Sunday, August 1, 2010

A Day in the Life of Royalty


Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

We woke up this morning and left our hotel with the plan to take the 9:21 a.m. train to Blois in the Loire Valley. We had allowed ourselves approximately one hour to find our way from the hotel to the Austerlitz train station where there are frequent trains to Blois. We had planned a route via metro to the train station and ran into some unexpected troubles when switching trains, the line we had planned to take to the station was closed for construction. We were instructed to take a bus to the train station, which obviously took longer than the time we had alotted. We arrived at the train station just a few minutes before the train left, but but the time we figured out where we needed to go at the train station it was too late. We decided not to take the next train to Blois as if we had we wouldn't have arrived in Blois until nearly 1:00 in the afternoon, so instead we pre-purchased tickets to/from Blois for this Saturday and decided we would head to Versailles today.

Oddly enough to get to Versailles we had to take the exact same bus back the the metro station we had come from and catch a train to Versailles from there. Luckily Tim thought to ask if there was any discount for Eurail pass holders, and sure enough, they told us that the train to Versailles was free for Eurail pass holders. The train to Versailles took just under an hour, so we arrived some time around 11:00 in the morning and made the short walk from the train station to the Chateau.

Once at the Chateau we had to cue up on line to purchase tickets, then we had to cue up again to get into the Palace, then to use the restroom, and finally to get our audio guides. Versailles was pretty amazing, a kind of luxury that cannot be compared to any modern day luxury, but it was ruined a bit by the crowds. One could hardly move through the rooms and had to push your way up to the front to get any photographs. We pushed our way through the elaborate rooms, the Hall of Mirrors by far being my favorite, before we made our way to the take away cafe to pick up some sandwiches to share for lunch.

After lunch we made our way through just a small footprint of the expansive gardens surrounding the Chateau of Versailles, before walking back to the train station.

Once back in Montmartre we went back to the hotel for a rest before we headed out in the direction of the Place du Tertre, a square lined with restaurants/cafes and artists to grab a bite to eat. We loved the Place du Tertre and Montmartre in general. It had a small quaint feel even though it is in one of the larger cities in Europe.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel, tomorrow we switch hotels, as we could not get a discounted rate at the Montmartre hotel for the entire duration of our stay in Paris and plan to spend the day exploring more of Paris.

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