I thankfully felt so much better when I woke up this morning! The even better thing is that Andrea hasn’t caught hat I have yet….Sorry in advance! We headed out to Versailles. A few trains transfers later and many tourist escorts, honestly it was like they were piling everyone into trains that was packed with SO many tourists.
Reading online we knew it would be busy at Versailles and that an hour wait was to be expected to enter the Place, but we lucked out and actually got through the line quicker than I had expected. With our ticket we even got an audio guide included. I have to say that the palace was a little smaller than I expected, which I know is crazy to say since the grounds and estate are enormous, but at least what we were able to see was less than I thought I’d be. Versailles was by built by Louis XIV as his summer escape from the city of Paris. It took 40% of Paris’s GDP over the period of its construction to build it! Louis XIV was know to be a lover of nature and the performing arts, he is actually the one that influenced the start of ballet! Next to the thrown only at the age of 5 years Louis XV extended Versailles and added to the exquisiteness of the Palace and the grounds. He however didn’t like having much power so he delegated it to others. What was clever is that he often invited these people to stay in Versailles so he could monitor them and other did this to other influential people. The final monarch to reside here was Louis XVI and his well know wife Marie Antoinette.
There is no way to explain then splendour and exuberance in the different chambers. It is like nothing I have ever seen. The walls had all been hand stitched to have different designs, rather than having wallpaper or paint. Sometimes rooms even had different wall decor and linens that would be changed depending on season. For example in winter, suede would be used, whereas for summer silk was preferred. My favourite rooms were the Chamber of Mirrors, King and Queens quarters. We then wandered through the gardens getting a little lost along the way. I found the gardens to be more like a park. The Grand Canal was bigger than I thought was possible for a canal to be! Apparently the gondolas and even the gondoliers were brought in from Venice. We went into the smaller estates in then property that were used by then royals as another escape from the Palace of Versailles to get a feel of ‘extravagant commoner’ life. Overall I hate to say it but Versailles disappointed me a bit. It was still beautiful but not what I expected.
Afterwards we made our way back to our hostel and rested for a few minutes to lay down for a bit before we got right back up and headed out again. This time we’re off to the Eiffel Tower! Since last time we went there with Vin and the lines were rather long we hoped to get there before the crowds did. Even Though when we got there there was a line it wasn’t near as bad as others since I wanted to climb up instead of take the elevator. Turns out that when you take the stairs up you can only be granted access to the decoy do viewing platform and not to the actual very top of the building. The walk up to the top wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, granted we only ended up walking only about up to have of the height of the tower. I ideally planned that the Eiffel Tower would be the epitome of our tower hiking for views. It was quite a few! Nothing else In the whole city compares height wise in the city. They actually have a story level of just eight levels,anything higher have to be granted permission from the government before it can be built. Resulting in unobstructed views for as far out we could see. We got up to the tower in time to get a daytime view, sunset and also get to see the city at night as well! The city lights and the building light up! The Eiffel Tower had small strobe lights that shown out into the evening sky, just like we had seen the night before. After spending two hours memorized by the view and a little too cold we headed down. I wanted to take the elevator down instead of climb back down the stairs for a different view and also since I was tired haha. I am sure glad that we did! The stood right against the glass window and literally went through the tower! We were able to see the structure, paneling and beams of the tower. We actually liked the ride so much we stayed on the elevator and rode back up no then down again. Once we left we walked back to the metro station, but not before catching another glance at the tower light up. When we went back to our hostel all we wanted to do was just go to sleep, but a girl in our room had to much fun earlier in the night and thankfully the hostel staff was taking care of her, but in the end the situation was so bad that they called an ambulance. So French fireman came up to our room at midnight and afterwards took her to get further help. Hopefully she will, be alright but Andrea and I wanted nothing more than to just sleep so after everything was taken care of we finally were able to.