Versailles, Île-de-France, France
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
This morning we woke up a bit earlier than normal, grabbed a quick breakfast from the hostel and than moved to our new digs in a hostel across town in the up and coming 19 arrondissmont, St.Christophers hostel located along a canal that empties into the Seine river. The hostel is out of the city center a bit, but it is one of the best hostels I have ever been too, free internet, breakfast, wifi, linens in a high tech brand new building, and no I am not a travel agent, this hostel is top notch. We didn't take too much time exploring the hostel, because we decided to take a day trip to the palace at
Versailles. The Chateau and the gardens that surround it were the home to many French Kings up until the French Revolution, where King Louis and Marie Antoniette were forced from the palace and beheaded. I wasn't sure what to expect when heading to the Palace, first of all there was a two hour line to buy tickets, which we managed to skip by purchasing out tickets at the Town of
Versailles tourism office. The combo ticket that included to Chateau,
the gardens and Marie Antoinettes living quarters came to the small fortune prince of 25 euros! I guess they are trying to pay to build a new Palace or something. I learned that even Bill Gates couldn't afford to replicate the Palace, it was over the top extremely lavish, the pictures I took can't even do it justice.
Almost every single room had the ceilings pained Sistine Chapel like, the gold plates were gold plated, the walls were lined with 17 and 18th century paintings, the Mona Lisa once sat inside the palace walls until the French Revolution when it was taken from the palace and placed in the Louvre. The inside was so unbelievable it really was too much, marble floors, marble walls, chandeliers in every room usually more than one, all this while the French people at the time it was built time could hardly afford a piece of bread...no wonder they overthrew the government. After touring the palace, we went into the gardens,
which were very impressive, massive stretching seemingly 4 miles out of the back of the palace, with several fountains adorned with lavish sculptures. There was a maze of tree lined forests, with canals, perfectly trimmed hedges and flowers.
Versailles was incredibly beautiful but it made me wonder why the King would really need to live there, it just didn't make sense. After spending about 4 and a half hours in the palace we headed back to
Paris and took the subway over to Monmarte, one of the few Paris neighborhoods that still resemble old Paris, the winding cobbelstone streets lead to secret little known, less visited tourist destinations the Sacre Coueer Basicilica,
The cemetery that holds the grave of many famous Parisians and a few famous Americans like Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison, the Moulin Rouge is in this area, it is a nice break from the carnival ride that is
Paris, there is more to explore in this area without being corralled by gates and ropes and there are no tickets to buy. It is there just to explore and see what
Paris used to be like, and the Eiffel Tower is still there just at a distance and it's the way it should be.
