Day 5- Versailles, Louvre @ Night (part 2)

Heading out on the train to Versailles. I LOVED watching the neighborhoods of Paris fly by us. I would love to live in Europe just to experience it on a personal level. Everyday the desire grows stronger and stronger...wonder if it will fade the more I'm at home.

As we were about to get off the train SP needed a diaper change. I was about to change her and the train stopped. I didn't want to chance changing her on the train and then it leaving with us on it so I just gathered everything up I had laying out and we hurried to the train station. To exit the train station you have to put your ticket through the machine to open the doors. From our hurried departure from the train my ticket was miss placed. We were trying to find it when the operators from the train station just opened the handicap doors for us to exit through! What a blessing. Only in Paris are they so kind to those with babies. I'm so grateful too. I really didn't want to buy another ticket out there...too expensive!

View Walking up the street to the Palace

HUGE Palace...can you even imagine calling this "Home"

Info From Wikipedia:

The Palace of Versailles ( /vɛərˈsaɪ/ vair-sy or /vərˈsaɪ/; French: [vɛʁˈsaj]), or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles.

When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris, some 20 kilometres southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

Louis the 14th statue

CHATEAU
So much gold trim...EXPENSIVE for it's time even for now. Sadly paid for by the poor citizens which is what lead to the upheaval.

Famous "Hall of Mirrors"

This room was even more fabulous in person than in movies or pictures I had seen. Mirrors back then were a RARE thing to own and to have a HUGE hall of full length mirrors are

LOVE the door handle pictured in the top right

View of Gardens

Beautiful Gardens viewed from inside the palace

Royal Chapel (bottom right)

Rebecca informed me that the Bust made out of the reddish marble (middle top picture) is EXTREMELY expensive and rare. There's not a lot of it in the world either yet we saw that marble all over the palace.

Family Portraits

Queen's Chamber

The Queen birthed her children here for the public viewing so they could assure the baby was of true royalty. I don't mind some people seeing my babies being born but I couldn't imagine just anyone being allowed to view me going through labor.

SP was having a hard time being in the Chateau for so long...probably boring to her especially since were were stopping in every room for 5-10 minutes listening to the tape information. There were a TON of rooms too. She did fairly well though I had to hurry through a few rooms and I tried helping her out by looking our the windows for a new view.

The Gardens with the view down "Royal Drive" (top left pic)

Latona Bason (top right), Apollo Basin, (top left), and the Colonnade (bottom right)
LOVE these sculpted trees. I'm glad I'm not in charge of trimming all of them.

LUNCH BREAK...SP did pretty good letting us eat though it was shorter than Rebecca and I would have liked. It was so nice to sit down and enjoy some warm hot chocolate. It was FREEZING outside and a little drizzly wet. I'm so glad I packed one of the umbrellas in my pocket instead of leaving them behind. :-)

GRAND TRIANON PALACES

The King built this "house" to get away from the Main House
because there were so many people there all the time.

SP's 6 month photo shoot outside the Grand Trianon after a nursing session.
She's thrilled to be out of the Ergo carrier.

Beautiful Gardens and open-air colonnade (Peristyle) that connects the two wings.
(originally it was pink-columned passageway had windows)

The king did a mini replica of the hall of mirrors but with windows in his "little" palace

Intricate details on all the chairs...incredible

Petit Trianon

Love the simplicity of this house compared to the extravagance of the other buildings...though still richly dressed. The carved pine cones on the bed frame (bottom middle) were so cute and one of my favorite little details.

TEMPLE OF LOVE

More Statues (they were EVERYWHERE through the gardens) and another one of the fountains. There are over 2400 fountains at the Versailles Palace

Goodbye Versailles
(we were some of the last ones to leave for the day)

The way back into Paris from Versailles we looked up what the late night was at the Louvre and discovered it was that night. We were exhausted but knew we needed to take advantage of this late night so we road straight there instead of getting off at our stop. It was fun going through with Becca and seeing things a second time. It was fabulous not having a stroller too!!!

 Inverted Pyramid

One of my favorite parts of the Museum...it really felt like you were outside!

Me with all the breast feeding art  :-)

Venus de Milo
(by Alexander the Great - 325 B.C.)

It's incredible how large this statue is.
I can't even imagine carving it so long ago out.

Main Entrance by Night

And the Rain Begins to fall

SP laying on the umbrella...she LOVED it...

while Rebecca was searching for a band aide for me since
I sliced my hand opening the umbrella.