Crazy Trip: Day 3: Versailles

The third and the final day of my Paris trip. Only my trip is ending since I have a morning flight to Rome tomorrow, the rest have a flight to Oslo tomorrow evening (tsk tsk). Today was Versailles day, also we have not been on the top of Eiffel Tower yet. The morning started on a late note, after rushing through the bathing and getting ready, we ran to catch the metro, with our usual handheld breakfast. I was carrying a chicken Panini and a coffee from McCafe, Kiran was having same croissants and coffee, and Venkat as usual was having only a plain long bread. About the food in Paris, I must tell that it is not very cheap, but you can get a decent breakfast for 5 euros. McDonalds have their own McCafe here which sells coffee and bread items. About language I have already said, in every restaurant there was at least one person speaking English. The English-speaking lady at McCafe was cute, and she could recognize us as it was our third day there (even Kiran agreed she was cute, Venkat’s opinion did not matter as he was married).

King Louis XIV statue

Our first stop was Gare d'Austerlitz, from where we will change to RER C train to Versailles. This was the first time we will be riding an RER. We took return tickets for the RER C, as Versailles was the last stop. Our train was starting at 10:15 am, from platform A. We will be travelling till Versailles Rive Gauche which is the nearest stop to Versailles Palace. All trains to Versailles Palace have names starting with V, ours was Victor. We were a bit confused when the train arrived, and we just got into the train, as the boards were now showing the next train at 10:35 am. A gentleman on the train helped us and assured that we were on the right train. The problem was due to platform A having two sides, hence a train can come on any side. As we settled down on the first floor (yes these trains are double-deckers), we found that the RER C line travels along the river Seine and covers almost all the famous attractions of Paris. Soon the train was crowded with tourists for Versailles Palace.

Versailles Palace logo

In about 1 hour we reached Versailles Rive Gauche, the first look of the town looked very refreshing. It had a small town look (unlike Paris) with wide roads and not-so-tall buildings. The palace is very near; take a right from the station and then look left and you can see the palace (though one lady was shouting to take a bus). We reached the palace entrance in 5 mins walk. And now we were shocked. There was a huge queue in front of the entrance, and even though we had pre-booked tickets, we were supposed to stand in the same queue, which we did after mumbling about the advantages and disadvantages of booking online. The queue was moving slowly and it gave us an opportunity to look at the palace from outside. The palace looked nice from the front, with gilded gates and railings carrying the Versailles logo. Once inside we quickly collected our audio guides (which is included in the ticket price) and began our tryst with history.

Marie Antoinette's Tomb

The Palace of Versailles (Chateau de Versailles) started as a hunting lodge for King Louis XIII. But the major transformation began in 1660s and the palace was completed to its present glory in 1710 by King Louis XIV. This was the seat of French political power for 100 years until the revolutionary mob seized it on October 6, 1789 which is popularly known as the French Revolution. The then King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were later beheaded on a guillotine on 21^st January 1793. Much of the palace was ransacked by the angry mob, but after it being converted into a Museum, the trustees are trying (and were successful) in getting back most of the palace’s riches back to their place.

To start with, each and every room in Versailles palace has been altered a minimum 10 times when the King and Queen used to stay here. We started with the King’s Chapel which is two floors high. The Versailles palace has two floors, the first floor is where the King and Queen lived is called the Grand Apartments, and the ground floor is where their children lived is called the Petit Apartments. This chapel encompassed both floors, and was very beautifully decorated. The marbles used were really unique, and with the heavily decorated stained glass windows, it was looking amazing. Tourists are not allowed inside the Chapel though.

The Chapel

Then we followed the guide and went to every other room of the first floor. Each room was decorated differently from the other: the king’s room, the queen’s room, the anti-chambers. Most of the paintings on the ceiling were from Pagan mythology, like Apollo, Minerva, Jupiter, Mars , Venus and Hercules. Then we entered the famous Hall of Mirrors, and were dazzled by the sea of chandeliers and golden lamp-stands. The Hall is 240 feet long and had 17 mirrors. This served as a venue for royal weddings and was made popular by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 marking the end of First World War (Wow, my history is so good). In haze we then entered the Gallery of Battles which contained detailed paintings of the battles which were won or lost by the French kingdom. The painters were specially hired to paint war scenes. Words cannot describe the paintings, you have to be there to feel it.

Then we were in the ground floor, to visit the Petit apartments which were for the prince and princesses. They were very lightly decorated and some housed contemporary furniture and décor (done by the Museum to show how the apartments would have been if the King was ruling now). Not very much interesting though, we liked the royal gold and red more.

Next step was to return the audio guides and enter into the gardens. The Versailles Palace Garden is the largest in Europe and is spread across 250 acres. Created by le Notre for King Louis XV, the garden of Eden consists of beautiful fountains, ornamental plants and statues. At the end of the gardens is the Grand Canal, which was created so that the King can experience Venice in Versailles (how preposterous!). We took the map of the gardens, there were 28 (!) points in total, not including the fountains. It was about 1:30 pm, and the fountains will start at 3:30 pm. We had enough time to walk and not run. We started making our way to the always running musical fountain though the nicely lined alleys dotted with statues.

