The Chronicles of Nat: Versailles and Le Tour Eiffel

We started out the day by sleeping in a little bit. I got up at 7:30 and took a shower and got ready while my dad still snoozed. He got up a little after 8:00 and we went downstairs to eat breakfast. After breakfast, we put out walking shoes on yet again and headed to the metro station to catch the metro (RER)out to Versailles.

The RER to Versailles requires a different ticket and luckily we bought those yesterday so we didn’t need to stop by the ticket booth this morning. We went to the first metro and got off at the right station and then got on the wrong RER. Yeah, the trains have not been fun the past couple of days. So, we got off and rode back to the middle station and then got on the right one. The problem was that three different trains were using the same track and you had to read the schedule to know which one to get one. We obviously just jumped on the first one that came along, which was not the right thing to do.

We finally made it out to Versailles around 11:00 a.m. or so and once again our museum passes saved the day as they allowed us the privilege of not having to wait in line. We waltzed right in without any problem and didn’t have any problem going through security which is always nice.

We toured the main chateau at Versailles which was just as lovely as all the pictures I have ever seen. Extravagant is a great word to describe it. I honestly would have loved to have taken my time looking at things but there were gobs of people everywhere. In some spots it was even hard to walk. As mentioned, I am not a fan of crowds and so the mass amount of humanity was more than I bargained for and made the trip less enjoyable for me. It was still nice to see everything; it just would have been nicer if I was there with say 20 people rather than 2,000.

We then took the petit train down to two other buildings on site, the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon Palaces, which weren’t too impressive to either one of us after having seen the main building. There was about a 15 minute walk out to Marie Antoinette’s estate on site and I took the stroll out that way but left my purse with my dad which had my museum pass in it – total brain fail – and so I only looked at the outside of the buildings because once I met back up with my resting father, I wasn’t about to walk all the way back to the estates.

We had to wait about 30 minutes or so for the petit train and we were both pretty tired at this point so we decided to go ahead and go back up to the main house rather than stroll around the Grand Canal. The gardens are so massive, it would take a whole day or more to walk through them all.

We finally reached the RER station around 5:00 and headed back towards our home base. When we reached the changeover station, we actually didn’t get on the metro right away. The change over station was where the Eiffel Tower is located and so we decided to go ahead and get off and visit that while we were in the area. We didn’t care one way or the other about going up to the top so we opted to just take some photos and be on our way; and that’s exactly what we did.

We caught the metro back to our home station and then ate dinner at the restaurant next door. We both had Boef Bourguignon which has subsequently once again made my dad sick. I have banned him from eating any more French food although I think he wants to have crepes tomorrow.

After dinner we stopped at the Patisserie and each got a sweet treat. I have already eaten mine. While there, we ran into a woman from New York (Phyllis) who comes to Paris quite often with her husband who does business here. They have an apartment close by our hotel. She talked our ear off for a while; it was hard to shake her. At one point, while standing on the street corner, a tourist with a large suitcase walked by Phyllis and bumped her. Phyllis started yelling at the woman in French and it cracked both me and my dad up because apparently you can take the woman out of Manhattan but not the Manhattan out of the woman.

We are now in the hotel early, which seems really odd when there is still so much that we can do. My dad is getting some sleep right now before his ulcerative colitis takes over and he spends the remainder of the night being sick. Hopefully it will be quick and he will be feeling well soon because I would like for him to enjoy his last day here in France.

We have had a lot of fun while we’ve been here and now only have one more day to enjoy ourselves before our normal everyday lives take control once again. We’ve got a few things on the menu for the day tomorrow so hopefully we will be able to get them all in.

If you are saying your prayers please remember us as we will be traveling home on Sunday. I would appreciate it if you could pray for us to have a safe and comfortable flight but also that my dear ole Daddy won’t be sick on the way home.

Thanks for tuning in these past couple of weeks. I hope to be back tomorrow evening with a final post from France and then on Sunday evening when I return home. Your comments have been encouraging and I thank you for being with me in Spirit! Have a great Friday afternoon and evening and a wonderful weekend!