The next morning we had café au lait and croissant in a café close by the hotel and then took the train from Montparnasse station to Versailles. After a 15 minute walk from the station, we arrived at the palace to a very long queue which fortunately moved quite quickly – towards the end we took the somewhat sneaky option of joining a much shorter queue for a tour which also enabled us to buy the ‘passport’ ticket which allowed entry into almost every exhibition.
Versaille is dauntingly huge. Our tour was not for a few hours so first off we toured the Dauphin's rooms (the heir to the thrown), and then the Mesdames' Apartments (Louis XV's daughters) which were beautiful and interesting, but really nothing compared to what we saw later.
At 1pm we joined our tour led by an amusing French man (not amusing funny, but amusing in that particular French way – like when an American women complained he was walking too fast he paused only long enough to give her a withering stare and then continued what he was saying). Firstly we went into the Kings rooms where our guide explained how much of the furniture and ornaments had been auctioned off after the French Revolution, but now ‘it come back’ as the French government negotiated, coerced, cajoled, persuaded and influenced the current owners to return the items to their rightful home (apparently ever item was documented for the auction with the buyer – he mentioned that the British royal family had a number of pieces). Over an hour later, the tour ended in the Opera House which was really quite amazing – very plush and ornate and still used (very occasionally) to this day.
After the tour ended we went back around via the Chapel -
to the Hall of Mirrors -
and then in to the private rooms of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette - extremely lavish and quite beautiful. The ceiling and bed canopy of Marie Antoinette's rooms -
By this stage it was after 4pm and we really hadn’t seen much at all!
We made our way out to the gardens where all the fountains had been turned on (only for certain periods every day) but had to stop to eat as we were both hungry and exhausted! After some food, we tried to see some of the gardens but it is simply too immense to see completely. We then headed through the grounds to Marie Antoinette’s Estate where she retreated 'to escape from the rigours of Court Etiquette', and where no one, unlike at the main palace, could enter without her permission –
Still quite grand, but much more intimate than Versailles. From there we went to The Petit Trianon, designed for private use by Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. By this stage it was getting quite late and everything was beginning to close so we made the long walk back through the gardens, past the palace and back to the train station to take the train back to Montparnasse station - exhausting! By the time we got back it was after 8 so we had some dinner in a cafe close by our hotel before getting some much-deserved sleep.
The next morning we got up early and I took Mum to Montmartre so we could have breakfast at the great place Michelle and I had found when we were in Paris last year. The day was lovely, we managed to get a great table outside and the food and coffee were great, so a good start to the day! From there we walked up the hill to Sacre Coeur where we walked around the church and took in the view -
From there we took the Metro back to the Arc de Triomphe -
and then walked to the Eiffel Tower -
then back along the Seine -
to the Louvre. Our plan had been originally to only spend a few hours at Versailles on Saturday and then come back to Paris - but as above, there was so much to see there we spent the whole day. So on Sunday I wanted to cover as many of the 'big' sights as possible - unfortunately Paris has so many 'big' sights, it was literally impossible and we had to make a choice between going inside the Louvre or the Musee D'Orsay. I had been to both (back in 1995) and I pushed for the Musee D'Orsay as it was smaller, sure to be less crowded, and specialised in the period of art I knew Mum preferred (mostly 19th century). Even so, we only had about 90 minutes and it was still impossible to see everything - it really is quite staggering the amount of famous art there. Looking down to main hall to the famous clock -
After that we had to quickly make our way back to the hotel to collect our bags then take the train back to the Gare du Nord to make our way back to London.
