Paris Day 2

Norman:


For our second day in France, we decided to head outside of central Paris and went to enjoy the Palace and Gardens of Versailles. Initially, we were debating whether we should go today because as we woke up, rain started pouring down on the city. However, the rain subsided soon afterwards, and we took the long train ride to Versailles. Before we left though, we packed a picnic lunch to enjoy - some fruit and  brie/pancetta/mortadella sandwiches.


Arriving at Versailles, the weather was actually being cooperative initially. It was a little on the cold side, but we were going to walk quite a bit. Arriving there, we went into the gardens first and I was shocked to see how large and picturesque the Gardens were. Walking from one end to another would likely take an hour with the most direct route.

Portrait of Versailles. We walked about 2/3 of it.

In the forest

Norman being Norman...

I'm a little teapot....

View from the entrance of the garden

We ventured deeper into the Garden and headed towards the Grand Trianon, which was in the Northwestern part of the Gardens. According to Wikipedia, the Grand Trianon was meant to be a retreat for King Louis the XIV and his various guests. Along the way to the Grand Trianon we ate our lunches and it suddenly became very cold. Mandy's hot chocolate became cold chocolate in a matter of minutes. While we were at the Grand Trianon, we actually thought the Grand Trianon was the Palace of Versailles and when we were there, we were quite unimpressed. "This is the palace of Versailles?! It's so small!" 

We then ventured around the neighboring Gardens and the Petite Trianon, which is the much smaller castle that was built by King Louis XV. The Gardens were thoroughly confusing, and the lack of place markers and  a bad map led us wandering the Gardens for many hours. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up walking more than 5 km just trying to find our way out of the Gardens. 

Area while wandering the Gardens

Crazy jumping picture pose

We decided to leave around 3 pm and it wasn't until then that we had left the Gardens that we realize the Palace of Versailles was RIGHT at the entrance and that we walked right past it when we first got there. Aiyah, so silly of us. We headed back into the palace and had to suffer the crowdedness of the late-afternoon influx of tourists. The palace was MUCH larger than the Grand Trianon and there was much more to see there. Also, there was some modern art that was being showcased at the Palace of Versailles so we got a flavour of contemporary art juxtaposed against historical art and exhibitions.

The "Hall of Mirrors"

Pair of high heels made completely out of pots and pans, meant to demonstrate female social norms and  liberation from those norms

Random pink helicopter made from feathers

After walking through the palace and going through the pictures, it was time at last to go home and rest our feet. We ended up having dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant called Yokosuna. Not amazing, but not bad either. I think the sushi restaurants here are catered more to my liking: more sashimi and chirashis with a lot of different types of yakitori available. But if you want to eat creative maki rolls other than "california rolls", you'll be in for a tough time. I don't think we will plan to have sushi again in Paris, especially with so much other food available to us.

(Basically) all for myself!

After that, we went back to the carnival near the Louvre, got some slushies and chilled in the sun until it started getting cold. The Louvre is fast becoming the go-to place when we've finished the day's itinerary! Au revoir for now!