paris: palace of versailles and montmartre

day 7: thursday

*i put the names of places i'm talking about in italics because i've linked it to another page where you can get more information (because who knows if what i remember about it is accurate or not : )). if you have time, i definitely recommend reading the ones in this post. there is some great classic french history here.

lets return back to paris, shall we? we were pretty tired from our late night driving home from london the night before, but got out at a reasonable hour to go to the palace of versailles. it would have been about an hour to get their on train, or about 20 minutes in the car (its 12 miles outside of the city), so since tanner was such a pro at driving in paris we went on a date to versailles. not too shabby.

after waiting in line to get into the parking lot, then waiting in another line to get a entry ticket, this was the line to get into the palace... we were half way done at this point. luckily the line moved quickly and it was here that we started listening to rick steve's podcast all about the palace. one thing i learned at this point was that the palace (public areas) was open to everyone, you just had to be dressed according to the dress code... which i thought was interesting.

once through the gate

our first stop on the tour was the amazing chapel. the king and the royal family would listen from the upper level right above where we were standing.

the amazingly beautiful hall of mirrors

a view of the grounds outside from one of the bedroom windows

i'm in love with this ceiling. so much amazing detail.

most of the door knobs looked just like this

in the galerie des batailles

more than anything else, this painting called 'the coronation of napoleon' stood out to me the most. it tells a pretty interesting story. this is actually a replica. the original was moved from the palace of versailles to the louve, and the same painter, jacques-louis david (considered napoleon's painter), then painted this one from memory.

after we were done with the palace we walked around the gardens and got a late lunch. tanner loooved this ice cream.

a nice picnic if you ask me

when we were done eating/ taking a rest in the sun, we walked over to the grand trianon. which if i remember correctly, was primarily used for recreation purposes.

we then visited the petit trianon, which was marie antoinette's separate living space.

view of her backyard

they had these beautiful benches hidden all over the grounds

after we were done looking around here, our feet also thought we should be done as well, so we got a quick drink and macaroon's at angelina's (they had a mini shop there) and got on a tram to take us way back up to the main castle. the palace was truly amazing, and tanner and i could have easily spent all day there.

we drove back to kristen and will's apartment where we met up and ventured out again by metro to go to montmartre, which is considered the poor artist district, and is where the moulin rouge is.

a cute square where artists sell their paintings.

view of the basilique du sacre-coeur

out in front of the basilique looking down at the city

i think i must have a thing for cool ceilings and doors. definitely loved these.

we then ate at this crazy fondu place.

where you drink out of baby bottles.

and had to climb over the table to get to your seat... which was interesting for kristen since she was in a skirt. our overall opinion? it was definitely a fun experience, that we dont really care to do again (i can only handle so many bites of hard bread dipped in weird cheese). but it was a fun experience so we'll leave it at that.

outside of the moulin rouge. we didn't get a good picture... but i can now give you a glimpse of a look that tanner gets often : )

there was an insanely long line to get in. but it was at this point that we jumped back on the metro to go home and collapse yet again in bed after yet another amazing day of fun.