Versailles- Thursday, July 18, 2013
It was a chore getting up today, and it was especially hard to wake up the girls. We knocked on the door to their room for an hour. We called their room (Anna later said that she thought she had dreamed that the phone was ringing.) We tried getting another key card from the front desk, but that wasn't working. We finally got them roused at about 8:00.
We got all out backpacks packed, checked out of the hotel, and left all our stuff in the baggage room. Then we went for breakfast at a cafe around the corner, near the train station. We had French breakfasts, including croissants, omlettes, and crepes. We then took the RER train to Versailles.
It was about 11:00 when we got to Versailles. It was hot and crowded, and we took a while to get acquainted with the grounds and come up with a plan. It turns out the museum pass we bought yesterday got us in to Versailles, but it didn't let us skip the monster-long line for security that you need to get through to enter the palace. Instead of going to the gardens first, Julie and Scott decided to wait in the hot sun for almost two hours. Anna and Emma sat in what shade they could find nearby, until we snaked through the line far enough to get in.
Usually, it's Scott that is the one who is particularly excited to see an historical place, but this time it was Julie. She has taught about Louis XIV in her social studies classes many times, and she was excited to see the palace that the Sun King built to emphasize his absolute monarchy. Every detail in this place is designed to focus on his power and glory, and in that sense, this building seems to be almost as much of an expression of the builder's philosophy as Jefferson's Monticello is of his. Unfortunately, much like the Louvre, the building was packed solid with the shuffling mass of people. Scott and Julie shared earphones to listen to Rick Steves narration of the tour. Anna didn't listen, but was taking many pictures. Emma seemed merely to tolerate the whole thing. Most rooms were covered from floor to ceiling with decoration, and often made it look like the gigantic paintings hanging there were part of the room. Scott enjoyed the allegory and classical mythology in the decorations. We saw many of the important rooms, the most impressive of which was the Hall of Mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed.
By the second half of the tour, however, we were pushing to get through because it was after 2:00, we hadn't eaten, and Julie and Scott had been standing or shuffling for over 3 hours. Scott's patience had reached a breaking point. We needed food and the ability to cool down, so we left the palace to return to the McDos we saw on the way in, about a block away.
After a break, we were all much more refreshed and able to think clearly. Scott talked the group into going back to the palace because we had only seen a peek of the famous gardens, and he really wanted chance to see more. We decided to wait to rent a golf cart which we were able to use to drive ourselves through much of the grounds. It was a great experience, we all agreed, and it made it possible for us to enjoy Versailles again. You couldn't drive the cart anywhere you wanted because they had to stay on a particular route, but the route was designed as a one hour tour that showed you much of the grounds, and provided classical music and English language narration. The cart was slow enough that Anna and Emma could chase after it and jump onto the back seat, which also showed that they were getting some energy back.
We then had to trek to our new hotel near Disneyland Paris. We took the RER train back to our first hotel. Scott and Anna got the luggage while Julie and Emma got information and bought tickets to the next destination. We had a couple of false starts and moments of confusion. The oddest moment was when everyone on our train was asked to disembark three stations short of our stop. The next train did the same thing. We'll probably never know why. Eventually, we made it to Disneyland. The last train station on this line empties right at the front gate of the park. We found the shuttle bus to take us to our nearby hotel and lugged our backpacks there. Our room is small, but it has a set of bunkbeds for the girls this time. Emma is sleeping on the bottom because of the "incident" of her falling out of the upper bunk back in 2009. These seem much more sturdily built.
By now it was around 9:00 and we hadn't eaten dinner. The three girls were full of energy, and had been looking forward to going shopping in the Disney Village. We made our way to Annette's, the 50s themed diner where we have eaten before. The food tasted really good, but the service was slow, and Anna seemed cursed. They kept forgetting about her order. The girls loved shopping in the two large Disney stores after dinner, although the Disney Village is quite a bit smaller then the ones in California and Florida, and seemed to have a large part of it closed off. Emma bought a stuffed Stitch and Angel, Stitch's girlfriend. Anna bought some postcards for the kids she babysits. We didn't get back to the hotel until about 11:30.
It was about 11:00 when we got to Versailles. It was hot and crowded, and we took a while to get acquainted with the grounds and come up with a plan. It turns out the museum pass we bought yesterday got us in to Versailles, but it didn't let us skip the monster-long line for security that you need to get through to enter the palace. Instead of going to the gardens first, Julie and Scott decided to wait in the hot sun for almost two hours. Anna and Emma sat in what shade they could find nearby, until we snaked through the line far enough to get in.
Usually, it's Scott that is the one who is particularly excited to see an historical place, but this time it was Julie. She has taught about Louis XIV in her social studies classes many times, and she was excited to see the palace that the Sun King built to emphasize his absolute monarchy. Every detail in this place is designed to focus on his power and glory, and in that sense, this building seems to be almost as much of an expression of the builder's philosophy as Jefferson's Monticello is of his. Unfortunately, much like the Louvre, the building was packed solid with the shuffling mass of people. Scott and Julie shared earphones to listen to Rick Steves narration of the tour. Anna didn't listen, but was taking many pictures. Emma seemed merely to tolerate the whole thing. Most rooms were covered from floor to ceiling with decoration, and often made it look like the gigantic paintings hanging there were part of the room. Scott enjoyed the allegory and classical mythology in the decorations. We saw many of the important rooms, the most impressive of which was the Hall of Mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed.
By the second half of the tour, however, we were pushing to get through because it was after 2:00, we hadn't eaten, and Julie and Scott had been standing or shuffling for over 3 hours. Scott's patience had reached a breaking point. We needed food and the ability to cool down, so we left the palace to return to the McDos we saw on the way in, about a block away.
After a break, we were all much more refreshed and able to think clearly. Scott talked the group into going back to the palace because we had only seen a peek of the famous gardens, and he really wanted chance to see more. We decided to wait to rent a golf cart which we were able to use to drive ourselves through much of the grounds. It was a great experience, we all agreed, and it made it possible for us to enjoy Versailles again. You couldn't drive the cart anywhere you wanted because they had to stay on a particular route, but the route was designed as a one hour tour that showed you much of the grounds, and provided classical music and English language narration. The cart was slow enough that Anna and Emma could chase after it and jump onto the back seat, which also showed that they were getting some energy back.
We then had to trek to our new hotel near Disneyland Paris. We took the RER train back to our first hotel. Scott and Anna got the luggage while Julie and Emma got information and bought tickets to the next destination. We had a couple of false starts and moments of confusion. The oddest moment was when everyone on our train was asked to disembark three stations short of our stop. The next train did the same thing. We'll probably never know why. Eventually, we made it to Disneyland. The last train station on this line empties right at the front gate of the park. We found the shuttle bus to take us to our nearby hotel and lugged our backpacks there. Our room is small, but it has a set of bunkbeds for the girls this time. Emma is sleeping on the bottom because of the "incident" of her falling out of the upper bunk back in 2009. These seem much more sturdily built.
By now it was around 9:00 and we hadn't eaten dinner. The three girls were full of energy, and had been looking forward to going shopping in the Disney Village. We made our way to Annette's, the 50s themed diner where we have eaten before. The food tasted really good, but the service was slow, and Anna seemed cursed. They kept forgetting about her order. The girls loved shopping in the two large Disney stores after dinner, although the Disney Village is quite a bit smaller then the ones in California and Florida, and seemed to have a large part of it closed off. Emma bought a stuffed Stitch and Angel, Stitch's girlfriend. Anna bought some postcards for the kids she babysits. We didn't get back to the hotel until about 11:30.
posted by Scott at
1:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home