Day 3 -Versailles Day
27 Sept 2015
An Ordinary Day
Day started ordinarily enough. A lil rainy but we'll manage. Made & had bfast, showered & made our way to our favorite metro station, Abessess, because it's the nearest to the apartment, to meet our tour group at Fontain Saint Michel. We left at 8 am as the group was to meet at 9 am. All good. Plenty of time. We'll get there with even enough time to spare to get a baguette for lunch. Or so we thought. Route was to take line 12 and then transfer to line 4. Everything was fine & dandy. And then came the curve ball. Line 4 was under construction. It was all over the announcements on the stations & trains! But of course since they were in French...
Thus started our mad scramble towards Saint Michel. It was a mess. I was a mess. Good thing i had Internet access today so we can figure out how. But even that was a challenge. We took the replacement bus to Gare du Nord & then got into another challenge whether or not we should a taxi. 20 mins & with the traffic, it may cost more than a hundred Euros. Not on this life! So we got into a long discussion & ended up deciding to commute to Versailles ourselves with the hope of meeting our group there. No point in trying to catch them en route anymore as we were very late already. As i write this we're comfortably seated on RER C making our way to Versailles-Rive Gauche. Train is overland so we can see a lil bit of Paris outside of Zones 1& 2.
Let's see how it goes...
And We Took the Wrong Train
Apparently we took the wrong train and ended up in a place called &#*:€$@%;. So how to get back on track? With a leap of faith we took the train back to Versailles Chantiers. We'll figure it out from there. At the station we got baguettes for lunch at happily & gratefully discovered it was just a 20 -minute walk away to our destination. So we began our hike through cold, wet Versailles. It was a good one though. We saw a little bit of the town & its everyday life. It had a surprisingly small town feel to it which I found really charming.
Finally we saw our destination! Even in the rain & overcast clouds it was grandiose beyond words! Magnificent, insanely oppulent, inconcievable & majestic at every turn. One thing I can say about Louis the 14th is that the guy had vision. Genarations after his demise, through revolutions, wars & crises, the Versailles Palace still stands strong & proud, beckoning to be admired. And as we wandered along her walls, I couldn't help but wonder at how they lived. During their time it was public as public can be & decadently rich at that. At 15 Euros, it was so very worth it. A feast for the senses. The eyes at least. Definitely not for the legs that will carry you through rooms upon rooms inside the palace. It was a beautiful long walk through French history, art & culture. Like watching a documentary but walking through it instead of watching it on tv.
As the weather was so bad, we skipped the gardens. Not sorry though. We had a glimpse of it from inside the palace & indeed it is worth visiting. It's beautifully manucured lawns & ornamentals expands as far as the eyes can see. One of the many reasons to return.
Sidenote:
So far the Navigo card has been heaven sent. Amidst all the rides we've taken & commuting faux pas (since we're in France) we've made, we've never had to worry about fare cost. At 40.4 Euros & a 1x1 id, it has been one of the best investments on this trip.
27 Sept 2015
An Ordinary Day
Day started ordinarily enough. A lil rainy but we'll manage. Made & had bfast, showered & made our way to our favorite metro station, Abessess, because it's the nearest to the apartment, to meet our tour group at Fontain Saint Michel. We left at 8 am as the group was to meet at 9 am. All good. Plenty of time. We'll get there with even enough time to spare to get a baguette for lunch. Or so we thought. Route was to take line 12 and then transfer to line 4. Everything was fine & dandy. And then came the curve ball. Line 4 was under construction. It was all over the announcements on the stations & trains! But of course since they were in French...
Thus started our mad scramble towards Saint Michel. It was a mess. I was a mess. Good thing i had Internet access today so we can figure out how. But even that was a challenge. We took the replacement bus to Gare du Nord & then got into another challenge whether or not we should a taxi. 20 mins & with the traffic, it may cost more than a hundred Euros. Not on this life! So we got into a long discussion & ended up deciding to commute to Versailles ourselves with the hope of meeting our group there. No point in trying to catch them en route anymore as we were very late already. As i write this we're comfortably seated on RER C making our way to Versailles-Rive Gauche. Train is overland so we can see a lil bit of Paris outside of Zones 1& 2.
Let's see how it goes...
And We Took the Wrong Train
Apparently we took the wrong train and ended up in a place called &#*:€$@%;. So how to get back on track? With a leap of faith we took the train back to Versailles Chantiers. We'll figure it out from there. At the station we got baguettes for lunch at happily & gratefully discovered it was just a 20 -minute walk away to our destination. So we began our hike through cold, wet Versailles. It was a good one though. We saw a little bit of the town & its everyday life. It had a surprisingly small town feel to it which I found really charming.
Finally we saw our destination! Even in the rain & overcast clouds it was grandiose beyond words! Magnificent, insanely oppulent, inconcievable & majestic at every turn. One thing I can say about Louis the 14th is that the guy had vision. Genarations after his demise, through revolutions, wars & crises, the Versailles Palace still stands strong & proud, beckoning to be admired. And as we wandered along her walls, I couldn't help but wonder at how they lived. During their time it was public as public can be & decadently rich at that. At 15 Euros, it was so very worth it. A feast for the senses. The eyes at least. Definitely not for the legs that will carry you through rooms upon rooms inside the palace. It was a beautiful long walk through French history, art & culture. Like watching a documentary but walking through it instead of watching it on tv.
As the weather was so bad, we skipped the gardens. Not sorry though. We had a glimpse of it from inside the palace & indeed it is worth visiting. It's beautifully manucured lawns & ornamentals expands as far as the eyes can see. One of the many reasons to return.
Sidenote:
So far the Navigo card has been heaven sent. Amidst all the rides we've taken & commuting faux pas (since we're in France) we've made, we've never had to worry about fare cost. At 40.4 Euros & a 1x1 id, it has been one of the best investments on this trip.
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