Life of Luxurious Crepes: Paris Part 3

The Chateau de Versailles.

Originally a hunting lodge of Louis XIII, the Chateau de Versailles was to be an extravagant home from which to govern France away from the dangerous city of Paris.  Interestingly, this put Versailles a great distance away from an adequate water source and more importantly, away from the perils of Paris that led up to the French Revolution.  Louis XIV wanted this palace to be the best and if you’ve ever had a chance to see it, you will see he certainly did a fine job.  While the palace was built and improved upon over a 50 year period, one construction year in particular was said to have used half of France’s GNP for that year.  Keep in mind that France was the wealthiest and most powerful country of Europe at the time, so this was a large chunk of money.  A little irresponsible in my opinion, considering that money could have been used better elsewhere but maybe the admission fees today are making up for it…

Walking around the castle, you are, without the choice of a better word, bombarded with luxury.  Every inch of the palace is detailed.  Gold plated gates, bedposts, doors, and paintings covering the ceilings, fabrics that look to contain gold thread, all of which have stood the test of time.  Look a little closer and you see L’s inscribed on the walls, doorknobs, and on the exterior, you know, in case Louis forgot the first letter of his name.  Humble guy.

See the crowned "L"s

Each room has its own story and many mark important times in history:

Hall of Mirrors:  At the time, mirrors were extremely expensive so this over the top expression was a way to show off France’s power and money.  It is also centrally located so those in authority could be reminded of their supremacy while the visiting public could take pride in their extravagant government, I guess.  Not only was it a huge room where you had a choice of 357 mirrors to see your reflection, but also the place where the Treaty of Versailles was signed after WWI.

 Balcony outside Louis XVI’s bedroom: During the French Revolution, citizens stormed inside the gates of Versailles and flooded inside his courtyard.  Marie Antoinette and possibly Louis XVI stepped outside and addressed the people from this spot.  The citizens pointed their rifles at the royal couple but the couple remained standing there.  It is said that the people were impressed by their bravery.

View from balcony of Louis' bedroom.  Gold plated entrance
to the Palace can be seen in the distance. Imagine angry mobs
crowded in that courtyard.

In the bedrooms, you can see doors that lead to secret passageways in the palace.  Marie Antoinette used hers to escape mobs that raided the palace, while many kings used them for their mistresses.  Mistresses were quite common and accepted for royalty during that time.  It was an odd occurrence when Louis XVI was the first French king in 200 years not to have a mistress simply because the Queen was not meant to fill both of those roles.

Queen's bedroom.  Secret door is open and can barely be seen to the very left
of the picture.

While this is not the King's Bedroom, you can see a secret door
to the right of the bed.

There are many different salons throughout the Chateau, many of which dedicated to different Roman gods and goddesses.  These rooms were used for various purposes but mostly for entertainment of guests.

Liz, Olivia and I.  Picture necessary because it was one of
the few rooms without a ridiculous amount of people.

The palace itself is large enough to fit a 600 person party, thrown after Versailles’ first building campaign was completed.  THEN, you arrive at the gardens.  Look at the scale model below and you’ll see how small the Chateau seems in comparison to the gardens.  Winter was here and most everything was brownish so we didn’t venture too far into the 3 square miles of gardens in the back.  We did, however, venture far enough into this “corn maze for rich people,” to find some Nutella crepes.

The buildings in the center of the picture is the actual Chateau de Versailles.

Finished with Versailles!  Now onto some more general things.

Things that are different in Europe:

Dehydration:  Logically speaking, paying for water makes sense.  It takes money to buy the glasses, straws, ice and money to clean the glasses, so economically, yes it makes sense.  However, being accustomed to free water, I was not a fan.  So I normally only ordered food and I was rewarded by not having to pay to use the restroom.  Win-win.  Except I did notice a few days in I was extremely thirsty during the day and made a point to find a water bottle and fill it at the hotel before we left. 

Public Bathrooms: As I mentioned before, public restrooms usually cost money.  No more than 1 or 2 euros but still a chunk of change.  Therefore, if you found a free restroom that was relatively clean, you used it.  Olivia and I were meandering around the sidewalks of Paris and found a spaceship-looking bathroom with a relatively small 7-person line.  Better yet, it was free!  What we didn’t realize however that this bathroom from the future actually cleaned itself in between each user.  Great for sanitation purposes, bad for speediness.  This made each visit approx. 5 minutes.  When we recalled this later to Liz she had a similar story, but she hadn’t known about its automatic cleaning ritual.  She walked straight in after the previous person had finished, and proceeded to do, well, what is normal for that situation.  Before she had walked across the bathroom though, all the lights went out, the doors locked and water sprayed everywhere.  Not only was the bathroom floor, walls, toilet, and sink washed and disinfected, so was Liz. 

Tipping/taxes:  Great for Americans!  If you’re in a store and it says 1.99 euros, then it will be 1.99 euros, tax already added.  Tipping is saved for exemplary service/food and is rare in France, a little more common in England, and not sure yet about Spain.  Make sure you look into it though before traveling, you wouldn’t want to stiff a waiter who only makes minimum wage and depends on tips.

