Paris : Première partie

Alex and I headed to Paris last Thursday afternoon. We got in late Thursday night so the sightseeing didn’t start until Friday. We started off by going to Versailles which is about an hour outside the city. It took us a while to figure out the RER rail system, we thought it would be just as easy as the metro, but it was a little different. We got there by about noon and saw the Chateau de Versailles, Garden de Versailles and the Marie Antoinette Estate.

In front of the Palace of Versailles

I wanted a picture by the sculptures, they were all covered because it was the off season, but the gardens were still so beautiful. It was amazing how big it was.

The Apollo Fountain (the fountains weren’t running either) and the Grand Canal

View of the gardens from inside the palace

Alex listening to the audio guide in the Hall of Mirrors which looks out to the gardens

We learned how the palace had different rooms that were each dedicated to a different god or goddess. At Marie Antoinette’s Estate we saw how the palace was laid out. One room I found interesting was the “warming room.” The cooks would prepare food outside of the palace in another house (so they didn’t disturb anyone in the palace by it) and then bring the food to the warming room before serving it to the Queen and her company.
Next we went to the Musee de Rodin. A museum full of Rodin’s sculptures and other art work.

One of Rodin’s pieces – Gates of Hell

That night we went to Arc de Triomphe which was built to honor those who fought in the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. It has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under it.

View from on top of Arc de Triomphe

Next we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We had tickets to the summit that night and when we got through security and to the elevator, they told us all we had to leave and that the Eiffel Tower was being shut down for security reasons for the night. We ended up buying tickets again because we really wanted to get to the top so we went back a couple nights later.

First time walking up to the Eiffel Tower

the Seine River running through Paris

My camera died that night so the rest of the pictures are still with Alex. I will be getting those from him shortly and post Paris: Part two!