Fjords and Kilts and Hot Springs, Day 14 -- Paris!

Day 14 -- Paris Sunny, 80º

We all slept in a little bit after such a long day and late night on Day 13. We got up and out of the hotel around 9:00 a.m. In "our" plaza, there was a Pomme de Pain and that's where we had breakfast: coffee and a couple pastries with very friendly and curious birds. Breakfast on the sidewalk of a plaza patisserie in Paris is a pretty good way to start your day.

Our mission for the day was to visit Versailles. Today's Adventure After Disney was the Metro system. We knew which train to take and followed the signs to the correct platform. But once we were there, we didn't understand how to read the schedule of which train was coming to the platform. So we boarded the train that stopped at our platform, but as we boarded, I noticed that the "map" of the train's stops was not the color of the train we were supposed to be on. So I said to my brother-in-law, "I don't think this train goes to Versailles" and a local turned to me and said in heavily-accented English, "This train is not going to Versailles -- for sure!" So we got off before the doors shut and waited for the next train, which was the correct color. And to be sure, I asked someone who verified that it was the correct train. We arrived at the Versailles train station around 11:00.

So my tip for anyone going to see the sites and museums of Paris is to get all your tickets (or a Paris Pass) ahead of time, if at all possible. The reason is that the lines at all the major attractions are 75+ minutes long to purchase tickets at the site. The good news is that at Versailles, there's a tour company located right across the street from the train station that sells tickets. You can buy regular tickets for the same price as at the museum, or for €8 more, you can buy "skip the line" tickets. So if you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you do have a good alternative before waiting in the museum line.

We had "skip the line" tickets, so we didn't feel rushed to get to the gate. So we got a quick snack and then walked 5 or 10 minutes tot he front gates of Versailles.

We toured the palace and the museum with a hand-held self-guiding device. It was really good, but I actually found myself wishing that it gave more information. There were so many statues and paintings that were not discussed, it was a little frustrating to me. But it definitely was better than just walking through and looking at "stuff". After completing the tour of the building, we got a quick snack in the cafe, but I would recommend avoiding it if possible. It was very cramped and there was not nearly enough seating.

After our snack, we went outside to tour the gardens. They are SOOOO big. It was already late in the afternoon, so there was no way we were going to be able to see everything. But we were there when they turned on all the fountains, and it was really cool. They pumped classical music through speakers around the grounds and turned on the fountains. We even saw the fountain that is featured in "Impressions de France" in the France Pavilion at Epcot.

Some pictures of the gardens.

The one thing that I didn't like about the gardens at Versailles was that they were using the gardens to display "masterworks" of Anish Kapoor. These are giant modern works that are just plopped in the middle of the grounds. They don't fit at all with the surroundings.

This giant metal disc was part of a 2-piece installation. The other part of the mirror was on the steps of the palace.

There was also a big whirlpool and a giant construction that looked like a cornucopia and they actually dug up the area around the cornucopia. It was ugly as sin. I didn't even take pictures of it. But overall, I loved wandering the gardens; they're really beautiful. It was well worth the effort and money to visit the grounds.

We also think that we saw Robert Pattinson of Harry Potter and Twilight fame in the gardens. My daughter was pretty sure that it was him, and when we looked online, it does seem that he was in Paris at the same time we were. Kind of fun.

They were having a special evening event in the gardens that required its own entrance fee and we didn't have tickets for that, so around 5:00, we left the palace and started walking back to the train. We took the Metro back to Champs Elysees and dinner at the Pizza Pino outside on the sidewalk. I had a chicken caesar salad, Molly had a pasta bolognese, and Kathryn had the chicken francaise. Mine was ok, Molly's was very good and Kath's chicken was excellent.

After dinner, we walked right across the street -- again, the Champs Elysees!! -- to the Disney store! It was very crowded. I didn't really like it all that much. There was a downstairs, which was essentially a bargain outlet with old or lousy merchandise. But we got to say that we saw it and it had some fun displays in the upstairs part.

After leaving the Disney store, we continued walking up the street and visited the Arc de Triumphe. After taking some pictures, we took a cab back to the hotel. (The cab ride was an Adventure After Disney in itself, as our driver had NO idea where our hotel was.)

We ended up back at the hotel around 10:30, and called it a night because we knew we were getting up early the next day.

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