Public transportation: I love not having to find a place to park my car.  With metro stops interspersed around the city, it gives tourists the opportunity to explore the streets until you get to your final destination.  Not much more to say on that except I’m getting better at timing/reading bus/tube maps. 

After that short rambling session, we're back to France...

Louvre

You need to at least see the outside of the Louvre if you're in France.  Thankfully, we got our fair share of the famous clear triangle while we were in line.  

Typical Louvre picture

What the typical Louvre picture looks like to
everyone else.

There are SO many pieces of artwork in the Louvre,  I still don’t completely understand why some are so famous and why some are not.  It seems to be a combination of history and pure luck.  I love hearing the story behind the artwork so you get to hear it too.

Venus de Milo: Our friend, the mostly armless woman!  Venus de Milo is the Greek goddess of love and beauty, but depicted sans arms.  Created around 150 BC, a peasant found it buried on an island in 1820.  There was some hype over who actually bought the sculpture and eventually, in ended up in the hands of the French.  They presented it to Louis XVIII, who then gave it to the Louvre.  At the time it was created, the sculpture would have been painted and adorned with jewelry.  I prefer to believe that she lost her arms as Disney described it: Hercules put a little too much umph into his skipping stones.

Venus de Milo post skipping stones in Hercules'
gardens

Winged Victory of Samothrace:  She is the Greek Goddess of Victory standing on the prow of a ship.  Thought to be created around 200 BC, she was discovered in 1863 in more than 100 pieces.  The sculpture is regal.  Not just the powerful stance of the headless angel but its location in the Louvre.  She is set on the top of a large marble staircase beneath a skylight.  The sun shines down on the tall figure, which is standing tall in front of those standing on the staircase.  As you get closer, you can see the incredible amount of details in the wrinkles of her shawl caused by the strong wind she is experiencing atop the ship.  When she was lucky enough to still have her arms and head, it is said that she had her hand cupped around her mouth to give a shout of Victory for those aboard the ship.  Cool experience and this was one of my favorites in the museum. 

View from bottom of staircase, obviously.

Sadly, I can't take credit for this picture.  Google
is a wonderful thing.

Mona Lisa:

Why is she so famous? I didn’t know the answer to that either, so after some possibly unreliable youtube videos and other research here’s what I found.  First, Leo, a well-known figure of the day, was the artist.  Hence, his paintings were too.  Also, Mona Lisa’s pose was revolutionary for that time period.  It depicts a woman facing slightly towards the audience rather than a stiff profile.  Leo had an incredible ability to blend colors by putting layer upon layer upon layer to perceive depth in the painting, another technique unique to that time period.  The Mona Lisa was hanging in Napoleon’s bedroom for a short time and even traveled to Washington DC to meet President Kennedy during the opening of the National Gallery of Art in 1963.  Its popularity can also be attributed to luck.  The painting is thought to promote feminism and therefore increased in popularity during the Symbolist movement in the mid 19^th century.

Michelle and I in front of Mona

Popularity comes with a price however and over the years, Mona has been stolen and defaced.  In 1911, it was stolen from the Louvre and Pablo Picasso was one of the suspects.   More recently, acid and rocks were thrown at the painting.  Now an entire wall is dedicated to the Mona Lisa, said to cost 5 million euros.  It is highly secure, climate-controlled with bulletproof glass.

I may be convincing myself of this, but when I stood at a 45-degree angle of the painting, it seemed as if she was looking at me.  Assuming the rumors are true, I would think that those standing anywhere around her thought the same, because like they say, her eyes will follow you around the room.

Eiffel Tower

That night we ventured on to the Eiffel Tower, this time to climb it.  The actual climb of the 700 or so steps was not as much of a feat as I had expected it to be.  If you think it is only stairs and an elevator to the very top, however, you would be wrong.  It is equipped with a snazzy restaurant and of course a gift shop.  The last bit you were required to go by elevator and once we got to the top it was great.  Most of our pictures were from a couple levels down because the views were still magnificent and it wasn’t quite as tornado-like.  Very similar to the top of the Empire State Building if you’ve been, except they sell a 10 euro glass of champagne for the newly engaged.  I even got to take a picture of some new fiancés!

(Check back in about a week and I'll have added some pictures of this!)

Moulin Rouge

MUCH smaller than I had imagined with an incredibly pricey New Year’s Even dinner- 680 euros. We had to see it and take a picture before we left.

NYE

New Year’s Eve was fabulous to say the least.  We got dressed up as much as we could in the cold and made our way toward the Eiffel Tower, full from our dinner of baguettes, cheese and pan du chocolat.  Definitely had all the carbs we needed to sustain us through midnight.  We brought our bottle of wine and champagne (or to be France-ly correct: sparkling wine). We popped it at midnight, watched a few fireworks and the beautiful sparking display on the Tower.  Went home and got a little rest before our early train the next morning to London!