The Billion Dollar Palace

We woke up really late on our last full day in Paris, thankfully refreshed but hurting for time. We got packed up and headed out, checked out of the hotel (with nowhere to stay that night) and hopped on the train to downtown Paris.

We got downtown and decided to make Versailles our first visit of the day. We headed down in to the RER station, and saw for the next train to Versailles was to arrive in about 10 minutes. So we waited. And waited. And waited. And got no news until about 40 minutes later, when an announcement was made that a fire had broken out at a platform east of us, so there would be a further delay. Perfect. So after an hour and a half of waiting the train finally arrived to take us to Versailles (remember we had our bags with us this whole time, still nowhere to sleep). We got there about 30 minutes later and ran off the train (we just wanted to see the gardens, then go back to get a final bit of Paris in), stopping only for a mediocre crêpe. We finally got to the Palace and got a little confused trying to figure out where we could check our bags (we knew it was free, but that's about it). I went in to the information office where one of the clerks told me that it was free for EU students (it being the whole palace, which would cost around THIRTY EURO otherwise. FREE!). Since Deanna and I were quite practiced at faking being actual Italians (as we had faked the whole week to get in to the Louvre and Rodin museums for free) we got in nice and quick and easy. We took a quick spin around the incredibly lavish palaces, pausing only in the Hall of Mirrors (where the various Treaties of Versailles have been signed) and the former throne room, where the former throne is still housed. Here are some pictures!

The Sun King's Gates (Louis XIV being the Sun King because he was awesome, like the sun)

Hall of Mirrors

Queen's Bed

King's Bed (I think. There were a lot of rooms)

Coronation of Napoleon (when he crowned himself emperor. Copy)

Something Glorious

The Old Throne

We had our fill of the Palace and then headed out to the gardens, which were beautifully sculpted. And enormous. We walked around for a bit but eventually just sat down on the grass and did nothing. It was great!

Le Tapis Vert (Green "Sidewalk")

Apollo's Fountain

Fleur-de-Lis

After we finished relaxing in the gardens, we grabbed our bags and headed back to the city and back in to the Louvre. We checked our bags at the door again and then did a tour of the Denon Wing (the most famous), as guided by Rick Steves. Here's a bit of what we saw:

Mona, Tiny

The Original Coronation of Napoleon

Façade of the Pantheon (remember Athens?)

Crown Jewels

The tour took about an hour and a half and so we headed to the Musée d'Orsay one last time to see if we could find Lucie (my Parisian friend who I met in DC last summer, and who had agreed to house us if we could meet up) who we were supposed to meet outside the museum at 6. We had a bit of time to kill so we got dinner: quiche lorraine and these two for dessert:

So delicious

I didn't see Lucie anywhere so we headed in to the museum and started perusing the greatest collection of Impressionist art anywhere (unfortunately all moved around/in storage due to renovations going on at the museum) which was a welcome respite from all the renaissance stuff we had seen throughout Europe. No pictures allowed however. After about an hour in the museum I checked my phone and saw that Lucie had texted me quite a few times, and was apparently outside the museum waiting for us (and had been since 6. Oops) We headed outside and met up with her and a friend, finagled another 45 minutes of museum time and then headed out to the Marais District (the one place left in Paris we hadn't really visited). On the way we stopped at Notre Dame one last time:

We are still about 300 feet away from the building. It's huge!

The color of the sun on the bricks was incredible

Then we headed in to the Marais District (Lucie's favorite) and got a quick tour. We saw the Pompidou Center (the one museum I didn't go to in Europe) which is an inside-out building (aka all the pipes and such are on the outside) and got crêpes and wine at a crêperie nearby. And thankfully we had somewhere to stay too! We slept at Lucie's (her dad's house in the Paris suburbs, reallly nice), got up at 6 am and grabbed our train back to Milan. An eventful week in Paris, to say the least. These three posts do not nearly capture the ridiculous amount of stuff we saw, and how exhausting every day was. But it was all entirely worth it. Especially because every museum was free (except Sainte Chapelle/Conciergerie). Paris, je t'aime!