Europe Trip - Day 3 (13-Sept-2012)

Day 3 – Versailles , France

At Passy metro station

Today’s main plan was to visit Versailles.  We woke up a bit late due to the very hectic previous day. Again after the expensive buffet breakfast at the hotel, we headed off to the metro station. As we had the zone 3 metro pass, we had to buy a supplementary ticket for Versailles. We had to get off at Veroflay RG station to validate the supplementary tickets.

A short metro ride later we were at Versailles.  A short walk from the station led us to the château. As we already had the museum pass (covering 2 days), we skipped the ticket queue but had to stand at the queue to gain entry into the château  Unlike Louvre, there was no special entry here for the museum pass.  

Ornate sun faced clock

The palace looks grand and ornate, adorned by gold. It was originally a hunting lodge for King Louis XIII and later expanded by his son Louis XIV who moved the court and government of France to Versailles in 1682. I especially loved the gold adorned clock with a face of the Sun king (King Louis).

Statue of King Louis XIV

Palace at a glance

As we toured through the palace, we came across several paintings adorning walls and ceilings, similar to the Louvre palace. There were also several miniature models on display which showed how the chateau looked at several points of time.

Hall of mirrors

The famous hall of mirrors is opulent and consists of 17 arched mirrors reflecting the 17 windows that overlook the garden. It is said to be constructed by agents brought in from Venice. The mirrors troubled our camera so much that it decided to beep for low battery L

We were in for a special visual treat with a temporary exhibition (19.06.2012 - 30.09.2012) of contemporary art by Joana Vasconcelos. The most eye catching of them was a huge heeled shoes made with steel pots.

                                   

As our camera was low on battery, we quickly visited the rest of the palace without pausing for photographs and proceeded to the garden. Also some of the bedroom chambers were being renovated, so we couldn’t get good shots.

Garden:

The garden of Versailles cover about 800 hectares of land and most of it is landscaped in the classic French garden style.

Garden- Overlooking the grand canal

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Looking at the map and then the size of the garden, we were overwhelmed. It is so humongous that we decided that we would not be able to see the entire stretch. We also saw golf carts for rent and a small train, but we decided to explore on foot anyway.

Plan of Versailles

From the map, we gathered that the path to Grand canal from the palace is 1km, and the Grand trianon palace from the Grand Canal is about 1.5km away. So we walked about 5kms inside the gardens itself ! 

After grabbing a panini for lunch, we headed towards the Grand Trianon palace and gardens.

Way to Grand Trianon

Grand Trianon

Gardens of Trianon

Gardens of Trianon

We missed seeing the Petit Trianon (Marie-Antoinette’s estate ) as we were too tired. We headed back to the metro station and got back to the hotel. Since we were getting hungry, the boulangerie next to our hotel was enticing us. We picked up a chocolate croissant, Raisin roll and headed to our room. They tasted rich and sinful. Probably we deserved it after walking the whole day.

After recharging the camera battery and recharging ourselves ( My feet had a hot dip in the bath to relieve my painful ankle ), we headed out for the evening. Our next stop was to look for the best ice cream in Paris. Due to weeks of research, I had an excel sheet with lots of must see places and must eat things.  Berthillion ice cream featured in the list. After a thorough search on google maps, we headed out towards Notre Dame confidently.

 As we were following the route to this place ( we were in a hurry as the closing time was 8pm ), we were distracted by this bridge full of love locks. Some of them even had names engraved !

We finally made it to the store and got a scoop of lemon mint and cocktail ice creams. They looked so tiny !!

Before we could go in for another round, the store closed. We headed towards the souvenir shop visited the previous day for more purchases. We picked up many items for gifting and for ourselves but as luck would have it, the Indian guy was not present at the counter! So we did not get any discount and ironically it was a bigger purchase than yesterday ! L

Next was to search for Maoz restaurant, which we had failed miserably the previous day. This time the hubby seemed more confident and he had made notes from Google maps. We quickly found it but it was small and crowded with no seating space. We ordered 2 falafel meals with unlimited salad fills !! This was so amazing and we had 3-4 refills before ending the meal. 

On the way back, we decided to buy a bottle of water from one of the automated machine at the Metro stations. Though pricey at almost 2euros, it was very convenient.

We reached the hotel and after having walked almost 7-8 kms in a day ( with an injured ankle !!) , I was ready to drop on the bed. We had planned a relaxed day tomorrow, as we had ticked off the important "first visit must see" places in Paris and our train to Brussels was at 3:45pm from Paris Nord station.

-- Yes & Why