Short story first, our day consisted of a visit to Versailles, La Duree at Place de la Concorde, La Fayette department store, Sacre Cour, Montmartre, Arc de Triomphe, Trocodero, Eiffel Tower, Cruise on the Seine - most of which was done on foot!
By the end of the day we were knackered and feet were feeling as if they'd been well and truly beaten up!!!
The day started out great, with a nice cooked breakfast and then a 40 min bus & train ride out to to Versailles. Once there, we joined the masses in a 30 minute queue to go through the necessary security check to get into the palace. Once in, we were in awe of this place.
Too be honest, I'm a bit lost for words to describe the Palace of Versailles. The opulence and grandeur is something else! I should have bought a book and copied out some of the key info! The public is only allowed to view certain areas of the palace, which makes you wonder what the rest is like.
What we saw was amazing. The Kings and Queens (separate) chambers, the hall of mirrors, drawing rooms, sitting rooms, waiting rooms - the list goes on and on. The original paintings that adorn the walls, the painted ceilings, gold encrusted statues, crystal chandeliers - on and on.........
Then it was off to visit the outside. The gardens, which are open to the public, are simply stunning. The size of the gardens is just ridiculous and I lost count of the number of pools, water features, statues etc that we saw.
Even though we spent two hours inside and out, we only visited a small fraction of the palace and grounds.
From Versailles it was off to Place de la Concorde and a visit to the original La Duree, famous for their macaroons, for a bite to eat. It was very fancy, with nice china and lovely place settings........
After lunch, we walked up the road to the catholic cathedral of Ste-Marie Madeleine. This is a beautiful building were visitors are welcome to visit at no cost. The outside is really dirty and possibly puts people off going inside. But inside is completely different and is definitely worth taking the time to investigate.
The stained class, the marble and beautifully painted ceilings are certainly impressive. It was hard not to laugh inside though, as there was a man employed to walk inside the cathedral as the official shhhhhhh-person! He just walked in circles around the pews shhhhing all the time - he made more bloody noise than everyone else!
After that we continued our ramble around the streets of Paris slowly making our way toward Sacre Cour. Before getting there we stopped at the Lafayette department store to view the impressive dome that is the buildings centrepiece. I'm not really one for visiting department stores, but this was worth the visit.
After a bit more rambling (including walking in circles at one stage) we finally managed to find our way to Sacre Cour.
Sacre Cour is simply amazing. I think I'm running out out of superlatives to describe the Paris buildings! But they are all just so incredible, it's sometimes a struggle to aptly describe them.
Sacre Cour is built on top of a hill in Montmartre and offers the most fantastic 360 degree views across Paris. If you can be bothered, which we were, the 300 step spiral walk up to the dome is well worth it as the views are even better! There were certainly a lot of very tired souls at the top! So just sitting, resting and enjoying the views was a must!!
Back down and it was getting a little late, but we still had things to do. So it was off to the Arc de Triomphe for yet more stairs to climb - again, the pain endured in the calf muscles was well worth it!
The Arc de Triomphe is the centrepiece of Paris, with all the main roads starting at its base and radiating out across the city from there. The monument itself is beautiful and shows great respect for those that have lost their lives during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
Since the late 1800's, French troops have paraded through the central arch after successful military campaigns and for the Bastille Day Parade. But after they laid the tomb to the Unknown Soldier at its base earlier in the 1900's, all military parades walk up to the arch and then around the side. Even Hitler observed this when he paraded through there in 1940!
After that it was a short Metro ride to the Trocodero and a walk down to the most famous of all Paris landmarks, the Eiffel Tower. We had planned to have dinner there, but it was a bit hectic, so instead we decided to take a river cruise and then head back to the hotel for some much needed rest after another day of walking.
What a day! We both felt completely knackered. After finally getting back to the hotel at 10:00pm, we had dinner in the hotel restaurant before finally getting back to our room at 11:45pm. Pretty long day, when you consider we headed out at 8:30am!
Bonne Nuit!
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