11:30 AM - Alarm just woke me up after a few hours sleep and I admit I feel like I've hit a wall. I would have just gone back to sleep, but realized I've already wasted 80€ on a cab today, so I just can't ignore the fact I paid 25€ already for the Versailles pass. Whether I want to go or not, I'm going out there to see it. I really want to, but my body was saying "no no no".
12:00 PM - Got showered, changed, and headed out. I asked several staff in the hotel how to get to the Metro or RER line, and all of them gave directions that in hindsight would have led me to the RER, but at the time made zero sense (and I admit I was a bit disoriented anyway) - so I ended up losing over 1/2 hour just trying to find the stupid station. I was irritated with how poorly some of the staff, especially the concierge staff, work with people. The one bell captain was helpful getting me the cab paid for, but the rest of the concierge staff were, as one American put it in his review of the hotel, "surly and rude".
The hotel is connected to an 80-store mall called the Boutiques of La Fayette, which had some very pricey stores in them and, as I walked through this Saturday afternoon, had absolutely no shoppers. How they continue to stay open is beyond me - the place seemed completely lifeless inside.
The signage in the mall, which would lead me to the connected Metro and RER stations, was completely useless, so I ended up walking outside at an entrance. I walked to the end of the street, the opposite direction from the entrance of the hotel (i.e. to the "back" of the hotel) and there was the Palais des Congres de Paris (the Congress Centre of Paris - see picture left, click for larger). The architecture wasn't that interesting I must say. But what did catch my eye was the "Metro" and RER signs I saw across the street.
Again, I must have been a bit disoriented from being tired still, because even after seeing the signs, I still walked by the RER station several times. It was called both SNCF and RER on signs (see picture right, click for larger), and I had no idea what that meant. I thought SNCF was some brand name for a bank or something, not realizing it was the name of another transit system that links all of France together. It would be, in Canadian terms, the Via Rail of France. Apparently I had more connection opportunities to the world around me, from this one little spot, than I really realized at the time.
I finally figured out the little granite building in front of me (see picture left, click for larger) was the RER station, and quickly spotted some ticket machines. Excellent, it had an English option, though I didn't see that at first and panicked a bit pushing buttons and having things beep back at me in French that I couldn't read. I fought with that machine for the next 5-10 minutes and it kept declining my card. Ugh. Finally was about to head out and go back to bed at the hotel when I turned and saw a ticket booth. The lady working there didn't speak much English, but was extremely helpful.She told me that my VISA wouldn't work in the machine because it didn't have the new smart chip in it, which is apparently widely available in Europe, but not North America yet. How useless is that? She sold me a return fare to Versailles (which is outside the main Paris zone, so was about 7,60€ return) and a 10 pack of tickets for the RER line (which can also be used on buses, Metro, etc.) for the rest of the week - the latter being 11,60€ for the 10 of them, which makes it one of the cheapest, yet largest subway systems in the world.
The tickets are very small (see picture right, click for larger) and like most cities, you stick it in a turnstile at the beginning of the trip to activate it, and stick it in a turnstile when you leave to verify how much time you have left on it (they give you 90 minutes in any direction). For an extra 5€ you can purchase a plastic credit-card-sized pass that you keep loading in the machines with your amounts wanted, but Rick Steves' book says not to bother if you aren't staying here long - the little tickets work the same way and you save 5€. The downside is that they are very small and easy to lose, so I keep most of them in my safe in the room and take out only what I need that day.The tickets to Versailles, however, because of the nature of the end point, were only good in one direction. However, I didn't think a 3,80€ ticket on a train for 1/2 hour was a bad bargain, considering the cab fare I just had paid! (I may never get over that disaster).
Apparently at a station called Champ de Mars I'll have to get off the train and look for another train coming through called Versailles. She gave me a little piece of paper saying the same thing, should I forget the name of the station. Shouldn't be too difficult. RER is much like a hybrid of West Coast Express and Skytrain - they are two-level electric trains that run underground by the Congress Centre, but mostly were above-ground commuter express trains (see picture left, click for larger).
