Our breakfast fare purchased from the market was quite simple--bananas, orange juice, yogurts, baguettes, and Chris' favorite drink, Orangina. We packed up our backpacks and water for a long day in Versailles. We were excited to see the palace and the gardens as well as take a tour. We boarded a train for about an hour toward Versailles.
We stopped first at the Cathedrale Saint Louis in Versailles before walking over the palace grounds.
The line stretched quite a distance just to pass through security on to the grounds, but the line moved fairly quickly. Interesting how they have you wait in these long queues and then only give a cursory glance in to the bags.
It was close to lunch time and our tour wasn't until 1:30 pm, so we stopped at a Cafe in the castle, making use of the facilities as well. Our tour of the King Louis the XV and XVI apartments allowed us to skip the huge lines to tour the castle and gave us an better look at the life of two kings. Their life was lavish and...well, just over the top lavish.
Each member of the tour group was given headphones so that we could easily hear our tour guide. There were a mom and her two daughters, complete with tiaras, who just joined our tour without the headphones and proceeded to push their way in front of everyone without a thought. So rude. I finally told one of the girls to "wait their turn" as they tried to push in front of everyone.
We got to see the Opera House, the chapel, the Kings' bedrooms and chambers, music rooms, and toilets. Following the formal tour, we were able to continue on in the castle without standing in the queue again. The hall of mirrors was amazing and beautiful and our final stop before going outside to check out the gardens.
You know that feeling when you are hungry and a little bit angry and testy with everyone. Yeah, that was how our girls were getting. They were a bit hungry and tired and in need of a snack, so we sat in the gardens of Versailles and feasted. We were there on a day for a musical tour of the gardens and enjoyed the tour immensely. If you wanted to imagine just a little what the gardens might look like and have access to the newest Beauty and the Beast movie, check out the gardens outside the castle at the end of the movie. They were expansive and so beautiful. We stopped for an ice cream cone at Glaces a l'Italienne, a little ice cream stand close to the fountains, and quickly ate them in the hot sunshine.
It was a lucky thing that we had added three umbrellas to our packs for the day. We were thinking "in case of rain" but we used them a lot more as a bit of shade on this hot day.
Because having a palace wasn't quite enough, a Petit and Grand Trianon, or summer homes, were also built on the property along with Le Pavillion Francais where Marie-Antoinette held parties, balls, and gatherings. Amy and Grandma were tired at this point and opted to find a bit of shade to wait as the rest of us toured the smaller palace and chateau. This picture was the courtyard of the Grand Trianon.
The most important part of this day was our scheduled visit to the Paris temple for baptisms with our girls. In order to get to the temple from Versailles, Chris was fortunate to find a larger Uber van to pick us up. We waited for the van outside the Grand Trianon and then found out that the gates were closed for the day and the van couldn't get through. We had to hurry up the road at least a mile before reaching the van. Quickly, I might add so that our driver wouldn't leave. I had changed out of tennis shoes and put on flip flops only to find myself regretting that decision as we hurried up the street. It was lovely, however, to finally sit in the air conditioned van and recover from our speed walking for the short ride to the Paris temple.
The feeling as we walked in to the temple was peace, and joy, and love. Now, I tell you, THAT feeling was lavish beyond all others. It was our first time all being in the temple together since Kristen turned twelve and was so wonderful. In our 7 pm session, we were joined by two other American families, two French young ladies, and one African young man. I was given the opportunity to dress in white to help the young women and Grandma, and had the blessing of watching these young people be baptized on behalf of loved ones. It was wonderfully sweet to see my husband baptizing Kristen and Misha and his mom, his voicing catching with each as the emotions of the moment overwhelmed him.
Following the baptisms, we sat together as a family as Chris performed the confirmations on Amy, Misha, Kristen, and I. What a glorious day. Linda and I had a chance to go up to the main floor with one of the sisters who was helping us, just to see the rotunda. The original pictures hanging in the halls were amazing, I especially loved the one of Mary holding her infant son Jesus. The stained glass windows, created to mimic the floral designs of Claude Monet's work, were simply stunning.
We left the temple walking into the courtyard graced with a full-size Christus. The grounds were compact, but the feeling was no less significant. Loved it.
Here was my photo bomber Misha.
We stopped for a quick dinner at Le Bistrot de la Place a short walk down the street from the temple. We told our waiter that we were in a rush, but ended up inhaling our food in order to get back to the Versaille in time. Chris ordered two Uber's to drive us to the palace where we then had to walk almost as far to the Orangery of the palace to where the performance was to be held. We settled in to watch the extravaganza and fireworks and were simply amazed.
Even though it was spoken in French and I didn't understand much of it, I got the gist. King Louis XIV was called the Sun King and thought a lot of himself believing that God had made him a king. The presentation focused on each of the planets and the notion that above all others the sun was greater than all the planets--King Louis was greater than all.
Coming out of the performance after 11 pm, all of the guests were funneled in to a narrow pathway. If we had simply turned and walked 100 feet in the other direction, we could have been out of the masses of people and crossed the street. As it was, we slowly moved our way forward, inching past people in order to make it back to the train before midnight.
Google maps directed us in a back way to the train station and we arrived at 12:01. Our tickets no longer worked one minute past the hour. Crap. Two very kind ladies directed all of us in to one section and then handed us their pass to get us through the train stiles. People say that the French are very rude and unkind, but we met so many kind people each day. Sure there were some who like others in every other city in the world weren't so kind, but you've got to expect that. We missed the last train back to Paris by about 30 seconds. Crap. Now what!?
We found the information booth and asked after our options. Apparently there was one final bus of the day arriving at 12:47 to take us back to the city. We settled in for a 45-minute wait with ten or fifteen others. Some of them got tired of waiting and ordered taxis, but we would have had to have two taxis to transport us. The bus was free.
The bus finally arrived and we settled in for a trip back to the city, transferring then to the metro for eight stops to Place de Clichy. As we arrived back at the apartment around 2 am, I started a load of laundry in the washer/dryer and was off to bed at 2:30 am. Whew.