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Day 18: Aug 23, 2009 / Paris, France
We had a very long day the day before and so we started our day late again on our second to the last day in Paris. We arranged our luggage to prepare for our departure the next day for Frankfurt before leaving our hotel. We left the hotel around 11 PM and took the MTR to go to Versailles (which is a city outside Paris).
We saw a Mc Donald’s restaurant when we arrived and so we deiced to have our lunch first since it was already close to 12 nn. There was already a long queue when we entered the castle and the heat of the sun was so draining that is why when he heard the announcement that they are offering guided tours so we can skip the line, we decided to just take it. It turns out, there are a lot of people who did the same thing as what we did and so the earliest schedule that was given to us was at 2:30 PM.
We were so tired and lazy already and so instead of touring the garden first (since we have more than an hour to wait) while waiting for the tour to start, we just decided to stay at the waiting room. The guided tour does not cover the entire castle (I can’t remember exactly, but I think the tour includes the outer part of the castle where the extension rooms were built and it also includes the tour of the chapel inside the castle) and there are some parts of the castle that we can just explore on our own using the free audio guide. Since we saw the Schronbrunn Palace first in Vienna, we find the Versailles palace a little simple compared to Schronbrunn. The highligth of the palace was the Wall of Mirrors. It is a big hall surrounded by mirrors and it is indeed grand. I think the castle is only open until 6 PM and so when it is time already for us to explore the other parts of the castle, we only have 1.5 hour left and so we were already in a hurry so we can finish touring the entire castle.
After the tour of the castle, we went inside the garden. We were not able to watch the fountain show but the garden is so amazing. Would you believe it, it has an amphitheater and a makeshift grand canal where you can ride a canoe. The garden is open until 8 PM (and the sun is still up by that time), so we stayed there until it closes.
After Versailles, we head straight to our hotel and ate again at the nearby Chinese Restaurant (where there is rice) and call it a day. You can view more pictures here.
We saw a Mc Donald’s restaurant when we arrived and so we deiced to have our lunch first since it was already close to 12 nn. There was already a long queue when we entered the castle and the heat of the sun was so draining that is why when he heard the announcement that they are offering guided tours so we can skip the line, we decided to just take it. It turns out, there are a lot of people who did the same thing as what we did and so the earliest schedule that was given to us was at 2:30 PM.
We were so tired and lazy already and so instead of touring the garden first (since we have more than an hour to wait) while waiting for the tour to start, we just decided to stay at the waiting room. The guided tour does not cover the entire castle (I can’t remember exactly, but I think the tour includes the outer part of the castle where the extension rooms were built and it also includes the tour of the chapel inside the castle) and there are some parts of the castle that we can just explore on our own using the free audio guide. Since we saw the Schronbrunn Palace first in Vienna, we find the Versailles palace a little simple compared to Schronbrunn. The highligth of the palace was the Wall of Mirrors. It is a big hall surrounded by mirrors and it is indeed grand. I think the castle is only open until 6 PM and so when it is time already for us to explore the other parts of the castle, we only have 1.5 hour left and so we were already in a hurry so we can finish touring the entire castle.
After the tour of the castle, we went inside the garden. We were not able to watch the fountain show but the garden is so amazing. Would you believe it, it has an amphitheater and a makeshift grand canal where you can ride a canoe. The garden is open until 8 PM (and the sun is still up by that time), so we stayed there until it closes.
After Versailles, we head straight to our hotel and ate again at the nearby Chinese Restaurant (where there is rice) and call it a day. You can view more pictures here.
