Today we woke up late around 10 am since all the walking yesterday had worn us out. We didn't have breakfast and just had coffee in our room before setting out for the day around 11:30 am.
We took the subway to our first stop of the day, the Arc de Triomphe. As you might remember from yesterday, this memorial was built by Napoleon to celebrate the victory of his soldiers in a war. There was an official ceremony going on with a giant French flag waving in the building. We took a few pictures there.
Then we went on to our second stop Notre Dame Gothic Cathedral but to our disappointment, the lineup was even longer than yesterday. So we decided to give up going inside and sat at a nearby cafe to have a baguette sandwich with French onion soup.
Energized by our meal, we decided to finally embark upon the symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower or as it is affectionately called "The Iron Lady". We took some pictures there and asked some tourists to take our pictures as well. Samia is posting some pictures to Facebook right now. The Eiffel Tower is 1063 feet in height and weighs 10,100 tons. It is held together by 2.5 million rivets and has a total of 1665 steps from bottom to top. It was built in 1889 and designed to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the French Revolution of 1789. When it was initially completed, Parisians hated it and opposed it fiercely stating that it ruined the Paris skyline. But with time, not only it became accepted as an integral part of Paris but it has become the global symbol that represents the city of Paris. We first took some pictures with the backdrop of Eiffel Tower from a little far at a place where you get the best pictures of the complete tower and then we went closer to see the tower. We also had some delicious black pepper cheese puffs from a stall on our way to the close up view of the Iron Lady.
Our next stop was a tour to the Palace of Versailles (or Chateau de Versailles). Versailles is pronounced Versaey. We bought tickets to a high-speed train that took us to the city of Versailles in about 25 minutes. Versailles is a on the outskirts of Paris to its West and the town's claim to fame is that French kings decided to build a palace there as a retreat. King Louis the 14th started building it as a palace in 1668. Before that, it was the hunting lodge of his father King Louis the 13th. The palace is essentially a tribute to King Louis the 14th who ruled France for 72 years. During his reign, France was the super power of Europe with a booming economy, a huge prospering population of 18 million and the strongest military in Europe. He was referred to as the Sun King with reference to Apollo, the Greek Sun God. Apollo was used as an emblem by Louis the 14th. The palace is a testament to the grandeur of his reign with just the constructed floor area of the palace being 67,000 square meters. Behind the palace are the Versailles Gardens that run for a few kilometers! These gardens include a man-made canal in the shape of the Christian cross and several grand fountains, in addition to many gardens, each with its own theme. The palace building has several wings. King Louis the 14th built the palace and moved the seat of government and all its ministries there. This was an attempt to centralize the state apparatus so that they could be controlled under the eye of the King in one place. The palace has several buildings in a U-shape and a few wings. It includes a chapel that had the throne of the King. All the rooms are huge and have detailed paintings on the ceilings and walls. Each room has it's own theme and a different purpose. The grandest room is a Hall of Mirrors that is 255 meters long and has mirrors along one side of the hall with balconies opening into the Versailles Gardens on the other side. The ceiling has a series of paintings praising the Kings of France. Three kings used this palace as their official residence: Louis the 14th (who built it), Louis the 15th (who ruled France for 60 years and was the great grandson of Louis the 14th) and finally Louis the 16th who was at the throne at the time of the French Revolution of 1789 when he was overthrown and beheaded along with his Queen Marie Antoinette. Our tour of the palace took about an hour (after we had waited an hour in the line outside). The palace was extremely crowded as it is high tourist season and it was a Saturday. Then we walked around in the gardens for another hour before heading back.
Samia's iPhone's walking tracker app measured that we walked 14 km today. We stopped for dinner at a creperie in Versailles and had some delicious savory crepes made from buckwheat and with potatoes, cheese and mushrooms.
We got back to Paris on the high-speed train and then took the subway to the Pont Nuef bridge. We boarded a Seine (pronounced Sen) River cruise there but before that we had hot chocolate since it was getting chilly. The river cruise took an hour and we got to see several sites that we had explored in the last 2 days but this time at night and from the river. The Eiffel Tower looked amazing glowing in the night sky. In addition to all these sites, we also saw most of the bridges of River Seine. Our guide spoke good English so we found out about the unique history of each bridge.
After the cruise ended, we took the subway back to our hotel and we'll be going to bed now. It has been two very full and tiring days in Paris but now we have a greater appreciation of the French culture and history and a better understanding of why Paris is the world's most visited city by tourists.
We'll mostly be traveling tomorrow so in tomorrow's update, I'll give you an overview of our general observations about Parisians that we've witnessed in our two days here.
