Day 28 - Versailles and Tour Eiffel

We were determined this morning and actually set our alarms to make sure we woke up early. We also dressed for warmth because it was raining and miserable outside. We all managed to get ready and out the door by 9, which is impressive for us. We made it to the train station and easily purchased our tickets for the train, and for the entire grounds at Versailles. The train was a double-decker train and I decided I wanted to sit on top for a change, so we did. Jim also directed Nicole and I to the side of the train with the better view, and he was right the views were great!

We pulled into Versailles and walked the short distance from the train station to the Chateau de Versailles. The weather had not improved in the slightest but luckily I brought my hat to help keep the rain off me. The gate at the Chateau is very impressive, all gold, it most certainly stands out. We walked up through the gate and went through the main entrance with the tickets we purchased at the train station. Jim and Nicole had to check their large umbrellas at the door, but I walked in with no problems.

Once inside the gate we saw a large sculpture by Jeff Koons called "Balloon Flower" in front of the Chateau. It looked very out of place, but it was a cool sculpture. We walked inside the Chateau to follow the tour and I searched for the audio guides. Jim was very hesitant to walk around with an audio guide, and he refused to do it at first. But Nicole and I were both getting one, so we finally talked him into it. Yes, we did look silly, yes we did take a picture, but they did keep the tour interesting. The tour started with the grand chapel built by Louis XIV. JeffKoons sculptures were placed in various rooms throughout the tour and I have to say having modern art inside a room from the 18th century was an odd experience. The palace was beautiful and the art was really cool, but we did play a game of "what item in this room does not belong" with almost every room we walked into. It actually became a rather entertaining game.

It is winter here, and although the palace was not packed with tourists, there were a lot of them. It is sad to say, but the palace was filled with the stereotypical Asian tourists. They move in herds as their tour guide leads them along and they snap pictures of anything...anything! I will describe our favorite girl, she was dressed in brightly colored converse shoes, white and pink socks with a floral theme placed over green and black stripped tights, a creme colored eyelet skirt, a maroon jacket with a backpack on and funky colored glasses. Nicole and I watched her move from room to room and snap picture after picture of the stupidest things. The best part was she didn't even look at the screen to see the picture, she would just hold up the camera in a general direction, take a picture and then turn the other way and snap another. I bet she took 200 pictures inside the palace alone! Okay, maybe I had more fun watching all the tourists inside the palace than actually admiring the palace. Who can blame me? It was an experience just watching people's excitement.

I on the other hand took my camera out, maybe three times to take picture of Jeff Koon's art. Guess what happened my fourth time? My camera died. Yes, I came all the way to Versailles and no camera. Perfect. I do have to note that this new camera is fabulous, I have not charged the camera once since I left for Europe on November19th ! Almost a month later and it finally dies. Incredible! Of course it doesn't give me much of a warning that the battery is getting low, but still I couldn't believe this is the first time I needed to charge it!

I will say the Hall of Mirrors was my favorite part, I can't imagine living in a world like that! After the tour we found a bathroom and had an interesting experience getting the umbrellas back. Jim and Nicole walked through a maze, back through security and had to get through locked doors, all to get back their umbrellas, it was so so odd. I really wanted to tour the gardens and see Marie-Antoinette's Village, so we decided to brave the cold and walk around the property. I said, "we should go until we just can't take it anymore," and off we went. The gardens were beautiful in the dead of winter, so I can't imagine what they would look like in the summer! Sadly almost all the statues were covered and the fountains were turned off, so we didn't get to see the gardens in their full splendor, but it was still really pretty to walk through.

