Versailles

On Sunday we headed to Versailles in order to see the palace in the morning and then visit Emilie’s aunt and uncle in the afternoon since they live in the area and had invited us over for lunch.

One thing that I’ve learned during my travels over the past couple of years is that if you’re able to book tickets online in advance, definitely do so. I’m not sure why we didn’t this time – I guess some people had told us that Versailles isn’t crowded this time of year – but as we arrived and saw the line we immediately regretted our oversight. Particularly since we only had a couple of hours to visit.










There were actually two lines: one to purchase the tickets and another to get into the palace itself. In an attempt to game the system, Emilie headed to the ticket line while I took my place in the queue for the main entrance. Unfortunately, the line that I was in went a lot quicker than Emilie’s, so after about 20 minutes I was basically at the entrance while she still had a ways to go.

It appeared that we weren’t the only ones faced with this predicament. Right before the entrance there was a massive group of people who had reached the front of the line but didn’t actually have the entrance tickets yet. This caused a bit of confusion for those who actually had their tickets already and made the process a bit of a pain for the security personnel trying to maintain order.

Rather than stay in line and let people pass me (as many others chose to do) I took the opportunity to take some pictures.




























And about an hour after we arrived, Emilie found me with the tickets and we jumped in at the front by taking advantage of the lingering confusion caused by those who still didn’t have tickets but had waited in line anyway.

Given that we only had a couple of hours, we only toured the palace itself and saved the gardens (which could easily occupy a whole day) and some of the external buildings (i.e., the Trianon and Mary Antoinette’s estate) for another time. The size of the palace itself was pretty amazing, with beautiful architecture and décor.




























My favorite rooms were the chapel and the hall of mirrors.












Our visit to Versailles coincided with an exposition by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami in 15 of the palace’s rooms. While the art was interesting (Emilie had actually seen the artist’s work at a previous exhibit in Bilbao), I don’t think that Versailles was necessarily the best location for it. There just didn’t seem to be any connection between the palace and Mr. Murakami’s art. But that’s just my opinion, I guess. Here are some pictures so you can judge for yourself.


Since we had a little time to spare after touring the palace, we headed outside to take some pictures.



















Next we walked to Le Chesnay to visit Emilie’s aunt and uncle (Christine and Guy) for the afternoon. The walk only took about 15 minutes and was very nice given the warm, sunny weather.










The afternoon with Christine and Guy was very nice and doubled as an intensive French course for me given that most of the conversation was in French. It was great practice, though, and I definitely felt like I held my own pretty well.

All of the food was great, and after arriving famished we left completely full. The main course was particularly good – des paupiettes et des legumes.

Here’s a picture of Emilie, Chrisine and Guy after the meal.

By late afternoon it was time to head back to Paris so we could catch our train to Lausanne. The trek was fairly uneventful and we made it to Paris’ Gare de Lyon with plenty of time to spare.