Nadnerb

Day Two

9/6
The beginning to any day in France starts with a nice pain chocolat and a cafe au lait. We divided to go to Versailles today, getting there wasn’t too difficult. First we went on a train at the nearby train station called gare st. Lezare. It was big and confusing, but we managed and grandpa was able to buy tickets for the chateau also. We got on the train and found out that we were on the wrong train, it was going where we wanted though. we met some very nice people that work on the train and got everything sorted out. This one lady was in love with America and wanted an American dollar, so we traded and she was very happy and thanked us way too much in both French and English. The ride was nice and quite and there was some cool graffiti, most of it was just gross throw-ups with no artistic value at all.
The city of Versailles is actually pretty big and it takes about 10-15 minutes to walk to the actual chateau. Along the walk, I went into some of the stores and checked out some sweet tongues, and brains, and livers, and hearts, and pigs feet, and blood sausage. None of which looked appetizing, except for the brain for some reason. In front of the entrance to the chateau there was a line of tour buses and lots of people trying to sell stuff, for some reason, they were all black and appeared to be actually from Africa, not just black Parisians. Anyway, we passed them buy and had to wait in a big line, which had a mix of French and English people, not many Americans though. The line went pretty fast which was good. There was also a fleet of BMW’s and a hydrogen powered 7 series. It was pretty.
The tour starts with about ten rooms called anti-chambers filled with paintings of each of the kings, their queens, kids, and random battles. It was very pretty and there was probably a lot of history behind them. Here’s the thing, I hate audio tours with a fiery passion that burns like the midnight oils. I hate being tied down by history and how everything has one correct back story. I like making up stories for each painting, statue, and room, things become much more interesting that way, they may not be historically correct but they probably sound a lot cooler than the real thing. Obviously the hall of mirrors and the king’s chamber were a big highlight, but I also liked the chapel and the crusade’s gallery, the museum of French history was good as well. Some of the paintings in the last room were huge, twelve feet tall by at least 40 feet wide it was amazing. Every room has very intricate paintings on the ceilings also, it was too far away to see all the small details that I’m sure were included by the artist. In every place you go in Paris you have to look at the ceiling first. There could be a masterpiece over your head.
Outside was beautiful, Grandpa had to go back to hotel because his hips hurt. Le jardin is almost indescribable. It seems to go on forever. At the beginning of the tour the building looks giant but it is actually less then a third of the whole property and almost a third of the building is unseen by the public. Unfortunately for us the grande opera was closed, I would have liked to see it, I guess it’s for next time. Outside, of course, the flowers are beautiful, but the highlight for me was L’orangerie it smelled like citrus all over and was wonderful, I wanted to have taken a key lime because it was ripe and would later be delicious. Then stairs, lots and lots of stairs. When we got to the top, we had a wonderful view again, But it’s France, it’s hard not to have a good view. Then we went to the dauphin’s building, it’s where all the king’s kids and the queen’s lived. It was pretty big for a guest house, and had nearly all the same things as the chateau, just smaller. It was a brilliant place and I probably could have stayed for hours more, but we had to get back, our feet were tired and we saw everything we could.
Walking back to to train station we decided to stop at a cafe and get some coffee, for me a cafe au lait (2nd time today) and a cappuccino for grandma. Back on the train and back to the hotel, grandma doesn’t trust me with leading her to places, so she asked people if her “French” for help and what do you know, I was right. When we got to the hotel we planned for the next day and had a drink, only enough wine for the grandparents, I got a Heineken, they’re cheap here, and I like it. It was still a bit early for dinner in France, so we went to a bar, had another drink and listened to some live music, it was nice and not very crowded. Dinner was at a place called the lyonness, It was small, but crowded and expensive. Grandma and I had the chicken and grandpa had the veal liver. For a plat, grandma had a salad with heart and liver in it. I tried the heart and it turns out that I don’t like it. The texture was really weird and it tasted like a hard boiled egg yolk. The chicken on the other hand was brilliant and tasted exactly the way it should. I didn’t have any desert or anything, the chicken was all I needed. We were done for the night. A quick walk back to the hotel and a jaunt up the six flights of stairs we all got ready for a good night of sleep and busy day.