the Eiffel tower in the background – so we could finally go see Galeries Lafayette. The store was ridiculously hot and full of people, so we snapped some pictures and headed out.

Umm... it's snowing in my eyes

Liberty Flame

Galeries Lafayette

Galaries Lafayette

We then rode out to La Défense to see the Grande Arche. To our surprise there was a massive Christmas market right under it. It was so cold that we had to stop and have a crêpe and hot chocolate before we headed back to town to see the Arc de Triomphe.

Grand Arch

Christmas Market

In the middle of the Grand Arch... it was very windy

Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe with snow falling

A brief walk down the Champs-Élysées concluded our snow-filled day.

Dinner of the night: Lasagna, green beans and baguette. Total price: around 6€, and we have bread left over, green beans left over and most of our camembert.

It’s still sinking in that we’re in Paris. Time is going too fast. I can’t believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve! But the good news about that is we’ve finally decided where we’ll go for Christmas Eve service. We’ll be visiting the Sacré-Cœur, since it’s in our arrondissement and one of my favorite cathedrals/basilicas in all of Paris.