I am so grubby from sweating all day long! We went to Versailles today and it was a long one. We left our apartment at 7:20am (no run for me today, but I still got 16,600 steps). Metro to metro to train, then walk it in to the palace. We had our museum passes so we skipped the ticket line and went straight to the entrance line. It zigzagged up and down the courtyard three times when we got there, and it doubled while we stood in line. It took us an hour and a half to get through the line and enter the palace! What were we thinking? We sent Leslie over to sit in the shade to preserve her mood and energy. The rest of us suffered through the wait in the merciless sun. Thankfully we had sunscreen. The kids sat and played in the dirt/sand between the lumpy old cobbles in the courtyard. Amber got the dirtiest--she found half a discarded pistachio shell and played with it for a long time in the dirt. Jeff and I have been in the parenting game for long enough to know that there are worse toys than dirt and discarded pistachio shells.
The whole time we waited, talking and joking, I kept thinking "WHO ARE WE AND WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?" It is so completely not our thing to stand in endless lines and shuffle through sights with vast quantities of people. But we did it yesterday at the Eiffel Tower and we did it today at Versailles.
While we were in line weaving back and forth in front of the golden gates of Versailles palace, Amber needed a snack. So I gave her a section of baguette and then took a picture of her eating bread in front of the golden Versailles gates. It amused me to feed my child bread in a place that was so famously attacked by peasants for the lack of bread during the October Days of 1789.
We entered the line at 9:20am. We entered the palace 90 minutes later (10:50am), and exited at noon. The palace was absolutely crammed with people. It was no better than the line outside. We were at the mercy of the crowd for many of the rooms and we shuffled along through, squeezing past people whenever we could. It was also quite warm in there. Amber got overwhelmed by about a third of the way though, so Jeff and I took turns carrying her. I was absolutely drenched in sweat from holding her hot little body against myself, her warm little arms like a heated scarf around my sweaty neck.
THE HALL OF MIRRORS was very nearly worth all of the suffering we went through to get inside. It's funny, during the years of the monarchy, peasants suffered poverty outside the palace gates. Now we suffered heat, fatigue, and crowds just to see the inside of the palace. What is up with palaces and suffering? Another favorite feature of the palace's interior was the ceilings. Opulence reigned on every square inch of the floor, walls, and ceiling. It was fun to see all of the wild ornate designs.
We walked down the south side of the exterior, found a shady spot in the grass, and had a picnic of baguette, cheese, and sausage. We packed three cheese-filled baguettes, some sausage and 5 liters of water in Jeff's backpack, and we ate and drank all of it except a little sausage and 1/3 a baguette. We laid in the grass eating, listening to HP7, and resting for an hour, then got up and explored a very small sliver of the Versailles gardens (it got too hot to enjoy anything outside the shade for more than a few minutes at a time). We got to see a musical water fountain show, and it was so cool! Majestic opera music played joyfully and loudly, and the fountain did all kinds of patterns and sprays in time with the music. The music was so vibrant and played in several locations around the gardens, lending an elegant vibe to the experience. It was so regal, I kept expecting a uniformed king to promenade past on a noble steed.
We walked three miles between our picnic/siesta and our train ride home, but only saw a little bit of the Versailles gardens. As we walked, we got ice cream at a cafe in the gardens, which improved general morale of the hot sweaty tired kids. I really wanted to see Marie Antoinette's fake hamlet in the back of the gardens (where she employed people to pretend to be peasants so she could walk among them and watch them work), but everyone was too limp and tired, especially Amber and Leslie. We paused at a gift shop so Leslie could buy a postcard, and while we were there I fell in love with these hilarious felt Christmas ornaments in the shape of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. They were 15 euros each but we got them because they were too awesome not to. Louis even has his signature red high heels on and Marie has a classic square-hipped dress! A trip to Versailles totally warranted that small extravagant purchase.
We exited the gardens and headed over to the Paris temple, where we drank long draughts of cold water from the water fountain in the visitors center, filled our water bottles, basked in the air conditioning, and talked to sweet missionaries there. I felt so dirty and limp standing among the pristine well-dressed missionaries in my sweaty clothes. After a nice long rest at the temple visitor's center, we headed to the train station (on foot again, of course) and caught a 3:45pm air conditioned (miracle of miracles!) train back to Paris. After the train and two metro lines, we sent Leslie back to the apartment with the kids (it's a quarter mile from the metro stop) while Jeff and I went out to procure dinner. We went to a kebab shop for the main course, a patisserie for dessert (pain au chocolat), and Franprix for beverages (Tropical Oasis). Then we feasted and collapsed in front of our fans to recover from the day.
