France – Page 2 – David and Yanmei

One of the things Yanmei did want to do in Paris was go see Chateau de Versailles, since she missed it before. I was a bit leery of it after reading a lot of reviews that said it was overcrowded with long lines, two things I hate. All the advice said buy tickets online and go early. I bought the tickets and the hotel concierge recommended we leave by 7:30am at the latest, since it takes a little over an hour to get there by train. It opens at 9am, so if you are there before 9 you only have to line up with the other people who bought tickets online. If you arrive after 9, the entrance line grows dramatically as the people who lined up for tickets get their tickets and join the entrance line.

Small portion of the line, the line loops back and forth several more times up the courtyard

I won't go into details but we left a little after 11:15am. 🙁 The line was massive.

Yanmei said she'd wait in line while I went to the gardens. The gardens were impressive in size, but mostly just shrubs and fountains that were not working, which was disappointing since Tuesday is supposed to be the fountain show day.

Finally she called me to say she was getting close to the front. Not bad, less than 2 hours. It was very nice of her to wait while I looked around the gardens.

Inside we decided not to get the audio guide. Not sure if that was a wise decision or not. As it was I found it pretty dull, I'm not sure if the audio guide would have helped.

Painting showing the fountains working in the 17th century, not sure why they don't work in the 21st century

The Hall of Mirrors is probably the most famous part of Versailles, but my favorite part was the Gallery of Battles, which has huge paintings depicting the famous battles in French history from Charlamagne to Napoleon.

Lady waiting for us to finish the photo 🙂

Several months ago Yanmei sent me a text: “Suddenly I found out you look like Napoleon”. Followed by this image. I think I laughed out loud at my desk. I actually see some resemblance. 🙂

Me in front of paintings of Napoleon in the Gallery of Battles

We left the palace itself and went into the gardens. Finally they turned on some of the fountains!

Yanmei with a swan and some ugly ducklings at the grand canal

Most of the gardens are open to the public free. We saw some people jogging around the canal. That must be nice. If you live close by you can just do an afternoon jog through the gardens of Versailles.

Yanmei still has both her legs if you look closely

Overall I wasn't very impressed and neither was Yanmei. Maybe it was the crowds or maybe I've become jaded to palaces. The first palace I saw was the Tsar's Winter Palace in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and I feel like that was much more impressive than Versailles. Still we had some good times today after a rough start.

-David

Posted with Blogsy

We took a train from Geneva to Paris. Unfortunately the weather was not good in Paris and it was raining when we arrived, although not very heavily. We're staying in the neighborhood Monmartre, which is on a large hill. It reminds me a San Francisco a bit. We were both tired but Yanmei wanted to go to a grocery store. I used Google maps and it found one only 650m away, 8 minute walk. It didn't account for terrain. We went out the door, turned right, “oh it's up these 60 steps”, so we climbed the steps, then there was a jog in the route followed by another flight of steps, then we went over the top and had a long steep road down the other side. The grocery was on the exact opposite side of the hill. Later I found one much closer and with a flat walk, but it wasn't on Google maps, so that is the danger of relying too much on technology.

Paris is a bit of a conflict for us. Yanmei has been here twice before and I have never been. If I had my way we'd stay here two weeks. There is so much great stuff to see and do here. Yanmei, on the other hand, wants to move on asap. I'll have to make the most of a shorter visit.

-David

Posted with Blogsy