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Chateau de Versailles
We
had a light day planned today. We got up around 0930 or 1000 and
headed out around 1100. We had our new 'usual' for breakfast.
Pain au chocolait and I had cafe au lait; strong coffee (the way
I like it with milk). Our main goal was to visit Chateau de
Versailles. We scoped out the train route and off we went. We
thought we had things well in hand until we found that the
station we were planning on transferring through (Javel Andre
Citroen) was closed. Bummer.
We
rode the train to its end point and it circled back going in the
opposite direction. We chose a different station to transfer
through and a different route to Versailles. It added some time
to our trip, we arrived at the Versaille Rive Gauche station at
around 1230.
We headed through the main areas of
Versailles starting at the King's State Apartment, the Queen's
Apartment and the Hall of Mirrors. Unfortunately, the vast
majority of the Hall of Mirrors was closed due to
upkeep/renovation. We have seen a lot of that in our two trips
to Europe. We cannot complain too much though. The majority of
the sites we visited were fully or mainly open to visitors.
These places are quite old, see a lot of traffic and certainly
keep a vast army of artists and restorers working to keep them
picture perfect.
The interior and exterior of Chateau
de Versailles' buildings are extravagant to say the least. We
were allowed to take pictures with flash throughout a majority
of the areas. There were only a few flash restricted areas in
the whole place. While in London, we visited many areas where
flash photography or any photography at all was prohibited. This
was a nice change. Even so, I used the museum mode more often
than not for a lot of the interior shots I took on this trip.
While the interior was amazing, the
gardens at the Chateau de Versailles were simply awe inspiring.
The area covered by all of the various gardens is massive. From
the Chateau de Versailles to the Grand Canal is 3 kilometers.
You could easily spend a full day looking at all there is to see
here. I stayed in pretty close to the main buildings and gardens
visiting the Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, and the beginning of
the Arboretum de Chevreloup. Even with this reduced area, I
still shot over 200 pictures.
One
of the events of the day that stands was when I was exiting
Chateau de Versailles. I was taking a shot of metal Lion's Head
fountain near the entrance. I had seen two guys working on
something but I thought they were repairing the cobblestone
walkway (cobblestone walkways are tough on the feet and ankles
by the way). As I was taking the shot, I got a blast of water
sprayed on me. They two guys were working on the fountain! If
you have ever turned on the water after working on your plumbing
you know how water gets in the lines and it spits and sputters
when you turn the water on. I jumped back and made some
utterance (no swearing this time, I swear!). The workers were
saying 'Pardon!' but I was laughing too hard to care. They
started laughing as well. I took another a shot of the fountain
spouting water and off I went.
We ate lunch at A La Coiffe Bretonne
(10 Avenue Du General de Gaulle, Versailles). Our first 'true'
French meal of the whole trip (in our books, any meal eaten in
France constitutes a French meal, period). Dick had the Jambon
Fume and I had the Maneges. They were like buckwheat pancakes.
Dick's just had ham. Mine had steak tartare with salad. We had a
liter bottle of Perrier (first time for both of us). We always
ordered dessert for a change. I had the Danae which was a crepe
with pears, cream, caramel ice cream and Grand Marnier. Dick had
the Tatin which was a crepe with apples, cream, vanilla ice
cream and Grand Marnier. As I have said before, the French love
their sweets, so we expected them to be good at it. So far, we'd
have to say 'Oui!'. Total bill was €35.30), an expensive lunch
for sure, but well worth the experience.
Our
trip back to the hotel was less eventful and we got back to our
train stop in about 40 minutes. On the way back, we stopped at
Saint Chapelle to pick up tickets for tonight's performance. The
concert tonight is part of the Les Archets De Paris, Saison
2004. Tickets were €25.00 a piece. The two concerts we attended
were the single most expensive things we did the entire trip,
but well worth it.
Tonight's (May 19, 2004) performance in the main Cathedral at
Saint Chapelle by the Orchestre Les Archets de Paris (Christoph
Guiot, violin solo et direction) consisted of primarily of
Anotoio Vivaldi's Les Quate Saisons Version Originale
(Four Seasons). We arrived for 1900 concert at around 1830. They
let us in around 1850. We sat in the back row so Dick could
stretch and make a quick exit if need be. They had seats for
maybe 200 people and there were probably 125-150 people in
attendance. They also played Mozart's Diviertmento and
Pachelbel's Canon.
The show started around 1910 with
little fanfare. Even with my limited background in classical
music, I recognized a few of the movements. The acoustics were
certainly different than we experienced last night at Notre
Dame, but the sound carried quite well. For an encore, they
played Gershwin's Summertime. It was the first time I had
heard it in strings. I really liked it. The show lasted for
about an hour.
We
got out around 2010. We headed down that road a little further
then we had before and took a few shots of the Seine. We walked
through the Greek area just south of Notre Dame. We had a dinner
at a Greek fast food place. It was on of the many places where
they had the meat on a spinner heated by oven type elements
mounted vertically. It was classic Greek/Crete/Middle Eastern
fair. The fries were very good, but the meat was a little dry.
Dick had another word for it, but I won't go into that. The
sandwiches were €4.00 and the Cokes were €1.20. |
