Millefeulle Versailles

On the morning of July 15th, Sunday, my hubby and I were on the train bound for Versailles(ヴェルサイユ宮殿） Chantiers.　The 30-minute-ride from Paris was also lively...because there was a group of musicians! They were two accordion players, two singers, and one boy who was collecting money from passengers. My hubby and I were tired because of our busy schedule, and intended to take a nap in the train...but merry French people( They looked like Middle-Easterners, though...) didn't let us do so!

When we arrived at the Versailles Palace, the sun had already risen high. So, it was...REALLY hot!! 　However, we felt HOTTER because a number of people made a looooooong line to enter the Versailles Palace! You know, then I realized the fifth gap between the DREAM Europe and the REAL Europe...

DREAM= In my dream city, Paris, I want to go many places where I wished to go!! We are staying here 4nights, so we have time to go anywhere!

REAL=Hey, where are parisiens and parisiennes?? Most of them have gone to somewhere on their vacation? I felt like all people in Paris are tourists!! There are so many tourists that we have to wait in lines everywhere!! It takes too much time, so a four-night-stay is not long enough in Paris!!

Actually, there were two lines in front of the gate. The looooong one and the short one. I was drawn toward the short one, but my hubby pulled me saying, "Hey! That is for groups! We are individuals, so we should be in the loooong line!!"
Gee! That's why many vendors around the Versailles Chantiers station sold "tickets for a group line!!" I don't remember how much it cost, but it might be wise to have a group ticket to save our time & energy in a HOT tourism season!! However, it was too late.. We obediently followed the long individual line.

While we were waiting in a line, I saw many Japanese people. I could recognize them because they had French guide books written in Japanese!! The interesting thing was that in Paris, the Japanese I saw were mostly girls' groups. However, in Versailles, the Japanese were boys' groups or families. I don't know if it was just a coincidence. But at least, my hubby looked bored in Paris maybe because most of the famous sites in Paris were to girl's tastes, like shops, cafes, or pâtisseries... Probably Versailles was a rare site that they were interested in!

Almost one hour-and-a-half later, we finally got tickets. We bought "Carte Musées Monuments."
If you go to Paris, here is advice for you; Buy a "Carte Musées Monuments!"
If you have this tickets, you can go to every museum and some tour sites in and around Paris. A two-day-ticket is 30euro, and a four-day-ticket is 45euro. If you go to two big places like Versailles and the Louvre, you have already been paying!!
Also, another advantage of it is...you don't have to wait in a line for a ticket! Gosh! We should bought Cartes Musées Monuments before we came to Versailles!!
Looking at each other's faces with regret, we were in another line...for "entering" the Palace.

Versailles Palace was gorgeous. It was like a "Millefeulle" of luxurious furniture, chandeliers, and paintings...
But as you know, there were SO MANY tourists that it was hard to take good pictures!! Also, there was construction everywhere.
First, we entered Chapelle Royal, where Louis ＸＶＩ　and Marie Antoinette got married. The right picture is the ceiling paintings. They were magnificent!!

My hubby and I had watched the movie, "Marie Antoinette," and we knew the most scenes in the movie were filmed HERE.
We were excited to see Marie Antoinette's bedroom! When we watched the movie, the bed was rimmed with pink frills! So cute!
Then, here it is! Oh....is it?? In fact, it was cute & gorgeous, but really small like a child's bed.
I remembered hearing that in that era, people's height was shorter than now. I think I heard Louis ＸＶＩ was 5'1"(155cm.) He might be smaller than me!! But the main actress of the movie, Kirsten Dunst, is a tall young lady! The filming might not have been easy in this small bed...but we didn't notice it. Bravo!

The real Marie Antoinette, gave birth to one boy and two daughters. The picture is a famous drawing painted by Charles Le Brun.
As you know, Marie was executed in 1793. All of her children died when they were teenagers because of disease.
How sad! But when this painting was written, nobody knew that...(However, maybe paintings in Versailles are copies because everybody took pictures with a strong flashlight!!)

The tour highlight of Versailles Palace was the Hall of Mirrors!! Look at the picture! Don't you think it's so gorgeous!? I want to say, "I took" this picture, but actually I didn't. Of course I took many pictures here! But because of many tourists& construction, my pictures couldn't tell the gorgeousness. I took this picture from a Japanese fashion magazine, Oggi. The article said " the Hall of Mirrors has just finished it's big construction which lasted for three years. Now, it's time to go there!" Well...we visited there BEFORE the construction was over.
But just imagine! My hubby and I were here! with lots of tourists & construction...
By the way, the Hall of Mirrors has still been used as a governmental social event hall. It is great to have such a historical, traditional, & gorgeous place in a nation!!

