Day Three in Pehr~Whee!

Day three of Paris, and we had two things left on our tourist agenda: Versailles and the Louvre. What’s important to keep in mind here is that at this point we might be crazy. Because I don’t think any sane person would choose to take on two of the largest things this city has to offer. And we’re not talking about grand appeal or fame, but, literally, two of the largest physical items in Paris’ repertoire. But at this point, the choice was not ours. For the good of our betterment and this blog, we needed to see these places. To Versailles, to Louvre, to life!

After another quick breakfast of machine-ready drinks and croissants we successfully navigated the Metro and RER to get to Versailles. Managed to pass by our Lady Liberty’s twin, resting south of the Eiffel Tower on the Seine, and thanked our stars we didn’t decide to make that a checklist item. It’s an item perfectly viewable from a fast moving train. Versailles, by size definition, covers right around 750 hectars, including the main palace, gardens, smaller palaces and grand canal. Don’t ask me how hectars convert, but I can tell you it’s big. It is impossible to see all of it in a day much less half of one, and honestly, seeing it all would have been far too overstimulating so we chose for the more focused approach. It goes something like this:
1. Wait the obligatory 15 minutes for Kris to go to the bathroom (no fault of her own. Every landmark contained a sizeable line that seems to be the cross to bear amongst females.)
2. Enter Main Palace. Marvel at the size and quickly gain a distinct feeling of claustrophobia, herding through tiny doorways amongst enormous hallways.
3. After taking in the Hall of Mirrors, hurry to exit, ready for fresh air and more than a few inches of private space.
4. Take in the gardens, walk for a good 1-2 miles, past the Grand Canal and on to the Grand Trianon, Louis XIV’s other, smaller estate.
5. Make our way to the Queen’s Hamlet, Marie Antoinette’s little oasis away from all the regal approach to everything. The Hamlet resembles a small English cottage estate, with a little Middle Earth mixed in.
6. Determine that we have now placed ourselves at the far end of Versailles and except the fact that we have another LONG walk to get back to the train station.
7. Walk
8. Walk
9. Walk
10. Eat
11. Ride train back to Paris. Rejoice!
12. Versailles: check!
With Versailles behind us and the Louvre in front of us, we gave our lower bodies a pep talk and convinced them another couple hours of “museum walk” was in the interest of the greater good.

The Louvre needs no explanation. The biggest, grandest of all Paris’ museums, it is home to the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo among millions of other pieces and the famed start for Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Hmmmmm…that sounded like an explanation. Nevertheless, both inside and out, the Louvre does not run short on superlatives. With our handy, dandy museum pass we made our way right in and set about a plan to maximize this gargantuan building realistically. What we ended up seeing in our 3 hours there were the Mona Lisa and the 4 other Da Vinci works (including Madonna on the Rocks and John the Baptist), Venus De Milo, Mary Magdalene, some Raphaels, some Michelangelos, the medieval Louvre (remnants of the original preserved underneath the museum), ancient Pharaonic work and the Code of Hammarabi. Awesome stuff! What absolutely surprised me was the acceptance of cameras all over the whole museum, including at the Mona Lisa (just no flash). Smaller museums and cathedrals insisted against them but not the Louvre. For this I am grateful. I love the ability, for if nothing else but my own sake, to be able to record the things I’ve been blessed to see.

The Louvre behind us, we found the nearest train station, said our official goodbyes to tourist Paris and made our way back to the hotel. We feel a great sense of self-pride for our tackling of this huge city. We got a chance to see everything that was important to us, some things that initially were not and even practice our paltry French, my favorite being Kris’s: “Un deux trios, jumapel s'il vous plait?” Or in other words, “1,2,3, my name is…please?” That should take us far! So we close the book on Paris and look forward to our time in England, including our Muse concert!! (Note: The Muse concert was the first thing we booked, all the way back in December, insuring that we would indeed get out of the country come this summer) Later folks!