In case you have never been to Versailles, let me tell you, ITS HUGE!! We walked for a couple miles in the cold and found ourselves at PetitTrianon , which is a smaller home just like the palace. We took our tour and walked around the gardens there finding ourselves at the Temple of Love, which is gorgeous. The Temple is placed in the middle of a small island, as Nicole and I walked over the bridge we admired a swan for a long time. He was so graceful as he dipped his head into the lake for food and swam around close to us. Since I didn't have a camera with me, Nicole took a few pictures of the swan and the area. Jim took a picture of me in front of the Temple of Love, Nicole however refused to be photographed on 'island of love'...not sure what that is about. :)

We looked at the map and figured we still had another 2 miles to walk until we reached Marie-Antoinette's village called, Queen's Hamlet. It was way past lunch time and we were freezing and hungry so we decided to make the walk back to the palace and onto the train station. The walk was uneventful and as we neared the train station we turned another directions to find us a nice little place to eat. We were so happy to sit down that is was hard to focus on the menu. Jim and I both eyed our neighbors large iron pot of Beef Stew and happily ordered. Nicole could only find one thing on the menu that was vegetarian and ordered it, a salad. Poor girl, Europe is just not made for vegetarians. We ordered wine for the table and at last minute Jim asked me ifi would share some oysters with him. I have eaten one ray oyster in my life and I HATED it. But I am not the type of person to back down from trying new things, so I agreed. A little while later 6 oysters arrived in front of Jim and he gave me the basic overview on how to eat them..."scoop out the foot on the bottom, make sure to scrap it out so it floats in the water...". I did everything he said and added a little red wine vinegar with onions. Nicole snapped my picture (with her camera of course) and down it went. It just slid right down...and it took me a second to realizei was actually pretty good! I was really surprised with myself, I actually liked it. It tasted like the sea, which is hard to explain, but it did! Jim offered me another so I went through the same routine and ate the second one. I am not sure I would settle down with a plate of oysters for a meal, but all in all I like them. So there you go, I tried something new again and I liked it. The stew arrived and Jim and I were both very pleased with our decision. It was AMAZING and the perfect thing on a cold day like today. Nicole's salad wasn't quite as good as she would have hoped and I felt bad for her. After Jim's usual coffee we walked to the train station and got on the train. We weren't positive it was our train, but we figured what the hell?

Nicole and I instantly dozed off after having a full stomach and some wine. Jim started reading, but I'm pretty sure he dozed off too. I woke up just in time to see us arrive at the station Tour Eiffel. Earlier we discussed Nicole and I stopping at the Eiffel Tour on the way home and meeting Jim at the apartment later. So Jim casually said, "you know, you two could get off here to see the Eiffel Tower." And with that Nicole and I jumped up and ran down the stairs and off the train. My knee was really stiff and I was amazed I actually made it to the platform without falling down. Nicole and I walked out of the Metro and straight to the Eiffel Tour. It was great to see it again in all its mighty. I took numerous pictures of Nicole in front of the tour and just as we finished a young guy asked me if I would take his picture too. So I agreed and knelt down, my knee still killing me, and it gave out and my knee hit the pavement, the wet, cold muddy pavement. I took the picture, handed back his camera and looked down to find my newly washed jeans dirty in one big circle around my knee. Bummer! I was so sad, and my mood as a little ruined. But the smell of cotton candy was enticing and Nicole said we will find some treats to cheer me up. We walked around the bottom of the tour, found a bathroom and looked at the not so long line. We were approached by MANY guys trying to sell little Eiffel Tower trinkets, which we found so funny. We like the little stations set up on the ground with strings on either side, so when the cops come they can grab the strings and run!

We walked across the street to get the best view of the Eiffel Tour and stopped at a little stand for a snack. You guessed it, we each got a Crepe of Nutella and a Coca-light. On our way, we were again asked by a nice couple if we could take their picture in front of the tour and we agreed. We then made our way up the stairs and enjoyed our delicious snack watching the Eiffel Tower. The clouds had finally broke for the first time since our arrival and we could see the sun's reflection on the clouds as it was setting. It was beautiful outside. The sun went down and we watched the Eiffel Tower suddenly glow a blue/purple color, that I declared as Indigo. The Tour was also decorated with large golden stars that turned on as well, and it was so pretty to see it shining in the city. The view from up there was great too. It was finally not quite as foggy and we could see all the monuments of the city. We stood there for a long time enjoying the atmosphere. We walked up a little higher and again, two guys asked us if we could take their picture. I swear I must have had a large sign saying "I am here to take your picture, just ask!" But oh well, at least I was able to help people out. Nicole and I slowly made our way down the hill and back towards the metro. It was so nice outside that we took our time walking back.

