Adventure part 2

So last Saturday morning I left my friend's apartment in the suburbs around 9:30am. I had hit the snooze, which meant I didn't have to time to fully blow dry my hair so I kind of threw myself together because I had to catch a train to Gare St Lazare in order to meet up with my cousin. I also had to take all my stuff with me (carry-on size suitcase, computer bag, and purse) because I was changing hosts.

At the commuter station I looked at the screens and went to the platform indicated for the next train to Paris. Except everyone was lining up on the opposite side. An announcement came on that the side of the platform I was standing on was the next train leaving for Paris. But no one moved. A minute later, a train arrived on the side with all the people so I figured I'd get on that train since it arrived first. I pulled my suitcase on, sat down, and saw the electronic message board further down the wagon: ce train a pour destination Maintes La Joie. Oh no!! I started thinking about how far behind this was going to put me, having to wait for a new train heading back to Paris, calling my cousin to tell her I would be late, delaying our arrival at Versailles... I stressed probably all the way to the next stop, which was Houilles. Wait, what? I turns out I was going in the right direction. I'd been kind of curious why so many people were headed out to Maintes la Joie on a Saturday morning, but it all made sense once I realized I hadn't screwed up.

While on the train I tried calling my cousin at her hotel to tell her that I forgot about my luggage and that I wanted to leave it in her room, but there was so much noise they couldn't hear me and hung up. When I called again from the train station, they'd already left their room, so rolled my suitcase down to the metro and headed over to Invalides, our meeting point.

After a little train ride, we arrived in Versailles, and discovered that the temperature had dropped about 5 degrees since we'd left Paris and the wind had really picked up. Outside the train station there was a guy barking in about 3 different languages "Buy your tickets to Versailles across the street!". Listen to this man. I totally zoned out on the fact that we were going to Versailles on a Saturday and I should have encouraged my cousin and her husband to buy their tickets at the little tourist office across from the train station because the lines at Versailles were pretty long, even for the atm style ticket distributors. We struggled with my suitcase over the cobblestones, but eventually made it to the entrance.

The last time I visited Versailles was 5 years ago when they were in the middle of refurbishing the Hall of Mirrors, and they've changed a lot of things since. You no longer enter through the main gates, and the statue of Louis XIV has been moved from the inner courtyard to the outer one. They have a special tourist entrance that uses one of the carriage buildings on the side of the gate to let people in.

The gate you used to be able to go through

They also have metal detectors and airport style baggage scanners (which I definitely don't remember the other times I was there). Just after security was the cloak/baggage check, so I left my suitcase. But they don't take valuables (computers, cameras, purses with money, etc) so I had to keep my computer bag with me. This turned out to be a huge inconvenience.

Versailles is free for European residents under 26, so I just had to show my id at security in order to enter. I did have to pay for an audio-guide, and we initially thought we were going to do the temporary exhibit as well, so I got the package guide-exhibit for 7€ for students/-26.

Besides visiting the king's and queen's rooms and the Hall of Mirrors, we also visited some large rooms with paintings depicting all the major war victories of France, starting in about 600 with Clovis. This part of the chateau had signs explaining how Versailles became a museum as well, which I'd never seen before. If I remember correctly, it was Louis-Philippe, one of the restoration kings in the 1800 who decided to make the chateau open to the public as a way to celebrate French history and kind of bring everyone together.

We also got to visit the rooms of the Madames, or the daughters of Louis XV. I had no idea, but besides having his son Louis XVI, he had 6 or 8 daughters, who all had rooms on the ground floor beneath the King and Queen's rooms and the Hall of Mirrors. Their rooms actually opened to the gardens. As princesses, they lived there for a number of years, but I think the audio guide said that at one point the king moved one of his daughters to another area in order to give his mistress one of the nice salons. After we'd finished visiting, I looked at the map of Versailles a bit, and I saw that the Madame rooms are only open on the weekends, which explains why I'd never visited them.

After staring at all that gold, we were hungry, so we headed over to the restaurant that's set up right before you head out to the gardens. It was too late for the French for lunch time at the sit down restaurant (they were only serving tea and snacks), so we picked up some sandwiches at the self-serve cafeteria. My cousin and her husband paid for lunch again, so I avoided mentioning that my Orangina was about triple over priced (3,50€ I think for the plastic bottle one, not the little glass). Grocery store style triangle sandwiches in plastic were around 5€.

We ate our price-gouged meal and warmed up a little bit, then we head out to the gardens. We took pictures along the way down to the Neptune fountain by the Grand Canal, but unfortunately most of the statues were covered with cloth and tied. I guess to protect them from the weather?

View of the gardens from inside the chateau; in the foreground is a huge vase covered with a cloth; there are also modern art statues as part of a temporary exhibit

Out on the canal there were several crew boats practicing, which I thought was kind of insane considering how cold it was and that the huge fountain was in use which made for a huge cloud of water blowing over a large portion of the canal. One of the little shuttle trains left with passengers while we were taking pictures and my cousin and her husband were interested in taking it since the Petit and Grand Trianon and the Hameau were so far way. I looked on the sign: 3,50€ one way! I guess that's how they pay for all the upkeep though. We ended up walking a little ways and then heading back to the chateau because it was really cold out there.

My this time both of my shoulders were really killing be from having to carry my computer bag for so long. I changed sides from time to time, but it was a huge drag. Outside it was just heavy. Inside the chateau, it was heavy and bulky when trying to squeeze in between people or trying to find a spot on one of the benches.

We got my suitcase and rolled back over the cobblestones back to the train station and headed back to the hotel. I stayed with my cousin and her husband for a bit and copied their pictures onto my computer, but then we said goodbye. They decided they really wanted to go to the Moulin Rouge, which was problematic for me because a) it's really expensive and b) I had to meet up with my new host and going to the Moulin Rouge would mean hauling all my stuff to the show in order to leave directly for my friend's place. My cousin and her husband went to dinner before the show, and I met up with the friend of B's who hosted me. We ate a bit at Le Paradis de Fruit at Bastille, and then met up with Ksam and some other friends at a bar near Opéra.

Nachos at the bar; they sprinkled the cheese on, then microwaved it, so they were kind of glued together

At the bar, one of the friends explained that since he's unemployed, he's been earning some money dressing up as Quasimodo and hanging out in front of Notre Dame to take pictures with tourists. He said a friend of his made a really nice costume and even got a latex mask made, so he borrows the get-up from time to time and makes some money posing with people in front of Notre Dame. It was just one of those wild and crazy things you hear from people in a big city, and it was cool listening to his stories (he rides a vélib to Notre Dame after getting dressed at home, for example).

Then it was metro to my new sleeping quarters out at the end of the 11 line (north east Paris). I finally got to sleep in and eat breakfast slowly on Sunday morning. After a 50 minute metro ride, I arrived at Montparnasse, and arrived in Toulouse 5 1/2 hours later.

All in all the weekend was good, though I did catch a cold while I was there (damn you dirty metro!). And it's always good to meet up with friends and family!