Paris Day 2 - Versailles, All Saints' Day

Versailles

11/1/2012

When I bought the airplane tickets to Europe, I didn’t know that we’d be here for All Saint’s Day. It is November 1^st and we were horrified to learn that we’d be here for it. Government shuts down. And if it is anything like the last time (May 1^st) then we would be in for a very nasty, very boring surprise. On May 1^st, NOTHING is open. And I mean NOTHING.

However, November 1^st doesn’t seem to have the same meaning, so a lot of tourist attractions were still open. Restaurants and cafes were also open, as well as Rue Montorgueil. And Versailles.

Notre Dame

We woke up at 6am today because we didn’t buy advance tickets to Versailles (we weren’t 100% sure if Versailles would even be open, given that it was All Saint’s Day). The palace opens at 9am but everyone online says the line will be long, so allow yourself at least half an hour to get the tickets and get in line. We walked to the RER stop at St. Michel Notre Dame, which took us across the Notre Dame island.

The Seine

It was around 7:30am when we got to the RER, still dark outside and nobody was on the streets. I commented that Parisians go to work late, but Angel pointed out it was a national holiday. Forgot. The RER C yellow line takes you directly to Versailles with the VICK train (get off at the last stop, Versailles Rive-Gauche. Any other Versailles stop will force you to walk a long detour to the chateau). It is a half hour ride to Versailles.

After we got off, we walked the five minutes to the palace. There were already a lot of people there, and it didn’t help that you have to first line up in one building to get your tickets, then go through security at another building. OMG there were a lot of people!!! I’ve never seen so many people before! No other palace, no other country is this crowded! There were hoards of tourists... Chinese, Japanese, Korean.

The tourists from China are pushy and rude. They cut in line—a reeeeaaaaally long line—for the bathroom. The Caucasian lady they cut in front of gave them dirty looks, but they were oblivious (or they have really thick skin).

I’m affronted that I’ll be lumped with those damn tourists because of my skin tone. Ugh. They’re giving us all a bad rep. They have no manners whatsoever.

Angel was reading an explanation in one of the rooms, and one of the Chinese tourists tapped her on the shoulder. She told Angel to "move it" in Mandarin because she wanted to take a picture. Wait your turn, lady! Angel replied—in English—that she had no idea wtf the lady was saying.

They were all posing in a grotesquely effeminate way:

Mom & Ang getting a kick out of imitating the tourists ^.^

And when the furniture tags say “Please, don’t touch,” they touched! How hard is it to follow simple instructions?! Especially when most of the furniture is cordoned off! One lady leaned over the cord so she could pose on the furniture. Ugh. They ruined the whole "Versailles" experience. Mom and Dad are now just so-so on Versailles, when I wanted them to love it. The last time when Angel and I came, it was so nice… like a dream. I liked it so much that it was one attraction I definitely wanted to take our parents to, but it sucked that the Chinese tourists ruined it for them.

Versailles is undergoing renovation, so the first floor gallery is new. They have automatic audio guides that start when you enter a specific room, kind of like a motion-sensor gadget (audio guide is included in price of admission). The State Apartments and Hall of Mirrors are gorgeous:

They cleaned the feathers from last time!

Marie Antoinette's room

The door she used to escape on the night the revolutionaries stormed Versailles

Hall of Mirrors

We kept on commenting that Ludwig really knew how to imitate! In a time before internet and photographs, how the hell did he manage to get exact replicas made when he was located in another country altogether?! 

Herrenchiemsee looks exactly like Versailles, and in some ways, better, because Versailles was thoroughly lived in, ransacked and left for ruin at various times in history, while Herrenchiemsee was built for one man. One man alone, and he barely lived there at all. Herrenchiemsee is pristine and exacting, and you don’t see the walls cracking or things in need of repair. But the workers at Versailles are working hard to get everything up to speed, which is hard when you have millions of tourists trampling through it every year.

Check out what a pain in the ass their "touching up" process is!

The Battle Room:

Look how focused he is when there's war to be had!

The little rat, sneaking food into her mouth. Paintings bore her, so she's more concentrated on which chocolate to eat than the audio guide explanations.

And the rat's father. When one eats, the other needs to eat as well. Just look how happy he is! 

We went into the famed gardens, where there is a very familiar fountain (Herrenchiemsee, anyone?):

I bought the passport ticket, which is 3 euros more than just the ticket to Versailles. It allows you to enter the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon. 

We also went to Marie Antoinette’s hamlet, where the queen liked to play at being a rustic farmer-ess. Kinda like how rich folks these days have their own "organic gardens"—yes, I'm staring at you, Ina. Thanks to you, Angel's dream house is a barn. A BARN. Humph.

Ang's vegetable patch

It alternately stormed with sunshine, so every time the rain poured, everyone would rush for cover underneath the alcoves. It was an experience, to be sure. It was freezing cold and at times, you could almost feel the wind pushing you over. Brrr.

The Gardens:

After we left Versailles, we walked two blocks to Rue Carnot and Rue Poissures to check out the patisseries there.

Pain aux raisins- Dad's favorite

Almond croissant - our favorite

Upon returning to Paris proper, Angel led the charge to the Pierre Herme location (the original store) in St. Germain to buy macarons. As expected, there was a line to get in. One lady got out of a taxi to stand in line to buy stuff... and had the taxi meter running, as the taxi was clearly waiting for her! Good God! It ain't that good! Well, talk to Angel... she might have the taxi running as well :P

It is cheaper to buy 7 (12.50 euro) than to buy them individually (1.95 euro). She chose salted caramel, violet, rose and ginger, white truffle and hazelnut, crème brulee, passionfruit dark chocolate (their newest flavor, called “Mogador”), and praline.

We bought an Ispahan for Mom, which she absolutely loved: 

Ispahan - Rose, Raspberries and Canned Lychee

Angel loved the white truffle. Rose was delicate and very floral, violet was faintly floral, and salted caramel tasted like some cheap shit you can buy at Arnold Lahrer. The crème brulee tasted marshmallow-y.

White Truffle Ganache with Shelled Hazelnuts... or unshelled. Angel bit down and nearly broke her tooth because there was a shell in one of them!

Rose

Ugh. The salted caramel looked so promising... it looks so gooey! But nasty as all hell!

Praline

We got back to our toasty apartment and enjoyed a very delicious dinner of Collet croissants, beef bourguinon, wine, and a sampling of Pierre Herme macarons.

The beautiful box our dinner came in :) 

Yuuuuummmmm!

Marlborough roll that we brought all the way from London:

We all love this roll. *sigh* It was the last of our supply. It has sultana raisins in 'em... man, can the Brits do raisins! French raisins aren't quite the same, and don't get me started on American raisins! >.< We bought a similar bread in Vienna, and Dad liked it so much he lopped off the top and ate all the sugar crystals. Seriously. He cut horizontally—not vertically—taking all the sugar off the bread and gobbled it up. Angel was pretty upset at him because she likes the rocks as well. These two are like children when it comes to food—they will gobble up foods they like so that no one else can eat them. "Sharing" holds no meaning for Dad & Angel. 

Note: The Monoprix near Pierre Herme was remodeled. It was our favorite Monoprix the last time we came, but now, not only is it more expensive than other Monoprix-s, it has a more limited selection.