Once inside the metro we navigated our way to the fancy department store because I still needed to do some shopping. We went to the Opera House Metro stop and walked outside to head over to the department store. As we walked to the department store, Nicole excitedly pointed toward a girl walking in front of us and shouted "oh my god its that picture girl!" Sure enough walking on the street in front of us was the odd dressed girl from Versailles, strutting along. We couldn't believe out of the entire city of Paris and after our stop at the Eiffel tour we would see her here! It was so funny! We shopped a little bit, but left empty handed and went back to Jim's apartment.

Jim let us in the door and we all were able to sit down and rest. Nicole instantly fell asleep on the air mattress as I talked to Jim for a little while. I tried to startblogging , but I felt tired as both of them were napping and I laid down next to Nicole to take a nap myself. Only Nicole had decided to lay on top of the blankets wrapped up in the bathrobe, so it was a bit of a battle getting under the cozy comforter to sleep.

Jim had told us about a houseboat party that night and Nicole and I thought about going. It started at 7:30 and was supposed to have French poetry readings and live music. At 8:30 Jim woke us to say we should probably get ready if we wanted to go to the party. We slowly got up and it took us a long time to decide if we wanted to go or not. It was so cold outside and we didn't know where we were going, plus it was a long ride to get there. But at last we decided we have to go and quickly got up to get ready. I was finally able to get out the black dress I brought with me and get dressed up for an evening out! Nicole and I took some time getting all dolled up and Jim researched directions on how to find the houseboat. Jim showed me onGoogle Maps how to get there and we were off.

We navigated our way through the metro, to the speed train, 14 and all the way outside the city center to the Bibliotheque. We got off the Metro stop just like Jim said and walked outside. It took us about 15 minutes to realize we didn't come out of the right exit and we still needed to go up farther to find our way. Once we found the right street (after a lot of puzzled looks at the map), we confidently walked down the street to the river and took a right, just like Jim said. We were supposed to take a right, walk to the next bridge and the boat was supposed to be on the left side in the water. But we walked the whole way (most likely 2 miles) and it was all industrial stuff. Mostly cement factories lining the water. We finally gave up after about an hour of walking and trying to look at the map and retraced our steps to the metro station. As soon as we reached the bridge we started at we saw lots of boats with flashing lights and looked over the pier to find two boats filled with people. We thought we recognized the one boat from the picture but it had a HUGE line out front. At this point we were so frustrated and tired that we really didn't want to stand in a line, in the cold next to the river to get into this party. It was already after 11, and the metro stopped running at 12:45 and we had a long ride home. So we said forget it and made our way back to the station.

You can imagine we weren't in the best of spirits, but we decided to stop in central Paris and find a bar and a place to eat to end the evening. Once we were in central Paris we realized all the restaurants had closed down and it was very difficult to find food. We remembered a food stand from earlier and walked there. Nicole got a baguette with cheese and fries. I just ordered fries, but it took me a while to explain to the workers what I wanted. They didn't understand fries, and apparently I couldn't pronounce "frites" correctly. Finally I said Chips and they were instantly knew what I meant. After we ate our food, since we were starving, we went out into the street to find a bar. We walked around the corner and settled for a fancy looking techno bar. We walked in and walked straight to the bar. The bartender was really friendly and helped us order with mixed English and French. We paid €7.50 each for our tiny drinks with fancy glow sticks in them and took a seat. Once we looked around we soon realized we were in a gay bar. Leave it to Nicole and Anna, our one night out looking for a bar and we settle for a gay bar. So we laughed and said it was just like our game earlier, "what in this room doesn't belong?" It was still a delicious drink and we were entertained.

We wanted to go to another bar, but it was nearing time for the metro to stop and we really didn't want to miss that, so we walked back to the station. After waking Jim up upon our arrival and explaining to him that we never found the boat we went to bed. We were pretty hyper and talked for a long time about us not wanting to go home yet, and perhaps we should change our tickets and go to Ireland instead. Finally we dozed off after a long day.