My first ride on a TGV train was AWESOME. After taking it slow getting from Hendaye to Bayonne, Bordeaux, and Poitiers things really opened up as we shot straight up to Paris… the trip is about 800km overall and took less than 6 hours to accomplish, partly because for stretches between Poitiers and Tours and then from Tours to Paris we were doing 300km/h – more than 180mph – crazy! The countryside quite literally flew by and we made it to Paris quite comfortably, changing trains and heading to Chartres on a local line in order to check out the cathedral there. It’s just about as famous as Notre Dame in Paris as it was begun in the late 1100s, though I found it odd that it had two completely different spires, seeming to come from two different eras – one from the 1100s and one from the early 1500s! The cathedral’s interior wasn’t much to write home about, especially because much of the nave was being renovated, but the view from the top of the northern tower was pretty awesome (and well worth the 300-step climb). We caught a train pretty quickly to head back toward Paris (about 45 minutes away) because there wasn’t a single place in Chartres to store our packs and we didn’t feel like doing a whole lot of exploring while lugging them around.
Arriving in Versailles’ train station around 7:30pm we were picked up by Romuald, Rob’s friend Lucille’s husband, the two of which so graciously allowed us to use their apartment outside Paris for our time here! Romu has spent time living in the States as well as in Spain, and as such knows both Spanish and English (not quite as well as Spanish), and of course French, while Lucille speaks French and works as a Spanish teacher in a public school. We all went out to dinner at a little Italian place in Versailles, which has turned out to be quite a nice little suburb of Paris – it has all the amenities of a bigger city, is close to Paris, but is small enough to retain a lot of charm and not be too busy. Getting back to their apartment we visited for a while before saying goodbyes rather quickly after arriving, as Romu and Lucille had to get up early the next day (Friday the 3rd) to head to the south of France for a wedding / two-week vacation in Toulouse.
Friday was spent recharging a bit in Versailles, doing a little laundry during the afternoon before checking out the gardens of the oh-so-famous Versailles Palace, which was built mostly for the use of Louis the 14th. The grounds are HUGE, covered in lavish gardens with fountains and sculptures, plus grand canal that is nearly 6km around. It was awesome to walk around but none of the fountains were on – common in the summer, apparently, to save water. However, the 800-hectare (nearly 2000 acres) gardens are open to the public for free, so the people of Versailles go there to ride their bikes, run, or just relax – how cool! That was about all I did on Friday, kind of low-key, but it was worth it to rest up for romping around Paris on Saturday the 4th.
Independence Day was spent mostly in downtown Paris, checking out the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pantheon (the French version), Notre Dame, the exterior of the Louvre, and the Opera. I got to see most of those places on my 10-day romp through Europe back in 2003, so it was cool to be back and reminisce some about that trip while exploring some new places this time around. That night we headed back to Versailles in order to catch Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes, or the Great Nighttime Fountains display. On Saturday evenings during the summertime the fountains are all turned on and the gardens are all filled with varied colorful lights, laser shows, bubble machines, and classical music to which a huge line of flamethrowers on the great lawn is synchronized. The night concluded with a great fireworks show also synchronized to music – not quite the same as American fireworks for the 4th (I missed hearing the 1812 Overture) but quite a nice night out in celebration of the US, even if it was only in our heads!
Sunday was again free museum day, and we headed into the city to check out the Musee d’Orsay, which is housed inside an old train terminal right on the left bank of the Seine. The collection was really cool but we soon found ourselves to not be in the museum-hopping mood anymore (mostly because of the intense crowds – hey, who doesn’t love free admission to a great museum?) and decided to walk around the Latin quarter some before heading across town to Montmartre. Montmartre is a neighborhood in the 18th borough of Paris that has the best view of the city, as it is perched atop a hill at whose apex sits the Basilica du Sacre Coeur, almost as big of a Paris icon as the Eiffel tower and the Arc du Triumph. After walking around the streets for a while, enjoying different street acts and some people-watching (there were some strange characters!) we headed back down into the city to catch the train back out to Versailles.
It feels good to be finally caught up to the present! Today has been spent going to the supermarket one last time, making plans for our departure from Paris tomorrow, and cleaning up the apartment for a bit. We’ll be heading out for Germany in the morning on a 9:09 train to Frankfurt (another TGV, I’m excited!), but before then we’re going to head into Paris tonight to check out La Defense (the “downtown” of Paris), the Champs Elysees, the Arc du Triumph, and the Eiffel Tower. I’m also excited to get a CREPE with Nutella under the Eiffel Tower just like I did back in ’03 with the Rothenberg trip! That’ll wrap up my time in Paris, and then it’ll be on to Germany tomorrow, like I said, to get closer to Frankfurt in order to fly home in less than 48 hours!
I’ll be back with a trip wrap-up in a day or so; enjoy the tons of updates from today – sorry to be overwhelming – and the forthcoming photos in the meantime.
Cheers!
Sam
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