versailles and the louvre

On Wednesday we took a day trip to the Chateau de Versailles, a testament to the extravagance of the French monarchy. The chateau was completely surreal - words can't do it justice, but hopefully the pics below capture some of the grandeur. The grounds surrounding the chateau were full of statutes, fountains, and impeccably groomed gardens. As we elbowed through the chateau with all the other tourists, I overheard one Polish tourist complaining about how crowded it was, saying "I told you we shouldn't have come", to which his buddy responded "I'm used to this. In Poland, the museums are hundreds of times worse!" It was pretty funny given that at that point we literally were shoving through a doorway like a bunch of cattle! Afterwards we strolled around the grounds for awhile, checked out Marie Antoinnette's estate (her suite of rooms in the chateau were insufficient apparently), and then had a lovely picnic overlooking one of the fountains. Obviously we were exhausted after all that so we took a nap in the park. :)

Versailles - built "for all the glory of France"

gold, gold everywhere!

ceiling

the Hall of Mirrors

the king's bedroom. the queen did not sleep here - she had her own equally extravagant suite!

view onto the gardens, from the back of the chateau

setting up for our picnic! we will never admit to eating that entire package of camembert! :)

Yesterday we went to the Louvre with Geoffroy - we were there for a few hours in the afternoon, but barely skimmed the surface of the largest museum in the world. We were saving the Mona Lisa for the end, and at 5:40 headed over to check it out. We never made it. The museum closed at 6, and the guards simply couldn't let us down the hallway to see the Mona Lisa because that might mean they wouldn't get to leave right at 6! haha Oh well, we weren't really set on seeing it anyway.

apres-Louvre drink