Paris, cont.

On the second day, we visited the Palace and Gardens of Versailles.
There's a ton of history and fun facts around the estate, but I don't remember most of them, so I'll just refer you to the website, which is quite interesting:
http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/110_Construction.php
You can navigate through the pages by clicking the numbers all the way at the bottom.

When we first arrived, we just couldn't get over how huge it was. We had two hours to explore the grounds and we surely weren't going to spend that time standing in the cold--and the three of us are history/sight-seeing enthusiasts--so we paid to go inside and explore. It was, without a doubt, 13,50€ extremely well-spent.

Most hallways were filled with statues and/or lavish paintings. How do you find that many sculpters?? Ask Louis XIV, I guess.

Marie Antoinette had the most ridiculously huge and beautiful gardens.



Every room was filled with beautiful paintings--on the walls AND ceiling. A person could spend 15 minutes in a room and not take it all in.

This is the hall of mirrors. You can read more about it on the website mentioned above (page 2, I think).

Someone's bed chamber. Louis XIV, I think. Must be they picked up his dirty laundry and took out the tv and video games so people wouldn't steal them.

I could have spent all day in this room looking at the paintings. It blows my mind thinking about the number of artists and years it took to do them all!

After escaping the merchants outside, harassing tourists to buy anything from scarves to handbags to keychains of the Eiffel Tower, we boarded the bus and departed to see more sights.

This is in front of Mansart's dome at Les Invalides, where Napolean's tomb is located. It is now a hotel. We didn't go in, but I hear he's in there under the dome.

And finally, the moment I had been waiting for...

Notre Dame!!

The gargoyles are rain spouts, and they're all over the huge cathedral.



I couldn't believe I was actually inside the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful, but not in the same sense as St Paul's, which is well-lit and full of color and majesty. ND was dim and mysterious, yet inviting just the same.

And then, since I lost the others I came with, and we still had plenty of free time before having to be back on the bus, I went exploring. I found St Michael's Place, and was hoping to find St Michael's Church because that's where my Uncle Donald served as choirmaster and organist. It wasn't on the local map I found (but neither were any other churches), and I don't speak French, so I just wandered around for a while. I did not find the church, but I did find St Michael's Fountain:

As I was wandering, I got a craving for dessert (I had a delicious crepe before going into Notre Dame), so I popped into a grocery store and picked up a package of cookies. They said 1,38, but they rang up as 3,something. She told me my total, but since I was looking at the screen for the scale and not the cash register, I thought she was asking me a question, so I got really confused (because I don't speak French and didn't know how to respond), and it turned into a big deal. Well, I thought about just leaving the cookies and walking out, but then i saw the actual screen (with the price on it), paid, and left feeling like a dumb tourist.

Here's the Sacre Couer ("sacred heart"). We hiked up that huge hill and went inside, and it was quite lovely, as is the area of shops next to it. There, Becky and I made an enemy by pretending we were going to sit down and eat, but really, we just needed to use the toilet. Sometimes, you do what you gotta do.