Sunday in Versailles

On our second day in Paris, we left Paris and took a train to Versailles for church and chateau-ing.

On Sunday morning (Feb 16th) we left our Airbnb at 8am and took the train an hour out to Versailles. We went to church there at the biggest ward I've ever seen in France! The church building (its own separate church building, not rented rooms!) was a 1 mile walk from the train station. The overflow gym room behind the chapel was full by the end of sacrament meeting. And, a second large ward met in the building after our ward finished! There is a temple in Versailles after all, so it makes sense that there are two big wards there. 

My feet in la Ville de Versailles. I wore these brown leather boots walking all over the place and they were just about perfect for a winter urban adventure: waterproof in rain, comfy and warm enough for cold but not too warm for less cold, cute, versatile for church and everyday wear, and easy to slip on and off. I love multipurpose travel apparel!

This ward was full of English-speaking foreigners, so they provided French-to-English translation during sacrament meeting. I braved French church without translation, but Jay and Rose were happy to have the headsets. there was even a youth Sunday school class in English, so Jay and Rose went to that, while Jeff and I went to adult Sunday school. Brave Amber was all ready to dash off and find primary on her own, but Jeff helped her just in case she didn't understand which class to go to. When he took her to primary, Jeff saw that there were kids who spoke English there too, but primary was done mostly in French. Amber said she recognized some of the songs and just sang them in English instead of French, haha. 

In addition to the many English speakers, this ward had lots of native French speakers with perfect English. There were at least four sets of American senior missionaries in the ward, thanks to the temple. [As I typed this, I realized that we didn't walk past the Paris temple after church! I guess since we knew it would be closed, we didn't think to add it to our walking route! Oops!] We even met the Paris mission president at church in Versailles! He was super nice. We chatted for a while. Two of his teenage kids were in Jay and Rose's English speaking youth Sunday school class. Rose said she participated a lot in the youth Sunday school class, and she said that "Jay only talked when he was forced to!" Haha, sounds about right for those two. Rose also said the way they taught the lesson and spoke really made sense to her and fit the way she likes to think and learn. That was sweet. Rose must be European at heart, because the lesson was taught by a French woman who is fluent in English.

As for my own experience at a French speaking ward, I have to say my French comprehension was kind of low this time around--maybe 40% at best. It was so hard to keep up with speakers, and my brain would fritz out every now and then so I'd totally lose track of the topic or story for a while. But it was a fun challenge. Adult Sunday school was very engaging and well done. The bishop asked the class one question at the beginning, and we spent most of the time going around the room answering it! Several of the class members answered the question in English, and the bishop (native French, extremely fluent in English) would translate their responses to the class. It was a beautiful mix of believers all coming together to discuss the gospel however they could. 

That's one of my favorite things about going to church in foreign countries--how everyone just rolls with language barriers. It pops my American Christian bubble so nicely. We don't all have to speak the same language to believe the same thing! We have a similar situation at home in our own Sunnyside ward too, since we meet combined with the Spanish speaking branch and have the sacrament prayers in both Spanish and English every week, with Spanish-to-English translation on a screen during any Spanish talk or testimony, and English to Spanish translation done in headsets for the Spanish speakers. It was fun to have all of that going on but with French instead of Spanish.

By the end of church, my brain was fried from listening to so much French!

We made the decision to be tourists on Sunday. Some trips we don't spend money or do a lot on Sunday, but it worked out for this trip for a few reasons: we wanted to go to church in Versailles to avoid the tourist ward in Paris, and since Versailles is a significant train ride outside of Paris, it made sense to walk through the Chateau de Versailles after church...and eat lunch. So after church we walked the 1.5 miles to the chateau, stopping on the way for a lunch of galettes and crepes at a plein aire sidewalk creperie. It was a bit cold for outdoor dining, but the sun was out and the tables were all full of people, so we shivered through our lunch in the cool breeze. The kids had fun choosing what kind of galette and crepe they wanted. I got the galette complet, which had ham, egg, and emmentel cheese in it (hello lactase pills!) and a salted caramel crepe for dessert. Yum!

Versailles was opulent and overwhelming, just like I remember it being. We had timed tickets for 2pm, but we arrived 20 minutes early and stood in line for 38 minutes before finally entering the palace. We walked around inside admiring the gilded glimmering painted palace for about 90 minutes, then headed outside to peek at the gardens and winterized fountains. We didn't even go down the first flight of stairs out back because Jeff was pretty tired, and the rest of us were starting to feel it too. So we stood at the edge of the terrace and looked out at the miles of groomed royal backyard before heading back to the train station (another 1 mile walk).

At the train station, Jeff was so tired he had a hard time with the ticket machine and we ended up having to get a second round of tickets once we got back into Paris city limits, haha. Eventually between the two of us we figured it out. In our defense, the ticket machines do not make it obvious or easy because they want everyone to get the new Navigo pass, which is a credit card sized pass that you refill electronically. We didn't think it was worth getting plastic cards for each of us since we were only going to be in town for a week. Hence the many battles with ticket machines. It was made all the more confusing because the one-way destination tickets were the same price as the tickets that gave access to all five metro zones. We accidentally got the one-way journey tickets out of Versailles and had to purchase new metro tickets back in Paris. 

