Our last night in Paris is coming to an end. Our tour guide, Laura, was the best. The other people on the tour were so wonderful. It was actually hard to say goodbye.
But...let's talk about the day staring from the very beginning: a very good place to start. (I haven't watched a movie in over a week, can you tell? The quotes are running ramped.)
So, after I got done posting yesterday, we went with our group to Montmarte for dinner. If you remember, Mom & I went there last Sunday to Sacre-Coeur for Mass. So many steps. This time, we got to take the cable car up all those steps.
And Laura was explaining that Montmarte is the section of Paris where all the artists and...how should I put this...people who "like to have a good time"? Sketchy people? Thieves? Etc? Hang out. So, I guess I've survived that part of Paris, without a tour guide no less. I'm a total champ when it comes to Paris. Well, maybe not totally, but I feel just a little bit more comfortable.
Anyway, we all went to a restaurant together again. Just so you know, we always had dinner together as a group the first night we were in a new town, with the exception of the first night the tour started (last Sunday). It was our farewell dinner last night. And Dawn and Paul, a part of our group, celebrated their 39th wedding anniversairy with us. That was so fun, toasting both of them.
Now, on to today.
Mom and I must have been so tired, because her alarm went off and she turned it off. Then, before we knew it, the phone rang for the wake-up call and we weren't out of bed yet. That was a first for us. It's okay; we made it downstairs for breakfast.
For our last day in Paris, we had a tour of the city with a personal tour guide, Nicolas. He was born and raised in Paris, but he has a good ear for accents and has visited the US many times, since some of his family lives in Arizona. At first, we thought for sure that he was American. That is how good his accent was!
So, we'll go by some of my bus pictures. Sorry in advance for the horrible nature of them: again, I was on a bus most of the time. And hopefully I can remember what all these buildings were.
So, I'm pretty sure this is the Russian Orthodox church. It was the first one in Paris. Now there is another one, but we didn't see it, as it was on the other side of the Seine (I hope you didn't just pronounce that as "seen". Shame on you if you did! "Sss--eh--nnn"!)
This is a public park. Maybe the Luxembourg park? Can't remember exactly.
This is a Chinese restaurant. It was so out of place with the other architecture. It is still owned by the same family.
This is the oldest monument in Paris, given to France by the Egyptians. They had to actually create a boat just for the monument to get from Egypt to Paris on the Seine.
A fountain. Can't remember the building at the fountain, but it's cool, no?
L'Arc de Triomphe. And it is covered in a blue/silver cloth for a few weeks. Nicolas (tour guide) hates it. I hate it. We all hate it. Uncover that monument so we can see it in all its glory! Good thing they are only covering it for a few weeks.
This is a museum. Don't remember what it is called. But it now houses Monet's lily painting(s). Before it was a museum, it was a greenhouse for orange trees and the like, hence the glass roof.
I don't think I have to tell you what this is a picture of...
On the left is part of the Louvre.
The Louvre (the castle part, of course). We didn't see the pyramid.
Pont Neuf (a bridge). In English, it means "New Bridge"; however, it is the oldest bridge in Paris.
They're working on it!
This is a high school. There were bars on most of the windows. Have to keep them in. Or maybe out. Nicolas wasn't sure (lol).
The Pantheon, where many celebrities are buried including Victor Hugo (author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
The path leading to the Luxembourg palace (we got off the bus at this point and got to walk to these sites):
The Luxembourg palace:
A copy of the prototype of the Statue of Liberty. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi used this mother as the model for the Statue of Liberty. Interestingly, France also Statue of Liberty in Paris on the Seine (we didn't see it, though), and it is facing west. This way, both Statues are facing each other as a sign of friendship between the two nations.
This is the bee house from all the bees of Luxembourg gardens
And then I got some pretty good shots of Le Tour Eiffel, if I do say so myself. If you notice a glare at the bottom of the picture, don't think that was my camera being stupid. There is an actual glass wall around the tower now. They put it up two years ago to try to help with security because of all the terrorists and bombings that keep happening in the country.
But please don't freak out. We've been totally safe this whole time.
There are names of famous people actually on the Eiffel Tower.
A statue of the
In the afternoon, we went to Versailles. Before going into the chateau (castle) we all went to lunch. Some of us went to a Creperie (restaurant that makes crepes). We were going to get a main course crepe and a dessert crepe (dessert crepes being the sweet ones that you think of). But...we didn't have time to get our dessert crepes.