We took the subway to our first stop of the day, the Arc de Triomphe. As you might remember from yesterday, this memorial was built by Napoleon to celebrate the victory of his soldiers in a war. There was an official ceremony going on with a giant French flag waving in the building. We took a few pictures there.
Then we went on to our second stop Notre Dame Gothic Cathedral but to our disappointment, the lineup was even longer than yesterday. So we decided to give up going inside and sat at a nearby cafe to have a baguette sandwich with French onion soup.
Energized by our meal, we decided to finally embark upon the symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower or as it is affectionately called "The Iron Lady". We took some pictures there and asked some tourists to take our pictures as well. Samia is posting some pictures to Facebook right now. The Eiffel Tower is 1063 feet in height and weighs 10,100 tons. It is held together by 2.5 million rivets and has a total of 1665 steps from bottom to top. It was built in 1889 and designed to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the French Revolution of 1789. When it was initially completed, Parisians hated it and opposed it fiercely stating that it ruined the Paris skyline. But with time, not only it became accepted as an integral part of Paris but it has become the global symbol that represents the city of Paris. We first took some pictures with the backdrop of Eiffel Tower from a little far at a place where you get the best pictures of the complete tower and then we went closer to see the tower. We also had some delicious black pepper cheese puffs from a stall on our way to the close up view of the Iron Lady.
Our next stop was a tour to the Palace of Versailles (or Chateau de Versailles). Versailles is pronounced Versaey. We bought tickets to a high-speed train that took us to the city of Versailles in about 25 minutes. Versailles is a on the outskirts of Paris to its West and the town's claim to fame is that French kings decided to build a palace there as a retreat. King Louis the 14th started building it as a palace in 1668. Before that, it was the hunting lodge of his father King Louis the 13th. The palace is essentially a tribute to King Louis the 14th who ruled France for 72 years. During his reign, France was the super power of Europe with a booming economy, a huge prospering population of 18 million and the strongest military in Europe. He was referred to as the Sun King with reference to Apollo, the Greek Sun God. Apollo was used as an emblem by Louis the 14th. The palace is a testament to the grandeur of his reign with just the constructed floor area of the palace being 67,000 square meters. Behind the palace are the Versailles Gardens that run for a few kilometers! These gardens include a man-made canal in the shape of the Christian cross and several grand fountains, in addition to many gardens, each with its own theme. The palace building has several wings. King Louis the 14th built the palace and moved the seat of government and all its ministries there. This was an attempt to centralize the state apparatus so that they could be controlled under the eye of the King in one place. The palace has several buildings in a U-shape and a few wings. It includes a chapel that had the throne of the King. All the rooms are huge and have detailed paintings on the ceilings and walls. Each room has it's own theme and a different purpose. The grandest room is a Hall of Mirrors that is 255 meters long and has mirrors along one side of the hall with balconies opening into the Versailles Gardens on the other side. The ceiling has a series of paintings praising the Kings of France. Three kings used this palace as their official residence: Louis the 14th (who built it), Louis the 15th (who ruled France for 60 years and was the great grandson of Louis the 14th) and finally Louis the 16th who was at the throne at the time of the French Revolution of 1789 when he was overthrown and beheaded along with his Queen Marie Antoinette. Our tour of the palace took about an hour (after we had waited an hour in the line outside). The palace was extremely crowded as it is high tourist season and it was a Saturday. Then we walked around in the gardens for another hour before heading back.
Samia's iPhone's walking tracker app measured that we walked 14 km today. We stopped for dinner at a creperie in Versailles and had some delicious savory crepes made from buckwheat and with potatoes, cheese and mushrooms.
We got back to Paris on the high-speed train and then took the subway to the Pont Nuef bridge. We boarded a Seine (pronounced Sen) River cruise there but before that we had hot chocolate since it was getting chilly. The river cruise took an hour and we got to see several sites that we had explored in the last 2 days but this time at night and from the river. The Eiffel Tower looked amazing glowing in the night sky. In addition to all these sites, we also saw most of the bridges of River Seine. Our guide spoke good English so we found out about the unique history of each bridge.
After the cruise ended, we took the subway back to our hotel and we'll be going to bed now. It has been two very full and tiring days in Paris but now we have a greater appreciation of the French culture and history and a better understanding of why Paris is the world's most visited city by tourists.
We'll mostly be traveling tomorrow so in tomorrow's update, I'll give you an overview of our general observations about Parisians that we've witnessed in our two days here.
No comments:
Post a Comment