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.

Paris

Emilie and I went to Paris for the weekend, taking the evening train from Lausanne on Friday night and returning by train on Sunday night. The travel time is under four hours “door to door” (i.e., apartment to hotel), so it is a fairly easy trip and much more convenient than flying from Geneva.

Since we took a relatively late train, we didn’t arrive in Paris until after 11pm. As a result we headed straight to the hotel and called it a night in order to get some sleep before an early start on Saturday. The guy at the check-in desk was a complete jerk. While I’ve found the common American stereotype of the French being snobby to be untrue, this guy appeared to be doing his best to single-handedly keep the stereotype alive.

On Saturday we began with a visit to the Notre Dame, which was a short walk from our hotel in the Marais neighborhood on the right bank. While I had seen the Notre Dame during my previous visits to Paris, I had actually never been inside. It was a little crowded, but nothing like during my previous visits.










We then headed to La Sainte-Chapelle, the gothic chapel on L’Île de la Cité that was built in the 13th century in order to house a number of holy relics. There was a bit of a line, and when we finally made our way to the chapel I was initially a bit let down. While it was nice (as can be seen from the pictures), my expectations were higher based on stories that I had heard from others.










But then I realized that we were only in la chapelle basse (the “lower chapel”). Once we went up to la chapelle haute (the “upper chapel”), I immediately saw what everyone had been so excited about. As can be seen from the picture below, the stained glass windows are absolutely beautiful.

The 15 stained glass windows (and related 1,100+ scenes) depict the biblical story of mankind from Genesis to the Resurrection. Here are some additional photos from the upper chapel.



















My next stop was L’Église Saint-Sulpice, while Emilie did some shopping. The 18th century church was huge (though apparently slightly smaller than the Notre Dame) and had a number of interesting sights including the “Great” organ (supposedly the largest in Europe) and the Rose Line referenced in Da Vinci Code.



















While I was exploring the church I began to hear wedding music and it turned out that there was indeed a wedding taking place.

It was kind of strange given that the giant church was relatively empty and tourists were taking pictures as the bride and groom walked down the aisle. The wedding actually took place in a chapel at the front end of the church, so I guess it ultimately ended up having a bit of a private feel nonetheless.

After grabbing a late lunch at a nice Italian Bistro that we stumbled upon, Emilie had some more shopping to do so I more or less tuned out for the next hour while she did her thing. I essentially just did my best to stay out of the way of the organized chaos that was taking place as the women in the stores darted about at a frenetic pace. And once Emilie had finished doing her part to stimulate the French economy, we headed back to the hotel to drop off the loot and rest for a bit.

Our evening began with a visit to the Galeries Nationales to see the special collection of Claude Monet paintings that were on exhibit.

The exhibit sourced the paintings from museums around the world and it was interesting to see how prolific a painter Monet was given the number of works on display. Each exhibit room was devoted to a specific period in Monet’s life and included some background on his life and inspiration during each period.

Following the Monet exposition we continued our evening of culture by seeing a play called Nono at the Théâtre de la Madeleine. The play starred Julie Depardieu (the daughter of Gerard) and was generally interesting despite being a bit hard to follow at times. While I understood the general plot and a good portion of the dialogue, the actors were talking extremely fast and using a lot of words that I didn’t recognize.

After the play we walked around near the hotel to find a restaurant. At this point it was around 11pm and I was absolutely starving. We ultimately found a restaurant with outdoor seating overlooking a plaza. The weather was unseasonably warm, which made it nice for enjoying a late meal outside.

Cours de français

I’ve decided to start up my French lessons again after a six-month hiatus. I initially stopped due to my work-related travel in the Spring and continued my break through the summer since it’s a bit hard to take evening classes when it’s light out and the weather is so nice. Now that winter is approaching, though, and darkness is arriving earlier, it’s much easier to get motivated.

This time I’ve decided to take individual lessons rather than group ones. I basically just want to practice with conversation in a one-on-one setting. While the group lessons were helpful (particularly with respect to learning the fundamentals), they didn’t allow for a meaningful about of time to actually practice speaking.

To set up the lessons I called the language school and succeeded in only speaking French throughout the entire conversation with the director. I know that I made a few obvious mistakes, but I never had to resort to English as a crutch. It’s nice to have moments like that when you can see clear progress – particularly when there are daily reminders of how far I still have to go before being even remotely close to fluent.

La Via Feratta

Today I went with Emilie, Ceclie and their father, Louis, to La Chapelle-d'Abondance in the Haute-Savoie region of France. It’s in the Alps near the border with Switzerland, within a couple of hours of Lausanne by car.

In a scaled down version of our Rifugio Monzino weekend a couple of months back, we had a date with La Via Ferrata de Saix de Miolene. It’s basically a cliff with various climbing routes that are more or less scaled down versions of “real” mountain climbing (i.e., there are often pre-set foot and hand-holds as well as safety cables to connect a safety rope / harness).










As can be seen from the pictures on the sign, it’s definitely not for those with a fear of heights.

We took the one hour route and it was definitely a workout. While I had brought my camera with me to get some pictures during the climb, it was impossible to actually take any because I literally was clinging for dear life for the full sixty minutes. Unlike our previous climb, there weren’t any real rest spots. Instead, you were effectively on a cliff face climbing vertically or scaling horizontally for an hour straight.

We had all the requisite safety equipment in terms of harnesses and ropes, but it was still an exhilarating experience given the height and the overall challenge of the climb. You definitely always had to pay attention to where you were putting your hands / feet at all times.

The weather was beautiful – clear skies, sunny and hot. It made the climb a bit tougher with the sun beating down on us and the heat radiating off the rock face. But it was nice once we got to the top and began the hike back down to the car.










Here are a couple of pictures from when we got back to the bottom of the trail.










By the time that we got back to the car it was time for lunch. There was some sort of fair going on in the adjacent town – Abondance – so we drove there to check it out and get some food. The town is known for both cheese and the cows from whose milk the cheese is made – and we saw a lot of both. In fact, there was a competition for the most beautiful cow.










Louis’ ski club was serving food in one of the booths at the fair so we ate there. They had some sort of soup along with bread and cheese. It was very good, particularly since I was starved after our exploits earlier in the day.

After lunch we walked around the town a bit to see the countless booths lining the streets. People were selling everything from clothes and crafts, to food and drinks.

After seeing some cotton candy I learned that in French it is called barbe a papa (dad’s beard). I guess that makes sense, but I think “cotton candy” is more fitting.

We then headed to L’Abbaye d’Abondance, which was founded around the 11th century. It is on a hill that overlooks the town center and allowed for some nice pictures. I particularly like the second one, with the colors from the stained glass windows illuminating the wooden statue.















Before heading home we also visited the adjacent cloister, which was built in the 14th century and is known for its murals.