PPA day 7: Versailles and Paris

Once again, we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, and then met downstairs to leave for Versailles! The train ride there was fairly easy and pleasant. When we arrived, it wasn’t clear where to lineup. Stefanie went for clarification and was told that the palace opening was delayed and that we should enjoy ourselves in the garden. Second guard explained further that there was a technical problem and they expected it to open, but in the meantime, we were free to enjoy the gardens. So we did that! It was a brisk day, but I was delighted to find a rainbow in the sky! The gardens are vast and they must be amazing in spring and summer. Despite the season, I managed to find a lot of beauty in the plants, and of course the sculptures. Around 1030 we made it back to the palace entrance and we’re told that they continue to have trouble. They said the palace will “ remain closed until midday, at least.”

I was secretly delighted. This is what makes traveling in adventure! In fact, Ben and I are enjoying an anime called Zatsu Tabi which emphasizes this aspect of travel. I felt satisfied that I saw the gardens, that I had been to Versailles, and now I had a reason to return to Paris someday. My companion was much more upset. She had planned to go with me today, and also with her family who are meeting her for another week of Paris. She tried to reach out to them to figure out if it to go with them tomorrow, because the staff told us our tickets would be good anytime today and anytime. She tried to encourage me to come back with them tomorrow, but I firmly told her I was quite satisfied and did not want to spend another day in Versailles. On the way to the train station, we paused for some refreshment and to sit and research. I really wanted to eat a banh mi sometime, so I looked up some potential restaurants. We also thought it might be useful to see if we could use the tickets, we have for tomorrow at a museum today instead. With the plan in place we headed back to Paris. First, we went to the restaurant, and after settling in, when they took my order they said they do not any ANY banh mi today! So we backtracked a few blocks where we had passed a string of Middle Eastern restaurants. We found a nourishment at Kouskous, which was really good!

on the way to the museum I stopped at a clothing shop they only have here. The green blouse I wore to the ballet is from this company, Sezanne. I was hoping to see some more items in person and maybe check my size for future purchases online. Unfortunately, the store is bad reviews were earned! For some reason, they keep most of their merchandise in stacks on the wall, and you have to wait in line to get someone to pull them down, and they frequently don’t have sizes or colors. They were hardly any options to look at on the racks. Disappointing. This was followed by another disappointment when the museum would not honor tickets for today. Thus it was decided that I would come alone tomorrow to our appointed time, and Stefanie would spend tomorrow morning with her family in Versailles, we will meet up in the afternoon. Actually, I was hoping to have a day to myself in Paris, but my companion was very insistent while planning this trip that we spend 100% of our time together while I’m here. So I’m kind of happy about the change of plans, and looking up destinations for tomorrow by myself.

We took a train (got slightly lost, google was misleading) to the southeast for a museum that was on my list for possible empty periods, the Musee Carnavalet. On the weather, we passed by an another random, amazing, very old monument (this city is chock full of them!) and stopped at a patisserie for a pastry (the city is chalk full of them!) Afternoons are not the best time for walking slowly through museums, but I quite enjoyed it! This was actually my first museum of the trip. It was really well laid out with a lot of interesting artifacts. We walked through chronologically from the ancient times to the 1900s.

We walked through the shops of Le Marais and bought matching brown sweaters at Muji. Suddenly, it was pouring rain! We’ve been doing good this whole trip! Just a few sprinkles here and there. Luckily, we both had our rain jackets. We zipped up and shuffled to the nearest good looking restaurant (this city is chock full of them!) I ticked off another menu item on my list of things to eat in Paris, French onion soup (without cheese gratin), and rounded out the meal with a steak, potatoes and salad. The rain pretty much stopped, and we made our way back to the hotel, passing by the monument for which our hotel’s street gets its name. We sat in the lobby, sharing photos and recalling good parts of the day, and talking about our ambiguous plans to meet up tomorrow afternoon after she and her family come back from Versailles.

Ha! I got my post done before midnight! Plus it’s daylight savings change tonight for Europe, so I get a bonus hour of sleep! I’m going to do a little more research for tomorrow and then hit the hay. À bientôt!