A Day Off!

Today was moving day (the offices are moving from outsides Paris to the middle of the city within spitting distance of the Opera Garnier...I know...what a shame!) so I got the day off. As it was Friday and most people are supposed to be at work, I decided to head out of the city and visit Versailles.

Versailles was the palace built outside of Paris by Louis XIV. It was a little way out but when I went to buy my ticket the man in the booth was really nice and told me that I could pay less than half the price of the metro if I took the commuter train and walked a few blocks. I'd never tried it but decided it could be interesting. At first I was confused because I had never seen the train station inside the metro so I walked around a bit (probably looking very lost) until I finally found it. A few more minutes were spent trying to figure out how to get past the "Do not enter" sign but I managed it. Hey, I haven't spent $80,000 on a graduate education for nothing!

The train was nice and I could actually see the country rather than the ugly dark walls of the metro tunnels. It was an adventure trying to find Versailles after I got off the train because it was not meant for tourists and there were no signs. But I just headed out to where there were lots of trees and eventually found my way.



This is the entrance to the palace. How intimidating would that be to have to walk or ride up all that way just to get to the actual palace? Incredible. You can't see it from the picture but there is gold and marble statutes EVERYWHERE! I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out so well. Once inside I decided to take the audiotour (it'd been 10 years since I'd done it and I didn't remember anything). It was nice. If nothing else it filtered out some of the sounds of the screaming kids...it was school field trip day. I was surrounded by what must have been 30-40 7 year olds. *Shudder*

Walking through the king and queen's apartments was very cool. Seeing how opulent they were I can understand why they were eventually brought down by people who had nothing.







After Versailles Chateau I went into the garndens but it was too hot and too big to actually walk around. I took a few pictures and then I walked back to the train station.



I decided on my way back that I wanted to go visit the Grand Palais. It is one of the exhibition halls in Paris that just got a $124 million euro makeover to fix and restore the glass ceiling. Inside it is amazing. Normally, various exhibitions and fashion shows are held here. I want to go to one of those fashion shows!



Tomorrow I don't what I'll do. Perhaps I will try to go to the rue de Rivoli area again or maybe to the Monmarte area. I did buy stamps today but as there was a line behind me as I tried to figure out how to work the machine, it wouldn't take my credit card, and I didn't have enough change...I could only buy one booklet. So, I will be sending out the postcards in shipments. If you don't get one now I haven't forgotten about you!