Day 8: Last Day In Paris

We took the train this morning to Versailles. We were warned about the crowds . . . which was helpful. We reversed the order a typical tourists visits Versailles. Instead of beginning in the Palace, we began in the gardens and Marie Antoinette's domain. That left the palace for later in the afternoon when the crowds had died down. That turned out to be a good strategy.

Versailles (pronounced vehr-sigh)was originally a hunting lodge. Louis XIV spent time there as a child. When he became King - he expanded it into a palace that would provide him a retreat from his other palace the Louvre in Paris. The entire palace was built to showcase Louis the XIV, self proclaimed - the "Sun King". In the palace you walk through dozens of lavishly decorated rooms. I thought the Napoleon apartments in the Louvre were opulent, well opulence takes on a whole new level at Versailles. It was truly incredible . . . unbelievable display of wealth and power. There was much that was beautiful, the art, the architecture, the craftsmanship. Truly incredible . . . but it also stool out as excessive. Lauren said it really made her wonder how someone could elevate themself to such a status that they thought they deserved all this around them. I kept thinking how this visit today would compare with our visit to Auschwitz in a few days. So much to contrast as I thought about it. The few, the many . . . . . the wealth, the poverty. . . . .the powerful, the weak.





The other areas. .. gardens were beautiful, peaceful greenery and the fountain display happened to be today. . .so we also enjoyed them. This would be a wonderful place this would be to jog every day. Marie Antoinette's domain was remarkable . .. it had a couple of small palaces - for when they needed to retreat from their retreat. It also included a little hamlet . . . a village that Marie used to act out her fantasy of being an ordinary person. In addition to cottages there were beautiful english gardens,farm animals, vegetable gardens,wildlife . .. it really was idyllic.





This evening we went to the Musee d'Orsay and took in the Impressionist galleries. It was a very different feeling than the Louvre. We tried to go to the Orangerie Museum just to peek at Monet's water lily panels housed there. Our guidebook got the closing time wrong and so we were shut out. Here are a couple of paintings that impressed Kristy at the Musee d'Orsay.


I could write more .. . .but we really must get packed up now .... we have a 5:15am shuttle to the airport as we fly to Krakow Poland tomorow.