Having been pushed by the tourist crowd, we entered the garden. Les Jardins(The Versailles Garden) was so huge & beautiful with a big fountain, many trees, & flowers!
However...I don't want to be picky, but...the entrance fee to the garden was basically free. But at the peak of season, they tried to make money!
We should pay 10 euros for each because they said, they had "a musical event" in the evening.
" We won't stay here until evening!" we said so, but everybody who entered the garden should pay on that day. When you go to a very popular country...you should bring extra money!!

The width of the Versailles Garden is 815 hectares. In other words, it is 8,150,000 square meters or 8,900,000 square yards!!
That was HUGE... Also, besides the main palace, there are three imperial villas in the garden!!
We went toward three villas. It took 30 minutes to get there from the palace!! Finally we left the crowd. But walking outside on a very HOT day was really tough
I love traveling even though I could be exhausted because I could always find something interesting. For example...
Look at her! I don't know whether she was a Parisienne or not, but she spoke French.
It was so hot that she bundled her hair with a BALLPOINT PEN!! Uh-oh, it was interesting to watch not only buildings, but also people here!

While we were watching "people," we arrived at the villas.
The first villa was the Grand Trianon, which was built by Louis XIV in 1687. He built this one to enjoy spending time with his mistress, Madme de Maintenon! Wow! Some guys who had authorities could do anything in that era... The left picture is inside the Grand Trianon. You can imagine their romantic lives through the vivid pink furniture? Well, who cares!

The second one was the Petit Trianon. It was built by Louis XV in 1762, to enjoy the company of his mistress, Madame de Pompadour... Well, well, well, French guys were (are?) so passionate! This one is smaller than the Grand Trianon, but we felt a cozier atmosphere. The right picture is the Petit Trianon. Don't you agree with me?

Anyway, in the era of Louis XVI who didn't have an official mistress, his wife, Marie Antoinette used them when she wanted to escape the rigors of court life.
When it comes to villlas, the third one was Le Hameau (Marie Antoinette's village.) It was built by her in 1783-85. The villa was consisted with twelve farmhouses, a farm, a vineyard, a water wheel, etc!! Why did she make those kinds of "farmer" things?
Because at that time, farming was "in fashion" among French aristocrats. After Marie Antoinette became a mother, she loved being in nature with her children. She enjoyed milking & fishing here. But of course it was not her "regular" life! After she enjoyed living here for awhile she went back to the gorgeous palace.
Actually, my hubby and I enjoyed visiting here very much! Probably, more than the palace. We exclaimed at cute & rustic farmhouses, and enjoyed watching relaxed cows, horses, rabbits, and goats! Some places of Le Hameau were like a small zoo!

We walked enjoying watching everything in Versailles, but of course we were really tired!! When we walked toward the Versailles station, we found a sandwich house. I saw the banner saying, " crepes are also available!" I begged my hubby, "Please let me eat a crepe! We ate lunch, but because of too much walking, I am STARVING!!!"
We entered the sandwich house, but here was a sixth gap between the DREAM Europe and the REAL Europe...

DREAM= Basically, I don't like American sweets because they are too sweet... But here, in Europe! We must have traditional & authentic European sweets! We can find many pâtisseries!!

REAL=Yes, we can find many pâtisseries!! But, because of the tourist crowd, we should harry to visit every sightseeing place in Paris! We don't have enough time to be relaxed eating sweets!!

Whenever I saw many nice pâtisseries, we should have hurried. But when we could eat sweets, we couldn't find the right one! The sandwich house I found was like a fast food shop. It was really casual! An Indian lady ran the store, and she made me a very plain crepe.
My hubby said, "You are really funny! This is France! There must be many French pâtissiers! but you bought a crepe from an Indian lady! I think you can find this kind of shop in America, don't you think so?"
Don't say that! I was starving!!

While I was eating an Indian crepe in Versailles, we noticed what time it was.
"Look! It's almost 5 o'clock! Isn't the Musée d'Orsay(Orsay Museum) closed at 6 o'clock!? Hurry up!!"
We rushed out of the store, and jumped in a train to go to downtown Paris.

