It looks like 2 weeks is becoming the norm between each of these posts. Maybe not quite true any more - for the most part, the marching band season ended yesterday with a Veterans Day parade, which means I might actually have the time to post with a little more regularity and get this "Disney" Trip Report to Disney content soon!!
Not quite yet, though. We've got to go to one of the most famous palaces in the world. Versailles!
The morning was not our finest. As per our usual, we were up early and I grabbed some pastries, this time from Patisserie Midori. Didn't get any pictures of them, but I did enjoy the fact that the employees thought I actually spoke French when I ordered and tried to strike up a conversation... which I quickly had to stop since my French is not all that good!! At least my accent was believable when I said croissant or tart or whatever it was I got us that morning. So, despite a little light drizzle, things were looking good! Got ourselves ready and headed out. I'll be honest, I don't remember what it was that we forgot, but about a quarter of the way to the RER-C train station near Musee d'Orsay we realized it and I dashed back to the room to grab something. No worries, just pick up the pace to catch our 10am train. But then we had issues with the ticket machine and had to go to the counter to get our tickets... and missed the train. No problem, the 10:28am train will still get us there in time for our 11:30am entry time. It was right about then that we realized my wife had forgotten her phone. I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the pictures in this trip report are from her phone. She has the nicest camera and we tend to pass it around to get the best shots with the best equipment. OK, no worries - we both have our phones and can get all the pictures! (gotta keep a positive spin)
We arrive at the station and gear up our 'disney-walking' feet to get us to the gates around 11:25am which will work, right? The drizzle has pretty much stopped except a few drops here and there. Pretty quickly throught the security and the gates into the courtward.
And then we see the lines. Three HUGE lines with hundreds of people. One to the left, one in the center, and one to the right. No signage at all.
Sadly, the picture doesn't give the full impact of these lines. But, we pick a line based on what people tend to be saying and dispatch
@MeffysMom up to the entry gate (which is pretty much straight ahead on the left side of this picture)to verify we are in the right place. There are two signs at the front, one for the the 11am entry, one for the 11:30am entry, and then the third line which doesn't have a sign (still no idea what that was, but our guess is maybe it was the 'you are late for your entry time' line). We were in the correct line!! However, it's 11:25am and the 11am line is the one at least twice as long as ours??
For people used to Disney crowd management, this is difficult... we watch the 11am line progress at a very uneven rate and randomly the third line moves a bit here and there while we continue to stand still and our line gets long enough to now loop back around on itself a bit. Finally, at about 11:45am our line starts moving and we find ourselves getting inside at about noon. The line situation once in the building is even more chaotic - again, very little signage and not sure what is what, but I eventually get myself in the line for our pre-reserved audio tour device while the girls wander to find a little food. They also managed to get a selfie in the 'interior' courtyard.
Around this time, a couple other little issues crop up. The drizzle is back (hence the relatively small number of people in the above selfie) and we realize that with my wife's phone as the only one with a European sim card, we don't have any kind of internet available and the WiFi at Versailles is less than the best. So, after a little while in the line, I'm wandering trying to find the girls as they wander to try to find me! We eventually get back together, look over the palace map, and come up with our game plan (there might have been a little mild panic in there as well).
I did manage to get one more picture outside - of the kind of things that amaze me at places like Versailles. The sheer magnitude of the opulence and incredible amount of money spent on it.
It's seems but a simple thing, the 'gilded' ornate design on the fence. But there are hundreds of them! Okay, not going to digress into a discussion of inequities of wealth in the 17th and 18th centuries (and still today...no, said I wasn't going there). Having been to Versailles back in 1982 with my parents, I didn't remember many specifics of the palace or the gardens, just that it seemed to all be TOO MUCH. My opinion certainly hasn't changed. Back to fun and pictures!
Into the Palace we go. And here come lots of pictures of fancy stuff in the Palace. For the first half of our palace tour, we took our time and listened to the audio and read the placards and examined the paintings and furniture. These are just a couple pictures from that half of our tour.
Our midway point was perhaps the most famous of the rooms, the Hall of Mirrors.
As you can see quite a few people were enjoying their touring as well. Maybe not quite the crowd as in the Mona Lisa room, but still at times in the smaller rooms, a bit difficult to move about and certainly tough to read the placards and look at all the paintings.
And, if you look closely enough, you might see a bit of frustration behind those smiles! But, we were still enjoying ourselves. Took a moment to look outside in each of the rooms and be amazed at the gardens.
And be even more amazed by the lack of crowds outside. How can this be? The Palace itself is packed and the gardens are one of the main draws? Oh, it's not drizzling any more. It's raining. A good, steady rain with moments of downpours.
But we've still got quite a bit of the palace to go!