Like most other systems I've seen in Boston, Sydney, Toronto, etc. the trick to these trains is knowing the name of the station you are at, and the station you are going. Then, you have to look up at the electronic monitors as trains come into the station (see picture right, click for larger) to see if the final destination you are going to is listed. If your destination is the first name on the list, you're on the wrong platform, and need the train going the other way. If your destination station isn't listed on the monitor at all, don't get on that train!Every second RER train goes to the destination you want - much easier to learn than Sydney, with it's 8 tracks that run parallel to each other - making you run to get to the right platform in time (and hope, unlike Boston, that the train you want is going the right direction too!) Most signs would say what time the next train was coming and what time it was now, and I have found so far in Paris, though human-driven (unlike Skytrain, which is all computerized) all Paris trains always ran on time, to the minute.
Our train started to barrel along going east, and soon I got to the Champ de Mars... and then realized it had a second name under it - check it out! (see picture left, click for larger). Gulp - the Eiffel Tower is right here! Why on earth not tell people to get off at the Eiffel Tower stop - like Champ de Mars is something easy to remember!I didn't get out of the station (though I was really tempted to see the Tower as it was right above me) because the turnstile would have registered (perhaps) that I had used up my special one-way pass, and I didn't want go through the Boston nightmares again! Oddly, when I first arrived at this station, I had to cross over to the other platform for my connecting train, and was waiting for it to come the opposite direction. When it came the same direction as the one I got off, I panicked, but this was correct - as the Versailles train veered off at this station, crossed the tracks just ahead of our station, and went southwest toward Versailles. \
At this station, for the first time, I saw the River Seine outside too, as the station were now all mostly above ground. The River Seine isn't much to look at - in fact, it's more like a wide canal than a river. The Fraser in Vancouver is probably 3-4 times wider - Seine would be more like the Elbow River as it runs through downtown. In fact, in places it was narrower than the widest point of the gondola ride in the Venetian resort in Las Vegas!
Until you actually left Paris, it didn't look like much, but as we got closer to the town of Versailles (which grew up around the Palace and took its name), the countryside started to look more like a movie set and less like an unattractive mismatch collection of cream-colored old buildings. The stations were cute and picturesque, such as this station called Chaville Velize (see picture right, click for larger).One thing that really surprised me was how completely dead the system was - there were about 6 people on my entire car of the train, and they seemed to all be from one family. For a Saturday at about 1:00 PM, that seemed extremely odd to me. I wondered for a bit if perhaps Versailles wasn't actually closed today. After the day I'd had already, I wouldn't be surprised if I bought a ticket for nothing. However, the website sold me the pass for today, and clearly had black-out days on Mondays when it truly was not open.
Note to tourists: - Almost everything is closed in Paris on Sundays and Mondays, in lieu of the fact they are open Saturday. Paris still operates on a 5-day week for everyone, much like when I was a kid. The stores in our little town would be closed Tuesday, if I remember correctly, because they were open on Saturday. I think we in North America miss a lot of physical and mental recovery time by running around 6-7 days a week. This city is on a whole other frequency to North America - stress is left to the over-crowded freeways, but the people's personal lifestyles indicate a much more relaxed pace than we have, and I like it here for that.
Nothing I had read online at the hotel previously indicated any issue about Versailles today, so I just kept going. The Palace is the last stop on this line, so I didn't really worry paying attention to the name on the stations as we whizzed by on the 1/2 hour ride out.
1:30 PM - Finally, we arrived at the end of the line - and I got off the train and walked toward the exit, along with everyone else. Oddly, there was no turnstile to validate my ticket going in or out, which I thought seemed a bit odd considering you had to do that everywhere else on the system. That means, unless they had fare inspectors, that you could technically have hopped back on the train at the end of the day and not paid a fare. No wonder they sell the return tickets when you buy the one to come out here! A bit overcast here, but warm - probably about 22C.
While the train was practically empty, The Town of Versailles was anything but. It was like a sea of ants as I walked out of the station. Rick Steves' book says to 'follow the crowds' to the Palace, and that was exactly what I did - because it was like a river of people flowing both directions from the town to the Palace. I walked by several very photogenic buildings (see picture left, click for larger) on the 10-minute walk (only about 5 city blocks) to the main entrance of Versailles.When the Palace of Versailles was first built, the town of Versailles was just a country village, far from Paris, and King Louis IV (also known as the Sun King) came out here to retreat from the hustle and bustle of the French capital - much like Presidents use Camp David as their 'home away from home' to relax. France was not much of a united country before Louis IV, and he built Versailles to create a seat of absolute power.
