THE palace and THE tower
One of the kids asked me when we were having lunch in Rouen, "Are we going to that big place today?, to which I replied, "Which one?". "You know, that palace place, THE palace!" A pretty good way to describe Versailles, I thought. The self guided (with the help of well done audio guides in English and Chinese {sorry Mrs. Torgerson!}) tour took us to some of the places that were previously only available in a guided tour (which could not be booked for our extra large group this year) – like the opera house. Sorry for all the brackets. The palace is constantly undergoing renovations, but this year the entire hall of mirrors was open (though there was some scaffolding in the centre of the hall). The place is over the top ridiculous (real gold in the wallpaper!). Some of the kids had watched a film about Marie Antoinette they showed on the airplane, and it was interesting to see the actual rooms where the events depicted in that film took place. I recommend a visit to Versailles; I don’t recommend the film…
A new group of revolutionaries from Langley prepares to storm the palace.
After Versailles it was off to the Eiffel tower. After waiting in a long line up while the kids had fun taking pictures and not getting into trouble with the French military who patrol the base of the tower, machine guns in hand, I discovered that I could have taken a different entrance to the ticket booth and purchased tickets ahead of everyone because I was leading a school group. The last time I was here, there was no line. Finally we were on our way up to the cold, windy top of Paris. Our group basically filled the elevator to the first level, so we didn’t have to worry about the pickpockets that signs all around us warned us about. Then we were herded to the smaller elevators that shoot up to the top. A few issues with fear of heights became non-issues when we got up to the top and saw the city of lights laid out before us. The tower was doing its light show for some of the time we were up there, and the effect on the top platform is sort of like a strobe-light – very disorienting. They’ve got to put a railing around the top platform soon; someone could get hurt! Luckily, none of us were blown over the side.
The tower. It is big.
Christeen is considering a career in the French military. Just needs to brush up on the French.
We went to bed anticipating the busy day in Paris that lay ahead, and anticipating the lame breakfast that the Etap hotels are famous for (white bread, another kind of white bread, melba toast, corn flakes and lait chaud, various jams for token fruit-based "nutrition").
Craig
One of the kids asked me when we were having lunch in Rouen, "Are we going to that big place today?, to which I replied, "Which one?". "You know, that palace place, THE palace!" A pretty good way to describe Versailles, I thought. The self guided (with the help of well done audio guides in English and Chinese {sorry Mrs. Torgerson!}) tour took us to some of the places that were previously only available in a guided tour (which could not be booked for our extra large group this year) – like the opera house. Sorry for all the brackets. The palace is constantly undergoing renovations, but this year the entire hall of mirrors was open (though there was some scaffolding in the centre of the hall). The place is over the top ridiculous (real gold in the wallpaper!). Some of the kids had watched a film about Marie Antoinette they showed on the airplane, and it was interesting to see the actual rooms where the events depicted in that film took place. I recommend a visit to Versailles; I don’t recommend the film…
A new group of revolutionaries from Langley prepares to storm the palace.
After Versailles it was off to the Eiffel tower. After waiting in a long line up while the kids had fun taking pictures and not getting into trouble with the French military who patrol the base of the tower, machine guns in hand, I discovered that I could have taken a different entrance to the ticket booth and purchased tickets ahead of everyone because I was leading a school group. The last time I was here, there was no line. Finally we were on our way up to the cold, windy top of Paris. Our group basically filled the elevator to the first level, so we didn’t have to worry about the pickpockets that signs all around us warned us about. Then we were herded to the smaller elevators that shoot up to the top. A few issues with fear of heights became non-issues when we got up to the top and saw the city of lights laid out before us. The tower was doing its light show for some of the time we were up there, and the effect on the top platform is sort of like a strobe-light – very disorienting. They’ve got to put a railing around the top platform soon; someone could get hurt! Luckily, none of us were blown over the side.
The tower. It is big.
Christeen is considering a career in the French military. Just needs to brush up on the French.
We went to bed anticipating the busy day in Paris that lay ahead, and anticipating the lame breakfast that the Etap hotels are famous for (white bread, another kind of white bread, melba toast, corn flakes and lait chaud, various jams for token fruit-based "nutrition").
Craig
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