Versailles & Goodbyes

The next morning, we took the RER train out to Versailles, famous château of Louis XIV.

Another pic from the train.

Outside the outer gates, with the men selling the Eiffel tower souvenirs.

Inside the outer gates here is the main path leading to the château and main gate.

The elaborate, golden main gate.

One of the first stops along the tour was the cathedral that was built so the king did not have to leave his home to attend mass.

The upper part of the the cathedral.

The next part of the tour included the royal family tree and paintings of the royalty like the one above.

An intricate tapestry displaying the crowning of one of the kings.

Louis XIV aka le Roi Soleil (the sun king)

Louis XVI - The king that lost his head after the French Revolution.

The (in)famous Marie Antoinette - "Let them eat cake."

The tour continued with room after room with paintings, sculptures, gold plated art, fancy chandeliers, marble walls, etc. I think that those kings had some money in France...maybe all of it!(hence the revolution)

A marble and gold sculpture.

This is a close up of just above the rectangular gold sculpture. A face of a man with a lion for hair.

A door.

Just one of many huge murals on the ceilings.

Time for a quick break.

Da Jenn and Katie - Take 1,

Take 2,

Take 3 - Third time's a charm.

Another face of a man with a lion for hair. Thought these looked cool.

A picture of the cloth wall paper.

A bust of a famous painter, might have been Charles Le Brun - Chief Painter to the King. Not sure though.

The Hall of Mirrors.

A view out one of the windows.

Katie with headphones on.

The queen's bedchamber with Marie-Antoinette's bed.

The King bedchamber of Louis XIV.

A view out Louis XIV's window. This was his point of view when the Parisians had besieged Versailles during French Revolution in 1789 and forced him to flee.

Us, resting a moment.(we have all these pics with headphones cuz that was "the guide" in our "guided tour." unfortunately, we didn't think it was as informative as it could've been, as far as history and every day life...)

Room modeled by one of the Napoléons.

Crowning of Napoléon Bonaparte this is the other copy of the painting that I talked about in the blog with the Louvre.

Napoléon Bonaparte.

Katie striking a pose.

The Battle Gallery - a 120 meter (that's almost 400 feet) long hall with huge paintings recounting the major battles in French history.

The American Revolution with our French allies.

A hall with many statues of famous people of French history - leaders, warriors, writers, artists, scientists, etc. Interesting to see the face of some famous names-katie's favorite part of the tour-putting faces to names of people she'd learned about in college.

Napoléon I

It was now time to visit some of the beautiful gardens behind the château. Here is a picture of out the back.

On the side.

Beth and Derrick.

Katie and Jenn work on "Le Tigre" à la Zoolander. Unfortunately, it was too cold to have a picnic outside. As you can see this didn't stop me.

Us.

So numerous hours walking around stairing at countless paintings, sculptures, etc. can make you a little crazy, not really sure what is going on here...

...I have no comment.

again not sure.

but no matter where you are, it's all about who you're with...

...good friends, good times

There is no way that you can turn down the chance to get a "Royale with cheese" as they say in Pulp Fiction from Chez McDo. Nothing like a little "first dinner" as Katie and I have come to call it. This is the dinner/snack that happens around normal American dinner time at 5-6 pm so that you can make it until the European dinner time at around 9 or 10 pm and sometimes later

After a long day, we kicked our shoes off, put up our feet and hung out checking out everyones pictures. A good way to recap the whole trip and all the great memories.

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Early the next morning, we all headed to the airport to say our goodbyes, share some hugs, and shed some tears. "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day." (most likely in Nashville later this year ;) )