We grabbed some baguettes and pastries on the walk home, and also stopped at a tiny Franprix grocery store for sausage, cheese, and veg. We were home and in for the night by 6pm. Whew! What a day! As coaches, we are familiar with having 16+ hour days on our feet when we go to far away meets, but for some reason this 10 hour Sunday in France felt similarly exhausting. Language plus jet lag plus endless walking? Probably. Worth it? Definitely!

Walking to church. It was mostly uphill, so I got super warm in my down coat, fuzzy scarf, gloves, and wool leggings. I was fine outside in the cool air, but when we sat down in the heated chapel, suddenly it all caught up to me and I started sweating. I unwound my scarf and took off my coat for the first half of sacrament meeting until my body temperature regulated.

My intentions of getting a family picture with the church sign failed. This was all I managed, through the gate.

It definitely felt weird sitting at a restaurant on a Sunday, but maybe a little less weird because we were outside and also travel throws everything off so that helped with the not feeling overly weird.

Let the record show that I wore my hair down once on this trip, even though I dislike wearing my hair down. It was a calculated plan: I wore my merino wool ear warmer as a headband and pulled it down over my ears to stay warm and cute all at once, haha. Also, my soft blanket scarf wreaked havoc on all of the braids I wore, so it was nice to have a break from shredded static braids and just go all out with static long hair in my face all day. The headband helped.

Galettes! Rose and I ordered "lemonade" and it turned out to be Sprite. GAG. I detest Sprite. It reminds me of being sick. Plus, carbonation is not my thing at all. So I snuck sips out of the water bottle that Jeff brought in his backpack.

Galettes are savory crepes made with buckwheat flour. They were tasty and filling. Even Amber chowed hers down.

Crepes! So sweet!

Security check at the first set of Versailles Palace gates.

Heading towards the second set of Versailles Palace gates.

The beautiful Baroque chapel of Versailles is on the right.

Our 2:00pm line at the golden gates.

We made two attempts at a family selfie with the golden gates of Versailles behind us. I'm not sure why it's so challenging for five people to all look at one phone screen for two seconds while smiling! Haha, our selfies got more and more interesting as the trip continued.

We reminisced about four year old Amber leaning on the golden gates in the heat wave of the summer of 2019, snacking on a symbolic baguette...

2019

Inside the gates at last!

The gorgeous chapel

Versailles' chapel ceiling is so intricately painted and gilded, it matches the rest of the palace perfectly.

I wonder who plays that organ and when.

Jay with Louis.

Knock knock...they didn't actually touch the door, don't worry.

We loved the painted ceilings.

Rose and me, admiring the same ceiling in 2019.

A golden lion the size of Rose's head.

Louis the 14th's desk.

The doors were all different and all fancy.

Another painted gilded ceiling

We took a picture with Joan of Arc every time we saw her on this trip. We love a female historic figure role model!

This gallery was new to us: it was massively long and featured paintings and busts of the leaders who won wars in French history.

The queen's bedchamber.

Shameless opulence, everywhere we looked.

Jay and Rose admired the view of Louis' backyard.

Louis XIV the Sun King

The king's bedchamber, with bed curtains camouflaged with the wallpaper.

Hall of Mirrors! The pictures from The Hall of Mirrors uploaded backwards, so here's the last one first.

Our Hall of Mirrors family selfie reminded me of 6 years ago...

2019

In 2019, we got someone to take a picture for us in the Hall of Mirrors and it worked much better than the selfie. But somehow it wasn't as crowded that day as it was when we went this time.

In the Hall of Mirrors with Amber!

The Hall of Mirrors was the most crowded room in the place. Naturally.

Family Hall of Mirror-mirror picture in the middle mirror.

Entrance to the Hall of Mirrors.

Those wigs meant business.

Outside in Louis' backyard, with his palace home behind us.

Jay kindly carried our backpack the whole visit at Versailles. Having a strong son is still surprising every now and then!

Admittedly my selfie attempts weren't super intense.

We took a family selfie with the palace behind us...

...then turned around and took a selfie with the vast gardens behind us.

Jeff and I went for a four mile run back there once a few years ago, and we didn't even see all of the grounds then.

We each took turns "looking royal" with the palace in the background before leaving. Amber chose to curtsy.

Jay gazed pensively off into the middle distance.

Rose proclaimed her royal-ness haughtily.

Jeff curtsied.

I posed elegantly. Bahaha!

Train ride.

A cookie croissant! This raspberry white chocolate cookie dough was spooned into the middle of the croissant and onto the top of it, then baked into melty gooey warm heaven with crispy croissant edges and soft warm sweet center. The patisserie warmed it up right before handing it to me. Yum. There seemed to be a cookie craze sweeping the patisseries of Paris while we were there. Each bakery we went to claimed to have the best cookies in town. I liked this version of the cookie best. As Americans with cookies in our blood, we were less interested in getting a plain classic cookie at a French bakery, so we only got the croissant cookies at this one place.