Paris - Day 7

Today was a big walking day.

We woke up early and hopped on a couple of metros and then took the RER (the commutal train) and headed to the Chateau De Versailles. This GRANDE palace was started by Louis XIV when he had heard of another Chateau, Vaux le Vicomte and he wanted to out do it. And boy did he. This Palace is on 105 hectares or is that acres of land. I can't even begin to put into words how huge it is.

We started by trying to get into the tour of the Palace itself. The line up was huge, and we kept seeing people heading to another direction, the Dauphin's Apartments and we headed that way. On our way there it lead to the gardens. On look at this and I told Russ I wanted to see them first. To our surprise it was free. We didn't have to pay a thing to see the gardens. The gardens stretch straight out for over 3.5 km! Based on the guide pamphlet, it would take you about an hour to walk this. We started walking the grounds and admiring the fountains. Unfortunately they didn't have any of them on. They save this for later on in the evening and charge a fee to get into the gardens at this time.

We ventured up to the Bassin d'Apollon, a grande fountain and rented ourselves a golf cart. We drove around the guardens and came to the Grande Trianon and Petit Trianon at one end of the garden. The Petit Trianon is the area where Marie Antoinette had her residence when she lived at Versailles. She even had a little "Hamlet Village" created so she could play pesdant girl.

After we returned the cart, we headed back up to see the Palace. We paid our 13.50 Euros each to get in, and this included the head set. The tour begins with the grande Chapel. A marvel to see. This then lead to the Opera House, yup an Opera House in there. This Opera House was carved out of wood and gold leafed. Simply Amazing.

The tour then lead to the Kings chambers and the many rooms it holds. This then lead into the Hall of Mirrors. Russ has always told me about this and his mother has told me I have to have my picture taken there. Fighting off the other tourists Russ manage to get my picture taken in there. This room is also being restored to its Grandure and was only 1/2 completed. Still an amazing site.

This then lead into the Queens Chambers and the History of France area. In this area I finally saw the Corination of Nepolean painting I have been wanting to see.

After walking so much, we headed home for a well deserved rest.

Definately a highlight of my day!

Tomorrow we head to Vaux le Vicomte, the "Chateau" that started Varsailles.