Paris & Versailles ... Day Seventeen

I love waking up in Paris.  We started the day at one of my favorite places we found in Paris called Paul.  Breakfast consisted of espressos, quiche lorraine and two croissants.   There actually was some rain in the forecast, but we decided to make the best of it.  We made our way to the metro and headed out to Versailles. 

The train ride out was super easy and only took about 30 minutes.  I took so many pictures in the Palace of Versailles.  It is such a gorgeous chateau, filled with beautiful furniture, paintings and replicas from the era.  You can see from a distance that it is going to be overly lavish and wonderful.   

I mean come on, why wouldn't you need a stunning gold entrance gate?   Our tickets, which we got before arriving at the palace, included an audio guide, which was amazing!  I highly recommend getting the audio when/if you visit.  In each room there was a number you'd punch into the device and it would tell you about the history of that space.  These were just a few of my favorites spaces we saw:

The Palace Royal Chapel:

I'm calling this the Hall of Statues:

Exterior facade:

The Hall of Mirrors:

Kings Chamber created by Louis XIV in 1701:

These are two famous paintings that are placed in the same room.  The one directly below is the Crowning of Empress Josephine that was commissioned to show the mother in attendance, which is the main figure in the blue seating area.  However, she was never actually there.  She refused to attend, which makes me laugh.

Army swearing allegiance to Napoleon:

After seeing this amazing palace, we walked out to the gardens.  Sadly most of the greenery was dead and the fountain/statues were covered up or off.  We still walked around the space and just used our imagination and laughed at how beautiful it would have been, given it wasn't still dormant.  Once we had our fill of beautiful Versailles, we took the train ride back into Paris.

Have I told you how sweet my hubby is?  Well he did have to make up for not getting me my favorite sweet treat the first round.  He decided we should stop at the Eiffel Tower, and I could finally get some of the large amazing cotton candy... and amazing it was! 

It was so good and totally worth the wait, since I didn't get it the night we were there.  We walked along the river, and I even let him enjoy some of it with me.  We ended up walking to the Champs-Elysees again to go do some shopping.  Then, because I hadn't had enough sugar, we went to Laduree again for macaroons.  I got a large pistachio and cafe, and I was in a sugar coma of heaven.

We sat outside on a bench and enjoyed the treat and the people watching.  The sugar didn't give us the energy to walk home though, so we jumped on the metro back to our little home in Paris.   We finally got some lunch/dinner at this Indonesian cafe around the corner from our studio.  Who doesn't love a good shawarma?

Then, because it was a beautiful night, we decided to walk to a bar called Wine by One that we had found online.  I thought the set up was pretty unique and nothing I'd seen in the states (yet).  You have a membership card that you load with any dollar amount you'd like.

 

Then they allow you to go around and pick which wine you'd like to try.  You could try a really expensive bottle, which was charged to you by the ounce you choose, 2, 4 or 6 ounce pours.   It was really neat to see, but I definitely think it's over priced.  We spent 30 euros there in too short of time and then decide to head back since we were exhausted from the day.

We got upstairs and ended up drinking the small amount of wine still left in the bottle we had and of course wanted more.  I went out and grabbed some wine, cheese and crackers while D stayed to find us some entertainment.  We ate cheese, which was one of the stinkiest cheeses I've ever experienced, watched a few shows and drank wine in our undies.  It was the best end to the evening.