It is estimated that it took 30,000 laborers and cost approx.116 million gold livre (a coin of the period, replaced later by the French franc) to build the Palace. In today's dollars, that would be over $2 billion - twice what it cost to build West Edmonton Mall, the world's largest shopping centre, in Edmonton. It took 25% of the entire income of France just to run and maintain the Palace!
Of course today something like this would never be completed before the people revolted - and of course in France they eventually did, and had King Louis VI and the Queen Marie-Antoinette beheaded. The people destroyed most of the furniture in Versailles, which was a real shame from a historical perspective. Napoleon then took over - and also ruled from Versailles as a divine Emperor. Man, the French are seemingly very slow learners.
There is so much to see and do in Versailles that I think I will only highlight the bare minimum here, to save you from dying of boredom. I would suggest, however, that if you are ever in Paris, this is an absolute must-see location.
The statue of Louis IV (see picture right, click for larger) welcomes you to the gates of Versailles. Hey Louis, nice wig! This guy that was so vain and insecure because he was losing his hair that he invented the worldwide wig fashion phenomena of the day, that we see to present day!
The main building, the Château de Versailles (see picture left, click for larger), also known as the King's Palace (yes, the Queen had her own!) is one of the largest in the world with 700 rooms, more than 2,000 windows, 1,250 chimneys, 67 staircases and 19,800 acres of grounds. More than 3,000 nobles and staff lived in the Palace during Louis IV's reign! And no, what you see there isn't gold paint!
The features inside this main building include the Chappelle Royale (Royal Chapel) (see picture right, click for larger), with a beautiful gold-plated pipe organ, solid marble floors and a beautifully painted ceiling. The King and family would alone celebrate Mass daily in this chapel.My favorite of all was the 250-foot long Galerie de Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) (see picture below, click for larger). By the way, I'm listening to my Rick Steves' Versailles audio tour on my iPhone in this picture - forgot to take my headphones off when an American asked if I wanted my picture taken.
There were originally two palaces, connected by an outside courtyard, but the King didn't want to get wet all the time walking between the two, so this magnificent Hall was created, which is used to entertain heads of state to this day. in fact, the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War I in this Hall (and, some say, it started World War II).Many people were milling about in the room when I got there and it was fairly noisy in the room. It was gloomy outside, and suddenly the sun broke through and glinted off the chandeliers and mirrors in the room, and everything lit up. People let out a collective gasp and the room went quiet with just the sound (for a brief moment) of cameras clicking. Amazing to behold - so glad I was able to see it.
Had to cringe at some of the terribly-translated English signage throughout Versailles. It's like they did the translation in some places word for word, and the words didn't make sense in English when put together. You'd think something as big as this would do it right.
The Gardens of Versailles (see picture left, click for larger) were also amazing - everything perfectly cut, and lots of water fountains and rivers, and two man-made lakes - all from that day! Pretty amazing to have running water in the 1700s! The King would grow real orange trees here (note: they get real winter here!), which amazed the people, and gave him the nickname "Sun King" (he'd have gardeners hide them in greenhouses all winter, but they didn't need to know that)
5:30 PM - well, that was fun, but I'm starving and have a headache from it now! I bought a book on Versailles in the gift shop, and then left the area. Walked by a McDonald's on the way back to the RER station, and they had this cool machine in English (see picture right, click for larger) inside that you could use to place your order and pay at. Then you went in a special line to pick up your food, saving a ton of time. Versailles closes in 1/2 hour and thousands were leaving at once, so you can imagine the lines at McDonald's. Actually, trust me, you couldn't - they were outside the door and down the street!It accepted my card, and I ordered a Bacon Royal Burger which was really good - French cheddar cheese (which they are famous for making) is much better than in Canada/US I think. And no, they don't just sell these by Versailles, but so far throughout Paris. I'm happy to report that McDonald's fries taste the same in Sydney, Paris and in the US as they do in Vancouver!
5:45 PM - Headed back on a standing-room only train (which I got a seat on - yay!) and headed back to the hotel. I can't even believe now how tired I am. Ate food on the train, and when I got back to the hotel, I decided to crash - my body just gave up. I didn't bother to set an alarm, as I figured I wouldn't sleep past 1:00 PM tomorrow...haha. More soon!
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