Day 12 & 13: Versailles and Louvre

Wednesday and Thursday

18-19 September 2013

Day 2: On Wednesday morning we went to Versailles. It was very windy and crowded. The palace was cool to see, but the gardens are where it's at. I didn't even get to see half of the gardens, but I loved what I did see and want to go back. You can paddleboat and rent bikes to ride around and picnic outside. If I go back I will definitely rent a bike. The people who had them had a ton of fun. The best part of my experience at Versailles was going to Marie Antoinette's house, gardens, and secret hamlet. Here are some pics.

So windy.

Less wind. Also, Versailles is huge.

Beginning of the gardens.

Same view without me in it.

I love tree archways.

Cool staircase in Marie Antoinette's house. 

Marie's house is full of pastels. I think she got her own place because everyone was always annoyed with her. 

Temple of Love outside of Miss Antoinette's.

The beginning of Marie's personal hamlet.

Marie liked to pretend that she was a commoner, so she had this village built for her to play make-believe.

A building in her pretend village.

I was there!

The beginning of fall.

Cool water feature.

We left right before the rain came in.

We went to the Louvre after Versailles. The Louvre was great, a lot better than the Vatican, but it's so huge and there was so much to see. I didn't want to take a picture of the Mona Lisa, because everyone knows what it looks like and that's a touristy thing to do, but I did anyway. There were tons of people crowded around it. It's funny that, like the Vatican, people were too busy taking pictures of the art to look at the art. But I had a good time there. After we left I was so worn out that a group of girls and I ordered pizza instead of going out. It wasn't like American pizza, but it was really good and even though I felt a little bit silly eating pizza in Paris. Oh well! C'est la vie.

Day 3: We got free time for the first part of the day and I decided to go to the Orangery museum which is where they have huge Monet murals. They were incredible. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but I would have if I could have. Later our group went to the Musee D'Orsay which is a museum that used to be a train station, so it looks really cool inside. We couldn't take pictures here either, but I saw a lot of Impressionist art, which is some of my favorite. We also saw a lot of Van Gogh's which were so great. Looking back now, D'Orsay was one of my favorite museums, but while we were there I was so annoyed because we kept getting lost and we had to walk up and down the stairs like a thousands times. But I would recommend it if you have a map and know where you're going. Afterward I got French onion soup and got ready to leave Paris.

There are some things I didn't get to do, but there wasn't enough time and I was really exhausted by this point. But even though there were tons of things I didn't get to see I still felt like I made my little time in Paris worth it. Merci beaucoup, Paris!