So yesterday I didn’t really have a chance to sit an type up my summary of my day, so now that I’m awake and it’s a bright and lovely day, and I’ve had my croissant and baguette and coffee (which, I’ve discovered, they’re charging me for… I think… at least they’ve been writing down my room # every day… or maybe not…) I’ll give you the update.

I started out the day by checking my Frommer’s 2005 tourbook, which I recalled from my cover-to-cover read of it last year that it had a detailed explanation of how to get to Versailles. I followed its instructions by taking the Métro from the stop by the hotel to the Hotel des Invalides, which then led me to take the SNCF train (a suburb train, as opposed to a subway train) to the Versailles Rive Gauche station. (The ticket kiosk was more friendly to me this time, unlike the one in CGD; this one decided it wouldn’t speak to me in English, though, so I had to pull together my fantastic French reading comprehension skills to assist me in purchasing my billet à retour.)

The train was pretty cool in and of itself — it was a double decker… so cool! — and I spent the ride (which was brief in my estimation, but was likely around 30 minutes) reading Eldest (the book I mentioned the other day, by Christopher Paolini. Sort of Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings). Getting off (along with… 200 other people) at Versailles and taking the quick trip up the street, I was amazed at the little town/city that must have grown up around the palace and later the tourist site over the years. It was quite quaint. Then turning left… boom. (The French must love surprises, because they keep doing that. You’re walking placidly down the street and BOOM, ancient building. Like… the uniform 5-6 stories of every building in the entire city except for the magnificent ones completely compounds the surprise factor.)

As I was saying before I went on a tangent (don’t you love my parenthetical commentary?), the palace was just there. I walked up the long walk, which I could imagine took 5 minutes in a horse-drawn carriage but was more like 15 by foot, and joined the line for entrance… the 100 yard long line of tourists waiting to purchase their billets. I pulled out Eldest again and started reading, realizing that I wanted to finish it before Germany, and then recalling that there is an English book store in München near the Sonnenstraße! *does the happy dance* (Even in Paris I can’t abandon books completely.) After a good long 40 minutes of reading and having the sun beat down on my neck, I finally arrived inside, let them scan my bag, and saw the line continued. Oh, joy. I was at the window soon enough, pulling out my Euro, and soon I was on my way to the rest of the palace.

Versailles is… amazing. It was so cool, if a little threateningly opulent at times. I wonder how much of Versailles was Louis XIV’s desire to show off the riches of France, and how much it was to intimidate, because that much opulence was seriously intimidating. I doubt if I had an audience with the King, or Queen, or Emperor, as it were, in the palace I would be able to keep a clear head, because just staring at all the gold would probably make me want to bug out rather than comporting myself properly. Perhaps that’s the entire idea, get your noblemen to lose their wits and you can make them obey you… hrm. During the Sun-King’s reign, it’s said, he kept his nobles with him at the palace, playing games of cards and wits, because he wanted to keep his eyes on them. (Or so said my history professor, a little bitterly, last semester.) Apparently the absence of nobles and their direct rule in their home counties and duchys and baronies helped encourage revolutionary thought among the farm folk, leading Louis XV to remark that the déluge would come soon — and it did, for Louis XVI. It’s so interesting to think that Versailles was only home to a few monarchs, especially after seeing how much work, marble, gilt, and jewels went into the place. At least Napoleon had the sense to make use of it as one of his palaces, and then Rockefeller the sense to invest in it as a tourist attraction.

I can’t fully describe what Versailles was like with words, unless I start getting into fiction-writer mode, because it’s just something that you have to see, or at least have to feel described in excruciating detail. The most annoying thing, though, were the sheer number of tourists, taking pictures of everything, and making it exceedingly difficult to imagine the palace as it must have been. The signs (in French and English) attempted to explain the use of each room during the different reigns of the Louis (plural) who lived their and their respective Maries (These monarchs had little imagination. Everyone was Louis or Marie. Click for more). The ceilings, the paintings, the chandeliers, the sculptures… wow. I was heartily impressed by everything I had the chance to see. I didn’t pay for the all-day pass, which enabled full access to everything, but getting to see the Hall of Mirrors, the bedchambers, the gardens, all of that was fantastic. My pictures will show more.

Then I traveled back on the train (more reading!) and got off the Metro at the Hotel des Invalides (which was built as a military academy and hospital and housing and such by Louis XIV. From there I walked north across the Pont Alexandre III past the Grand Palais to the Champs-Elysées, and I walked west to the Arc de Triomphe, past expensive shops and restaurants charging 40 Euro for a price fixe meal. Yikes! It was much like walking down Fifth Avenue in New York, but muuuch wider. Pretty cool. Then I got to the Arc de Triomphe. For a startled, panicky moment I wondered if I would have to cross the Place Charles de Gaulle (the roundabout around the Arc) but yes, the French anticipated my fear, and for my sake, built an underground tunnel connecting them. Wasn’t that thoughtful? Anyway, crossing over I paid the requisite fee to climb the stairs (always charging for stair climbing… they should pay me for that exercise!) and relished in my 2 Euro under 25 discount. Of course when I reached the top… the sun was hidden. It was beating down the entire day, only to hide behind a momentous cumulus cloud the moment I decided to get to the top of the Arc. *shakes fist at sky* So my pictures were in cloud shadow, but I wasn’t going to wait the 30 minutes it would have likely taken for the sun to clear. I walked back to the hotel then, enjoying a long route and a stop at a French grocery store for some Orangina.

So that was my day! Sorry about the late post. (I had to finish Eldest, after all. *looks around guiltily*) As promised, here are pictures!

Clicky for slideshow

Clicky for album

(They’re tacked on to my other pictures, so the links I creatively edited should simply connect you at the point where I’ve added new photos… If not, just browse through until it starts looking Versailles-ish. The first image of the new pictures is one of an anime convention in Paris I saw *grins at her sister*)

More soon… from Deutschland! I’ll have to check out of my hotel in 2 hours, leave my luggage here so I can go see Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge and then I’ll be traveling overland tonight, from Paris to Munich, so I won’t be online until tomorrow. Wish me luck, and I’ll catch everyone later!