I met some friends at the train station Gare d'Austerlitz in order to catch the train that takes you to Versailles. We hopped on the train, and about 40 minutes later we were in the burbs.
Immediately after getting off the train, we crossed a street for the short walk to the palace. In true tourist-destination fashion, there was a MacDonald's right there. One of my friends wanted to use the bathroom (chances were we were going to end up waiting a long time in line) so we went in. I decided to order some frites (fries) in order to compare and contrast. The fries are definitely different here. More gritty.
We followed the endless sea of international tourists towards the castle. On the way, there was a community activity fair going on. There was a Scrabble club and many other things. There were even boy scouts.
It was hard to believe on first sight that this was all one house.
We did end up waiting in line for over an hour. We were lucky that it was so nice outside. There was also an interesting modern art exhibition going on, so modern art was within the palace.
There was this giant astronaut lying in front of the entrance. It reminded me a lot of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don't really understand why it was there.
We went inside the special rooms that are only open on weekends. They were the rooms of various relatives of the King.
I wanted the above chairs more than anything. They were so big and overstuffed. And they could act as beds. My feet were already hurting at this point.
The chapel was pretty impressive.
This hall reminded me a lot of the Chronicles of Narnia.
Nice moustache.
Okay. So when I saw the above portrait, all I could think about was the character Hildago from Almost Heroes. I think this is King Louis XIV. But I imagine he and Chris Farley in a drinking contest.
L'Hopital, a mathematician whose principle I have forgotten
We got to the hall of mirrors, and hung out there for a bit. We were not there at the special time of day(when the sun hits the mirrors the right way and the whole room illuminates), but it was still very impressive.
After taking a break and resting our feet in the cafe, we hit the gardens. This was by far the best part of the day.
We reached the gardens right when the fountain show started. To save power (I think), they only have the fountains running a few times a day for about an hour at a time. It was pretty beautiful.
Knowing how my mom loves topiaries (I do too, I'll admit it), I took pictures of all of the ones I could find. Here it is, my gallery of topiaries:
There was another modern art piece on the big lawn in front of the lake thing. It looked cool from above and from below.
My friend Emily tried really hard to get a good angle.
We went to the King's Garden right before leaving. It was crazy to think that some of those trees might have been around when Louis was reigning. I also really enjoyed the use of flowers to make shapes and patterns.
We were kicked out at 5:15, but spotted this cool fleur de lis hedge.
On the train home, we were all exhausted. I told people that if they fell asleep, I would take a picture of them. I am now publishing the results of my threat.
On the metro home from the train station, we were in a car where this was drawn on the doors: cute.
It had been a long day. I went back to my homestay and had a wonderful evening vegging out on my bed.
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