Versailles & The City of Lights
Yesterday's adventure took us by Metro, which was only 10-min from our hotel to Versailles, outside Paris approx 1-hr.
The walk up from the Metro station in Versailles was a little chilly and took about 30-min to reach the Royal Chateau Palace, which opened in 1632. As you walk up to the Chateau, it's size is unbelievable. In fact, the Palace has 2,300 rooms and 67 staircase's, and we certainly saw a lot of them. The chateau was very crowded as there were lots of tours and of course, it was Sunday. Outside was much better and we very much enjoyed the grounds.
Besides admission to the Chateau and gardens, we also bought tickets in advance for a special tour of the living quarters known as apartments. Because we had a metro challenge in the morning, we missed our tour time, but they were able to move us to the afternoon. It was very exciting to see the beautiful and famous hall of mirrors.
After spending time in a few thousand rooms, we then went outside for a garden and grounds tour. Wow - it takes hours to see the garden, grounds, Marie Antoinette's cottage and the small Hamlet she had built (below).
The Chateau sits on 32, 000 acres, with lakes, trees, gardens, etc. So, another day of great beauty, gorgeous architecture, gardens, etc., and another 10-miles of walking. Walking is good, helps maintain our physic and we are blessed to be in good condition and enjoy walking.
We met our tour guide back at the Chateau for our afternoon, 1-1/2 hr tour of the apartments, the Kings chambers and all it's splendor which ended about 5 pm. The culmination of the tour was a huge opera house built in the Chateau. It, like the rest of the chauteau, was very opulant.
We were bushed when we reached the station after walking and climbing stairs for nearly 7-hrs. Our return trip to Paris was stress free as we figured how to use transportation. Like London and Madrid, the metro system is a great way to get around.
After dinner, our tour guide picked us up at the Park Hyatt around 9:15 pm for our night time tour of "The City of Lights". As it turned out, it was a private tour as no others were booked -great for us.
The city at night is beautiful. Lesya timed our tour to ensure we saw the Eiffel Tour exactly at 10 pm as all it's light twinkle for 5-min...what a sight, but no way a photo could show it. She was a great tour guide we enjoyed the unplanned private tour.
All though it was a long day, seeing Versailles and Paris at night was worth it. With that, we are posting this blog based on yesterday's adventures. We will have another today for our trip to the Normandy region.
The walk up from the Metro station in Versailles was a little chilly and took about 30-min to reach the Royal Chateau Palace, which opened in 1632. As you walk up to the Chateau, it's size is unbelievable. In fact, the Palace has 2,300 rooms and 67 staircase's, and we certainly saw a lot of them. The chateau was very crowded as there were lots of tours and of course, it was Sunday. Outside was much better and we very much enjoyed the grounds.
Besides admission to the Chateau and gardens, we also bought tickets in advance for a special tour of the living quarters known as apartments. Because we had a metro challenge in the morning, we missed our tour time, but they were able to move us to the afternoon. It was very exciting to see the beautiful and famous hall of mirrors.
After spending time in a few thousand rooms, we then went outside for a garden and grounds tour. Wow - it takes hours to see the garden, grounds, Marie Antoinette's cottage and the small Hamlet she had built (below).
The Chateau sits on 32, 000 acres, with lakes, trees, gardens, etc. So, another day of great beauty, gorgeous architecture, gardens, etc., and another 10-miles of walking. Walking is good, helps maintain our physic and we are blessed to be in good condition and enjoy walking.
We met our tour guide back at the Chateau for our afternoon, 1-1/2 hr tour of the apartments, the Kings chambers and all it's splendor which ended about 5 pm. The culmination of the tour was a huge opera house built in the Chateau. It, like the rest of the chauteau, was very opulant.
We were bushed when we reached the station after walking and climbing stairs for nearly 7-hrs. Our return trip to Paris was stress free as we figured how to use transportation. Like London and Madrid, the metro system is a great way to get around.
After dinner, our tour guide picked us up at the Park Hyatt around 9:15 pm for our night time tour of "The City of Lights". As it turned out, it was a private tour as no others were booked -great for us.
The city at night is beautiful. Lesya timed our tour to ensure we saw the Eiffel Tour exactly at 10 pm as all it's light twinkle for 5-min...what a sight, but no way a photo could show it. She was a great tour guide we enjoyed the unplanned private tour.
All though it was a long day, seeing Versailles and Paris at night was worth it. With that, we are posting this blog based on yesterday's adventures. We will have another today for our trip to the Normandy region.
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