Paris - Day 2

Okay, I'm back to continue the story of our time in Paris. Day #2 we spent most of the day at the Palace of Versailles. It's about an hour train ride out of Paris....it turned out to be a bit longer for us since we got on the wrong train the first time! No worries, we got on the correct one eventually.



Being Easter weekend, everyone and their brother was in Paris visiting the sights for the weekend. So, that meant even bigger lines to wait in - note: try to buy your tickets online beforehand (for most of the Paris attractions), it will save a little bit of stress.

First impressions of Versailles: 1- it's very big, 2- there is a LOT of gold plating on things, 3- I can't imagine walking on the cobblestone roads "back in the day" since I had a hard enough time trying not trip or twist an ankle on our trip!



My favorite part of this day was visiting the Royal Stables at Versailles. They, unlike the palace, actually still had living beings in them! (Outside of the visitors, I mean) No photos were allowed inside the barn but we could take a few in the open courtyard where they warm-up the horses. We watched a morning schooling session of dressage set to music. We think this is when they work on the routines for the evening "Spectacle" with all the horses. The inside arena was beautiful and looked like a ball room and the back walls had drawings of horses on them.



Then it was back up to the palace to meet Maralee in the gardens. They are huge and filled with topiary and fountains. No flowers yet, just lots of green right now - they were still impressive though. It was a beautiful sunny day to be outside enjoying them.



Most of the fountains had statues in or around them.



Then it was inside the palace. Overall, I preferred Windsor Castle, but I will say this was an impressive place to see! A bit over the top with all of the gold leaf and painted ceilings though. It's nice in a room or two, but almost every one, really?



Hall of Mirrors and a sitting room.



After touring the inside, Mandi and I decided to walk back to Starbucks to wait for Maralee (she was watching the fountain show since she had toured the palace the last time she was in Paris). Good plan, except that we got lost trying to find it. After walking around awhile we retraced our steps and I stayed put by some restaurants while Mandi went to go find Maralee. We eventually got back to the train station and headed back into the city.

We stopped at a cafe' for some crepes while we waited for it to get dark.



This was our view once the sun set:

Then back home to our train stop.