The Grandes Eaux musicales, Jardins musicaux was on, hence music mostly Mozart was playing everywhere in the gardens. This is available only on the weekends from April till October. Grandes Eaux Nocturnals (the fountains at night) tour is only till August end and is very highly priced. We started with the Latona fountain which depicts Apollo’s mother asking Jupiter to turn the Lycian peasants into frogs. Then we were feeling hungry and decided to finish our lunch. It was chicken panini for me from one of the restaurants in the garden (there is another one). Food is not allowed inside the palace or the gardens. “Too many people, too much food” the guard lady said when we dropped our food items at the entrance to collect later. It was a welcome break for our legs.

Again we started strolling through the alleys, it was getting hot, and I wondered how people roamed here during the summer (which is the peak season). Next we stopped at the Apollo fountain, which shows the Sun God rising from the water on a chariot. The fountains were still not working, hence we went outside to the Grand canal. Boats were self driven, hence we hesitated, Venkat more as he doesn’t know to swim. Well, by the time we were fighting on who will drown first, the Apollo fountain started functioning, and we again entered the Gardens. A note here is that the Grand Canal is outside the garden area and can be visited by anyone. The Apollo fountain can also be seen for free from behind. While entering back, we saw a sign that it is “dry season”, means that not all the fountains will work at the same time. Well, 3600 cubic metres of water is not less, hence during dry seasons, the fountains work one after another.

After taking a lot of photos near the Apollo fountain, we walked towards the right wing of the garden. Not all fountains were working as mentioned by the warning sign. Our final fountain of the day was the Neptune fountain. By the time we reached there, Venkat was lost. Unfortunately, the Neptune fountain being the largest was not functioning still, and will start at 5:30 pm, which means we can’t see that. But since Venkat was lost, me and Kiran decided to linger there for few more time. In some time, the dragon fountain started working, and so also the water path, but no sign of Venkat. After enough time, we understood that Venkat must have left, and we also started walking out. Just before leaving we peeked into the Orangerie. The king had a orange orchard on pots, as ridiculous it may sound, the orangerie is beautifully manicured and it is nice to see big orange trees with oranges on pots.

Finally, we managed to call Venkat and he already reached the station. We walked faster and reached the station too. The train was already in the platform, and it was crowded. We got seats and said goodbye to Versailles. By the way, the passport to Versailles Palace also included a visit to Marie Antoinette's estate too, but we were out of time.

Back in Paris, we got down at Champ de Mars, which is the nearest stop of RER C for Eiffel Tower (tour Eiffel). We wasted no time, and were in the queue. For some unknown reason the North leg queue was longer than the East leg. We maintained position at both the legs, but came to the East leg as it was sooner. Venkat was crying about not going till the top, but finally we managed to convince him that it will be perfectly safe at the top.

The waiting in the queue felt good as the excitement was built. Once the lift started to go up, I was like super excited. We did not get down on the first level and directly went to the second level, where we had to change lift for the top. After taking one round in second level and with lots of photographs (of us and others), we took the lift to the top. The ride to the top was a long one, and once at the top we were welcomed by a huge crowd. It was all pushing and shoving there. The first level on top is fully protected from wind, and you have all the International cities and their distances mentioned on the ceiling. The second level of top was fully open, though you cannot jump even if u wanted to. The chilly October wind welcomed us there, this was little less crowded. It was already evening, and the city of lights looked more awesome up from there. There was a bar selling champagne too, for the more romantic ones. We spent quite some time there, more because this marked the end of our tour de Paris.

While coming down, again Venkat went missing. We spent some time in the souvenir shop and got gifts for Mom and sis, still there was no sign of Venkat. After reaching ground, we waited again, we actually told Venkat before going up that in case we miss each other, we will stand near the ice-cream shop near the east leg, but the problem was that the ice-cream shop had wheels and was nowhere in sight now. Hence, we decided we will wait till 9 pm, and I asked Kiran to be near the entrance while I was at the exit of the east leg. While waiting  I was wondering if Venkat had gone searching for the ice-cream shop, when I saw him and Kiran coming from the entrance side. It seems we came down from the west leg after seeing the first level too!

So far so good, as there was no blood-shed. Dinner was at the same restaurant we went on first night. It was really crowded in there and looked like we were the only tourists (and worse-dressed) in that restaurant. We ordered a vegetarian pizza, roasted chicken and herbed omelet. It was enough for all three of us. Back to Galleini, we went to look for the bus stop from where I was to take my morning bus to Porte Malliot. It is just 10 minutes walk from the hotel. Back in hotel, it was celebration time. Venkat bought a local French red wine yesterday, we opened that and drank to a successful Paris trip (Kiran had coke btw). Packing done, we crashed and I was still roaming in the beautiful gardens of Versailles, this time holding hands of someone special.

Loss Register:

RER C return : 6.40 euros per person

Versailles palace passport: 25 euros per person

Eiffel tower: 13.40 euros per person

Dinner: 35 euros including the forceful tip