The fancy Versailles version of caution tape.
Jeff's backpack is exceptionally long, but our baguette lunch and gallon of water barely fit inside.
Rounding our first switchback in the long long line! Celebration!
Our little peasants, playing with the dirt between the cobblestones.
There was a sprinkler spraying to cool off hot line-standers, but it took us nearly an hour to weave our way close enough to use it.
A toutes les gloires de France! As the sun got hotter, I noticed a negative correlation between my photography skills and their willingness to cooperate.
Dirty germy who-knows-what hands.
Washing off in the runoff from the sprinkler because it's bound to be cleaner than the plain inter-cobble dirt, right? I was so hot I actually stepped my sandal'd feet into this cool runoff stream. Worth it!
At the golden gates--the homestretch of our line!
Eating bread at the gates of Versailles Palace. "I eat pain for breakfast!" Pardon my French pun-- I couldn't resist. [pain= bread in French, pronounced like "pang"]
Inside the gates at last!
The part of the palace open to visitors is a long string of rooms--no hallways. Each room opens onto the next room in a long line.
Amber thought all of the men in the paintings were queens and princesses because of their long hair. "where are the boys?" She didn't seem to really grasp my explanation that boys had long hair.
Looking back through the line of doorways revealed a rainbow of different colored wallpapers.
The kids kept dropping and sitting any time we paused, no matter how crowded the room was.
Ceiling art!
Amber LOVES brochures, tickets, and all reading material, regardless of language. I think she picked up a guide pamphlet written in German.
Prepping to enter the Hall of Mirrors--these mirrors were in the antechamber/room right before the big hall, but it was so crowded in the big hall that Jay and I took a mirror picture here instead.
HISTORY permeates this gorgeous room.
Selfie attempts began to fail spectacularly.
At one point Chinese family asked to have a picture taken with Rose and their daughter. I didn't take a picture of them amidst the chaos, but it was cute. We explained to Rose that blonde haired people like her are rare in Asia.
More Hall of Mirrors opulence
Looking out front to the lines in the courtyard: the closest courtyard has a line of people who have already had their tickets scanned who are waiting to enter the palace. In the distance beyond the golden gates is the courtyard where we waited 90 minutes--it s hard to see in this picture, but that courtyard is FULL of people. EEEK.
A kind American saw our selfie struggles and offered to assist. Amber was beyond DONE at that point because she had been told off too many times (don't touch, don't run away, etc.) so she refused to show her face in the picture. Real life tourism with kids right here!
I managed to cheer Amber up by offering to let her take some pictures with our camera. Naturally I used my phone and took a picture of her taking pictures.
More ceiling art.
Amber went all out and laid down on the floor near the end.
The queen's bedchamber was extra floral and feathery.
Nice view from the window.
Collapsing in the shade after our picnic. Turning on our Harry Potter audiobook on Jeff's phone was a stroke of genius: we could all get rest and the kids didn't fight or run away. They are trained from our many road trips to sit and veg while listening to audiobooks. Rose and Amber used Jeff's sweaty stomach as a pillow, bless him.
Amber was still Amber, even at Versailles.
Musical fountains: MAGICAL. You wouldn't think that water squirting in time with opera music would be that interesting, but we all loved it. It was mesmerizing! I half wish we had skipped going inside the palace completely and just enjoyed the massive gardens and fountain shows.
Walking in the shade as much as possible. It was much too hot to rent a rowboat on the canal/pond/forgot its official name.
Another selfie fail--but we each have at least one body part (that's half of my cheek and eye on the right) in the picture with the massive palace in the far far background.
Success!
The fountain of Apollo
This swan was a people person.
Ice cream! Sorbet! Cool and fresh.
At last! Our death march through town to the temple ended. The Paris temple is beautiful.
Amber, energized by her long daddy-shoulder-ride, did her traditional run around the fountains on the temple grounds.
A kind senior missionary thoroughly photographed our family in the temple courtyard.
Special special family time.
The hallway to the bathrooms at the temple visitor's center had this mirror with "Imaginez-vous dans le temple..." written on it, with the temple on top. I have seen miniature versions of these mirrors in English, but I loved seeing it large and in charge in French!
Train ride of sleepiness
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