The Musée d'Orsay is the second most popular museum in Paris. (Of course, the most popular one is the Louvre!) In 1986, the former Orsay railroad station reopened as the Musée d'Orsay. Don't you think the dome remind you of a station?
By the way, we arrived at the museum 25 minutes before it was closed! Then, the Cartes Musées Monuments worked well! Because we had those tickets, we could quickly enter the museum! You must buy tickets 30 minutes or 1 hour before you enter a museum, generally.
Because we have a little time...I was wondering where we should start to see the exhibits.
My hubby said, "Let's go to the area where many tourists are gathering! There must be a famous picture there! "
We don't like crowds, but sometimes it is convenient to figure out which is popular or not.
Here are two main popular paintings that gathered many people: Les Glaneuses (The Pickers) is the right picture. Naissance de Vénus (The Birth of the Venus) is the left picture!

Having been satisfied with looking at popular paintings, we still tried to keep sightseeing. We got to the Eiffel Tower! Hello, again! We couldn't climb up you yesterday, so we came to see you again!
However, as we expected, we should make a looooong line to buy elevator tickets to the viewing gallery. It took almost one-and-a-half hours finally to buy tickets. But we might say, "it was not so boring" because we saw... an exciting battle between a French guy & Americans!

Let me explain what happened.
There was a family a few groups before us. They were a mother and two little daughters. While they were waiting, the mother once left the line to go to a restroom. After she came back...her daughters had already passed through the security area!
The mother smiled at a French guy who was in charge of the security,
" I am sorry, I think my daughers had already passed through here when I went to a restroom... May I catch up with my daughters?"
The French guy didn't smile at all, "You left the line? You should wait at the end of the line again."
The American mother changed her face, "What!? My daughters are too young to be there alone! Let me go there! "
The French guy didn't compromise, " I said, "No." Once you left the line, you should go to the end of the line. That's the rule."
The American mother became crazy and screamed, " Amanda! Sophie! Where are you!!??"
Then, her second daughter, Sophie(the estimated age was eight?), came back (but beyond the security,) "Mom! I'm here!"
The mother cried out," Where is Amanda!?"
Sophie whispered, "I don't know..."
"What!? Where is she!??"
"I don't know, Mom. She went somewhere..."
Just after Sophie said that, the mother yelled out getting crazier, "Amanda! Amanda!"
Finally, her first daugher, Amanda (the estimated age was ten?) came. But she had already left the line.
Then, a group of American tourists just before us helped Amanda to get over the fence. She came back to the mother.
The French guy finally changed his cool face and said to the 10-year-old girl, "Hey! You got over the fence! You shouldn't do that! Go to the end of the line!!"
The mother got angrier, "Hey! She is a child! You shouldn't say that!"
Then, the French guy started pretending not to understand English!
"I don't know what you mean, I don't speak English, This is France!"
"I don't speak French!!!" The mother erupted like a volcano.

Then, American tourist groups around her started to support the mother.
"It's rediculous! You can pass the security!"
The American tourists let the family enter beyond the security. The French guy finally gave up, but he did some mean things to the American tourists, like checked their lagguage too much.
However, you know, Americans are basically assertive. They fought with the guy saying,
"You want to see my bag!? Here it is! Take it! What's your name! I will tell your name to the manager!" etc.

We, an Asian couple between the French and the Americans, just kept quiet being nervous... I heard some French people didn't like Americans because they spoke English in France as if English were the common language.
Maybe we saw an obvious example of that? I don't know...

At any rate, we climbed up the third (highest) level of the Eiffel Tower by the elevator. The Look at the photos!
At the third floor, the view was not clear because it was too high. It was 905 feet (276 meters) above the ground. I took these pictures from...maybe, it was the first (in a British way)level. It was 187 feet(57 meters) high.
The right top picture is Champ de Mars ( Mars Park) and École Militaire(Military School.)
The left one is the Seine River.
In the right down picture, the golden building is Hôtel des Invalides!

Not only "under" the Eiffel Tower( before we bought the elevetor tickets), but also "in" the Eiffel Tower( in the elevators, view galleries...) were really crowded. When we left the Tower, it was already past 9:00pm!
We walked & sought a nice restraurant. Twenty minutes later, we found a fine French restaurant that I found in my guidebook!
Actually, it was the first & the last time we ate French cuisine in France... I like French restaurants, but my hubby prefered Japanese restaurants! As you know, I planned everything on this trip as I like. Therefore, I comprimised on "what to eat."
But at that day... my hubby compromised with me! Yeah!! The restaraunt's name was "Thoumieux," which means "Everything is delicious!"
I agree with that! I secretly took photos of some dishes, a salad and dessert(a plum pie.)

What time do you think we went back to our hotel? We didn't go or to a night club, but it was midnight!
Now I understand why my hubby has still been saying, "Our European trip was really hard! I won't go there again!!"