Another fun filled day today. We made our way to Versailles,little did we know that the train company is on strike so there are drastically less trains, creating havoc on the trains that are running, filling them to the brim. Any place a person could stand was filled. Luckily it was just the ride back home.
Versailles is an incredible place. Made out of many different marbles and gold. Going from room to room and hearing how they lived was interesting. There were always people around, from people being present the moment they wake to the moment they lay down. Eating dinner in front of people every night as they sit and watch and talk about the way you eat. Nowhere was private. They even had parties in their rooms, so there are little gates around their beds so no one would go past. It is an incredible place to see.
On the grounds there is a massive garden with many pathways and fountains it is crazy. With the he type of tickets we got we were able to go into some other quarters further on they grounds. There is so much history behind them, on why they were created and what they got used for, but they are all neat places to see.
This is the Grand Trianon, which has gardens of its own out behind that seem to go on and on.
The Petite Trianon, slightly smaller then the Grand Trianon, is where Marie Antoinette usually resided. Although on our map it said she had another estate not far from the Petite we were unable to locate it throughout the maze of a garden. But regardless is neat to see these places restored and see the types of buildings, with the rooms and the furniture, it is unbelievable.
Marie Antoinette loved the Petite Trianon because it got her away from royalty and it was her own little alcove she could escape to. The other thing that she did was have a 12 building peasant town built in, her Hamlet, little pathways with quaint old style buildings all around. And apparently very hungry fish that live in the pond that flows through it. You can get lost in these gardens and it is such a peaceful place to be. Can definitely see the draw to why she enjoyed it so much.
We were thankful today that the rain stayed away. Although it was still a gloomy day, we were glad that we were actually able to roam the gardens and enjoy dodging the puddles, instead of running trying to not get drenched. We eventually made our way back to the train station and managed to get there just in time to make a plan as to how to get on the train. We made it and we hardly had to wait for the train to arrive, it was great. But man, being a local and having that as your commute with all the swarms of people would definitely not be an enjoyable thing to do daily.
We made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately for us, there was a line to get tickets.we had tried to pre book days ago but they were all sold out online till next week. Earlier in the week when it was pouring, we decided that we didn't want to go up and would wait as toady was supposed to have best visibility of the days that we were here. Well we stuck it out, and it was worth it.
While we were in line, we starting chatting with a family in front of us from Kansas City. We talked with them periodically the whole time we were in line and up to the top. Learned from the old grandpa who used to live in France many many years ago, that they used to have 2 cable cars for the Eiffel Tower. One from the bottom to a half way point, and another from the halfway point to the top. People would load on the bottom and the top and the cable cars would meet in the middle and come together, and then you would switch cars. HOW FREAKY! He said that it was scary especially when they wind started blow. Not sure I would be able to do that.
When we first arrived at the top, there was thick thick fog. We still enjoyed a different perspective from the clouds. Also on the top level but inside, they have a chart all around directionally placing cities and their towers. We found the Calgary tower! The Eiffel Tower as you can see in the pictures is quite a bit taller then the tower we have. Cool to see how many places have towers and actually how tall they are.
The clouds did part and we were able to see a ton. In the end as much as we would be able to otherwise except for the horizon. In the big picture above you can see the building in the sky that we ate at but you have to look closely, it is slightly off to the left of centre.
While on the tower we watched it turn from day to night, and that was awesome to see. We didn't stay on the top for this as there was more to see. We took the lift back down to the second floor. Here we walked around the tower again and it slowly began to get darker. We even got o see the tower sparkle from the inside looking up. We have seen it all. Sparkle from right under it, sparkle from afar, sparkle from within. It is amazing!!
From the second floor we walked down to the first floor, and again we walked around as the night was upon us. On this level they had tons on different stations almost you could look at. Seeing people climb the bars of the tower, acrobats, and many other snippets. It was interesting to see. They also have a glass floor the Luke enjoyed looking at the ground. Although you are closer to the ground you don't realize how far apart the levels are until you are on it.
As we were needing food, we made our way past the severely flooded seine river and made our way to a restaurant with a great view of the tower. As we ate we got to watch the tower sparkle, again a new perspective, and we're glad to be able to see this one last time. As we were eating our food, we over heard some people asking eachother where they were from, when we heard Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This of course caught our attention and we were in conversation with a group of 4 girls on a 3 week trip, from our neck of the woods. Was great to talk with the hem and swap some stories and hear of their travels. We aren't usually very social when it comes to going out of our way to talk with people, although neither of the situations today were out of our way, but we still achieved a level up for talking with people from our west. Super cool.
Paris has been incredible. Even though we barely scratched the surface and we could spend so much more time here, we enjoyed our last evening as much as we could. As we look forward to one day returning to this marvellous place. Despite the rain, the love and lights were all around the elegant city and we are happy to have experienced them.
And so the adventure continues...
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