Palace at Versailles

Tue, Sep 8, Paris:  After a full breakfast at our hotel, we headed out for the RER train to Versailles. A 40-minute trip on the train and we were at Versailles. Thought this would be the highlight of Paris, but there were so many people. After getting pushed and shoved and stepped on, I wanted to kill someone just for the pleasure of doing so. Told Mike we’d better get out of here before I did something really bad. After seeing what we wanted in the palace, we exited to the gardens. Thought it was included in our Paris Pass, but NOT. So, 8 euros each later we were walking the gardens. Beautiful for sure. After we’d had enough of that we headed back for the RER train back to Paris. Of course that was slammed. No place to sit, so I sat in the stairway and Mike stood. We switched halfway through—Mike’s back is killing him. Getting off the train at St. Michael, the door slammed on Mike as he was exiting the train. Mon dieu! Someone got the door open and Mike jumped off. I told Mike I needed a drink, so we headed to the hotel bar and sat outside at the little downstairs garden bar. Enjoyed talking with a couple from Alaska—their last night here. Finished our drinks and headed in search of somewhere for dinner, after which we retired to our hotel room.

I should have known this day was cursed from the beginning, since after getting up we got a call from the front desk asking if we had any smoke in our room. No, said I. Apparently the smoke alarm was sounding at the front desk indicating a problem in our room. The only thing I could think of was the pot to heat up water in our room. But that hadn’t been a problem before. After we left for Versailles a mechanic came up and fixed whatever was wrong. We never did find out what it was. Just another eventful day in Paris.

The front gate at Versailles.

Finally made it into the courtyard after waiting in line 45 minutes.

Hall of sculptures.

Madame's bedroom. Not sure who "Madame" was.

Madame's library.

The music room.

That's an organ on the far wall.

Hall of mirrors.

Mikey in the Hall of Mirrors.

View of the palace from the gardens.

The gardens at Versailles.

Statue of Louis IV.

The RER train heading back to Paris. I was sitting on the stairs to the upper level. Mike was standing to my right.

This little guy got on the train at the next stop with his accordian and started playing. Just another day on the RER.