lost in translation: Versailles (Attempt 1)

We were supposed to go to Chateau Versailles today but...

...we woke up late

...it was raining the kind of rain that makes your parapluie look like this

...we were misinformed and therefore unable to purchase our Versailles tickets ahead of time at the train station

...then we got off at the wrong stop

....and by the time we made it to the Chateau it was 10am and there were hundreds of people in line to purchase tickets.

Standing in line would have put us at noon to get started giving us only 6 hours. which may seem like a lot of time but is not. There is The Palace, The Grand Trianon, The Gardens, Marie Antoinette's Estate aaaaand Takashi Murakami's exhibition... none of which can be rushed. Especially since we have become accustomed to strolling as the Parisians do, in addition to having no particular time schedule we decided not to force it. Today was just not the day.

Instead we spent the day walking around the actual city of Versailles, which I dont think a lot of tourists get to do since seeing the Chateau takes up a whole day. Its a quaint city, quiet compared to Paris, with many decorative motifs on the facades of the architecture, lots of neutral and pastel colors. I was able to get a lot of good detail pictures, around 200, that once I get my hands on a printer I plan on incorporating into some artwork.

Antique/ Thrift stores in France are amazing and covered from floor to ceiling, every inch.

Of course, had to stop at Creperie Saint Louis for coffee,in honor of the good ole midwest (which of course this Creperie's reference to Saint Louis has nothing to do with)

Our train home dropped us off at the Notre Dame metro station.

The lines were short to get into ND because of the rain so we visited the inside for the first time today (I know, sad since its across the street from our apartment.)

Apparently there is a tour that takes you 387 steps to the top of the towers which we plan to do soon