So it begins

Oh to be rich!

Published Date : July 4, 2004

Palace of Versailles

Today, we explored Versailles, checking out the palace and going for a bit of a wander around town.  Incroyable!!  It only cost about E$10 for two return tickets on the train.  Added bonus, I’m starting to get the hang of speaking French again.

We weren’t really sure where we were going once we got off the train, so we just followed the hordes of tourists…always seems to work!  The Palace of Versailles was absolutely incredible.  We bought the E$20 day pass that gives you access to everything; I spent half the day walking around with my mouth hanging open.  I’ve never said wow so many times before in my life!  It’s actually almost too much.  By the end of the day it’s just so much opulence that it doesn’t faze you anymore.  A few years ago I went to Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria which was actually built to rival the Palace of Versailles.  It doesn’t even come close. The French definitely know what they’re doing when it comes to displays of grandeur and wealth.

And that was just the palace!  The gardens are another story altogether.  To walk from the Palace to the end of the Grand Canal is 3.2km, and the entirety of the gardens covers 250 acres.  There are still large patches of untouched woodland (Versailles was originally a hunting “lodge” for French royalty), but most of it is superbly landscaped.  We spent a good couple of hours meandering through the grounds and we barely scratched the surface.  You could easily spend an entire weekend there and still not see everything.

Rainy view of the gardens at Versailles

Even with the uncooperative rainy weather, we stuck around to see the Fountains Display.  They do two shows a day where they turn on the hundreds of water fountains throughout the grounds.  It was a great show despite the weather, and we had a fabulous time.  I feel sorry for the hundreds of people coming through on coach tours who were only given an hour or two to blow through the palace.  It would just not be enough!

Calling it quits at about 5:30pm after over 7 hours of exploring, we went for a stroll through town to find something to eat.  Being a Sunday night there weren’t a lot of options, but we ended up finding small place still open.  It was basically just a chippy shop, but the selection of food was really impressive, and it was actually quite good.  I’ve come to the conclusion that you have to work really hard to find rotten food in France.

So after collecting some souvenirs it was on the train back to Paris.  We were planning on just grabbing some snacks and drinks from the supermarket and watching the Euro 2004 final in our hotel, but, again, being Sunday, everything was closed.  We eventually found an open corner store and settled on some chocolate and wine – hard to go wrong with either – and spent a quiet night at the hotel watching the game and writing up postcards

Some history

Published Date : July 5, 2004

Notre Dame Cathedral

After two days in Paris we decided it was finally time to see some of the major tourist sights.  When we checked out of our hotel this morning we discovered that the continental breakfast we had been enjoying wasn’t actually included in our room price.  Only cost E$11 each per day…ouch!  Lesson learned.

Leaving our luggage with the hotel, we made our way to Ile de la Cite for an English-language walking tour around Notre Dame and Saint-Chappelle (E$7 each with our student IDs)

We learned a lot about the history of the area and of Paris itself, and had a really enjoyable couple of hours.  We got down some of the back alleys and side streets that were just off the beaten tourist track, always a great thing.

After the tour we headed for the nearest Post Office to send off our postcards – I’m actually starting to enjoy speaking French now, limited as it is.  Then it was a quick lunch at a nice little cafe we spotted on our tour.  What a find that one was.  Just a stone’s throw from the madness at Notre Dame and we were the only tourists in a place that was packed with locals.  Great food, great service, great atmosphere.  We couldn’t have asked for more.  I just wish I had remembered to get the name of the place before we left!

The rest of the day was filled with a lot of exploring.  We strolled along the River Seine eating ice cream and stopped a while to wave at the tour boats.  Then we took a stroll up to the Louvre and the Tulieries Gardens for some photos.  Up past the Place de la Concorde with a quick photo of the Eiffel Tower.  We had both already climbed the tower on previous visits and weren’t really interested in doing it again – once was enough!  And what trip to Paris would be complete without a stroll along the Champs Elysees past the Arc de Triomphe?

By this point we were pretty exhausted, so we called it a day.  Picking up our luggage at the hotel, we hopped on the Metro to Gare du Nord to catch our train back to London.  We had a bit of a wait at the station before our train, so we just rested, people-watched and tried to spend the rest of our Euros.

Another uneventful journey and a surprisingly easy time through passport control and we were back in London.  The end of another successful weekend jaunt.  Yeah, the secret to enjoyable travels is definitely in the travel companions.

Playing host

Published Date : July 14, 2004

Tis the season for dossers…and lots of them!  At last count there are 15 people staying at our house, and only 10 of them are actually paying rent.  Two of them were only there for one night though, and good old Graeme, South African formerly of Olave House, was one of them.

We didn’t get up to much trouble since it was a weeknight, but it was fun to catch up on all the latest.  He’s living up north these days, but he was in London for a medical trial.  At last count Graeme has done at least three or four trials in the last year.  I’m not sure how great that will be for his health in the long term, but I can’t say I blame him.  They’re easy and fast money.  We also got caught up on all the latest from the hostel.  There’s not much new there; everybody’s still just hanging around and drinking at The Richmond.  I’m glad I got the chance to see Graeme again.  It will probably be the last time I see him.  He’ll be here when I’m in S.A., and I’ll be in Oz when he makes it back to S.A….if he goes back.  At least we can still keep in touch via that wonderful little invention called email ��

The next couch invaders are going to be Jake, also formerly of Olave House, and his brother in a couple of weeks.  Jake couldn’t handle life back in the US of A so he’s hitting the road again.