I had a chicken crepe and Mom had scallops. Both were excellent, by the way. But, again, I'll do a post on all our food some other time.
Okay, on to Le Chateau de Versailles.
The original gold gate at the entrance of the castle...or palace if you want to call it that...was actually destroyed during the French Revolution. The French people put it back up a few years ago so that it would be exactly like how it was when it was built. The gate is actual gold, paid for by a private company.
The ceilings in all the rooms are absolutely stunning. This is the first room we went to was the Hercules Room.
The Hercules room is the second biggest room in The Palace of Versailles. It was often used for balls and large dinners.
Louis XIV, the Sun King (called that because one of his emblems was the sun), was very much loved...at least by the nobles. He was a short man, which is why he was often wearing heels. He also suffered typhus when he was young. Before suffering this disease, he had beautiful, long curly hair. After getting sick, however, it all fell out. This is why he started wearing wigs (which, by the way, were made from human hair). So, Louis XIV was the one that got all the nobles to start wearing wigs.
More on him later.
This is the doors into the chapel in the palace:
The chapel:
A royal emblem of France. It is blue for the patronage of Mary, the Mother of God:
This room is where Louis the XIV died. He died of gangrene.
It's actually really horrible how the royal family had to be put on display for the public all the time. So, the king would die and everyone would come watch. His family would be beind the small gate (made of gold), and everyone else would be in front of the gate.
Also, an explanation on why the beds were so high: to keep them warm and to keep the rodents out of the bed. Oh, to live in the palace is a great life for a cat.
This is a portrait of Louis XV, pretty sure...
And this is the famous portrait of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Notice his high heels and wig.
The War Room, before the Hall of Mirrors...which is ironic to me. I'll get to the irony in a second, though.
In the War Room, there is decorations symbolizing all the seasons.
So we have a young lady for spring:
A middle-aged woman for summer:
And an old man for winter:
The view from outside the War Room: the formal gardens. This part is actually what they modeled for the Washington Gardens in DC:
Are we in America? Nope! Versailles!
The Hall of Mirrors. Okay, why do I find this ironic that the War Room is right beside it? Because the Hall of Mirrors is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed, which ended WWI...but also was the reason that WWII started.
Nicolas must have liked us, because he mentioned that the kings' personal rooms were not part of the tour, but he took us in there anyway. I'm wondering if he really liked Mom because she asked so many questions and got him talking...and he seemed to really like me too because he only spoke French with me. He was just a very personable guy, who obviously loves his job. And I say that he really liked me and Mom because he actually asked us our names and remembered them throughout the day.
This room is where the king would meet with his advisors and make decisions for the country:
And here is the king's actual bedroom. Remember: the one we saw before was just the room where he died.
In the next room was a family portrait. King Louis XIV is on the right.
The Queen's Music Room:
In the queen's bedroom is a portrait of Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI. This portrait was painted a few weeks before the Revolution. It is interesting because she is protrayed as a mother and not a queen. The empty crib next to her, that her eldest son is pointing to, is also showing the death of her youngest child, who didn't make it past a few days of its life.
Also, it's interesting to know, that her daughter (on the left) was the only one of her children that survived to become an adult. The boys were killed during the Revolution with their parents, the eldest actually starved to death in prison.
Louis XVI, with his wife Marie Antoinette, paid for Versailles because they were killed during the French Revolution. Interestingly, it was a group of angry mothers who stormed the castle to capture the king, queen, and their children. The mothers were so sick of watching their own children die of starvation because the royalty kept stealing their money and didn't take care of the common people.
Back to the palace, in the next room we visited, there was a replica of a painting of the crowning of Napoleon. You can tell it is a replica because one of his sisters (on the left) is in a pink dress instead of blue like the rest of her sisters. The painter had fallen in love with that particular sister and wanted her to stand out. The original painting is in the Orsy Museum in Paris.
And we are outside again. Here is a picture of the original building before the palace was finished. Before the Palace of Versailles was a palace, it was a hunting lodge for the royal family. The rest of the palace was built around it.
And then we got to walk around the gardens:
And I saw a raven!
And that is pretty much it for the day.
So, we are finishing up our last night in Paris, and on to Caen in the morning to spend a few days with my host mother from 2017, Colette.
Talk to you later. A plus tard, mes amis!
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