Today, due to scheduling, we tried to cram both Versailles and the Louvre into one day. We should've done Versailles yesterday afternoon and spent the whole day today at the Louvre because Versailles didn't take as long as I thought it would.
The train to Versailles was quick and there was a lonely taxi sitting outside the station that we paid a few euro to take us to the main palace instead of walking 20 minutes or (since there are four of us the same price) paying to use the bus.
We were maybe the 8th in line at 8:30 for our scheduled time to get in at 9:00. By the time 9:00 rolled around there were probably a couple hundred people in line. It was really annoying when some lady and her daughter budged in behind us at 8:55.
French people know how to make a line unlike the Italians. Overall it feels like we're in a first world country, unlike Italy which feels like a third world country that has first world makeup on.
Gardens out the window
Royal Chapel, 2nd floor
Meeting room / ballroom
One of the king's bedrooms. 300 or 400 year old clock (that still works) that has the king pop out. We didn't wait to see if that is true. It did have the right time.
Hall of mirrors
Another bedroom, nobles would have to compete or sign up to be involved in the ritual of the king waking up.
Later, the empire era, there are a bunch of Napoleon propaganda paintings. Here he is crowned emperor in a giant wall sized painting.
Emperor of France and King of Italy
The apartments and other rooms went on and on.
The gardens. We didn't spend as much time here as we could've, nor did we visit Trianon. They are acres and acres of gardens, fountains, and pools.
The Louvre
We got back to the hotel room earlier than expected so rested a bit before catching the bus again. As we had booked tickets for 4pm and arrived at 3:35 we sailed right in - this is a trick I've discovered that often works.
The Louvre was pretty packed inside and is a maze. Definitely need most of the day to see it. We had a couple hours and saw the highlights but the maze like layout made it very frustrating. I was pissed off most of the time trying to navigate through the maze.
We mistakenly ended up in the sculptures area, which was incredible, but we mainly wanted to see paintings with our limited time as we had seen a lot of sculptures. We spent the next half hour trying to get where we were going, but did look at things as we went. Part of the problem with the layout is because it used to be a palace for French kings before being converted currently into a museum.
A few well known paintings that were cool to see. Many of them were giant, like 20-30 feet across.
We also briefly saw the Mona Lisa, from a distance of maybe 20 feet. We didn't feel like standing in line.
The Winged Victory was also neat. I did my best to take a photo without a million people in it.
After that we went for supper and then went to bed since the train to the Loire Valley leaves at 6am.
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