Versailles

Time for more Paris pics. This time it's our day at Versailles. Here is a view of the gigantic mansion from waaaay down in the gardens. I'd hate to be the one that has to clean those windows...


This is a very interesting sculpture that is outside the back of the shack. If you look closely you may be able to see the horns/sirens in the animals' mouths. Dad figured it must have been to signal setting out for a hunt. Or perhaps it was to signal danger. You know, like if an entire city is in search of someone in the building and is looking to ransack the place and behead someone.

This is a side garden (to the right as looking at the first pic above). Notice the palm trees and extremely manicured and decorative grassy areas? What a dump, huh?

I thought this was an interesting planter (which was on the giant patio area outside the back, near the fountain). Is that a naked elf pooping on a goat's head? I think the elf may be crowning. I'm not sure. What I am sure of is I NEED one of these.

This is just a cool shot of one of the walkways leading to the gardens. The trees are actually trimmed into rectangular shapes, like a hedge.

This would be the doorway to the hall of mirrors.

One of the many ceiling frescos.

A view of more ceiling frescos, ornate columns, many architectural details in the chapel. That's right, they had their very own chapel!

More of the chapel.

Some of the stained glass as well as more architectural details. Could you imaging living in a place like this? It was completely massive. They also had their own opera house, but unfortunately that was not part of the tour.

Close-up of the building. It looked like the entire building was lined with the statues visible on the upper level, which all appeared to be of different people.

Here is one of the beds (and some annoying person who was in my way). All the beds had the high canopy with the gold leaf detailing and the feathers. Again, what a dump!

I have some more b&w pics too that I'll have to post but this is all I have time for at the moment. If you want to see more pictures of our trip, check out this site my dad made - http://www.ce-h.us/paris/paris.html. Be sure to go into Paris life > art everywhere. Look at the second pic of the sculpture that was in a shop around the corner from out hotel. Dad was fascinated with this piece. He kept talking about it and pointing it out when we walked by it. He was also fascinated with the scooters that were all over the place and the dogs that were also all over the place, and pooping on the sidewalks. He took pictures of both. Yeah, he's a goofy guy. I guess that's where I get it from...

City of Love & Lights

So, I’m FINALLY posting some pictures from Paris. I just had to have some time to scan them. I also have some pics from trips earlier this year but I think I’ll wait on those.

It was a great trip; just too short. But, hey, beggars can’t be choosers right? Well, I guess technically we weren’t beggars since we never asked to be brought to Paris. My Dad just offered. But I digress…

The flight there was actually worse than I thought it would be. I really did not get ANY sleep as I had planned due to the EXTREME discomfort in our coach seats. We tried to goad Dad into upgrading to First/Business class but he would have none of that! Seriously, I was so uncomfortable that I literally broke into tears at one point. Things improved though after I realized (much to my chagrin) contrary to what I thought, I actually had not gotten my seat reclined the full 3 degrees that the airlines allow. My seat was only reclined 2 degrees. Actually I think Dad had read that the seats will recline 30 degrees or so. It still isn’t anywhere near how far my car seats will recline. Which is why I’ve decided the next time we go to Paris, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, we’ll be driving! ;)

We arrived in time to see my sister for a short while before she had to run off to her test. Then we went back to our hotel room to check out our beds – for sleeping. You think after that flight we were up to using the bed for anything else? Seriously, take a look at this pic of sweet hubby demonstrating the size of the ancient elevator in our hotel (which, by the way, could only hold two people comfortably; three people uncomfortably; and 4 people packed in like sardines). Does he look like he wants anything but sleep? And he looked better than I at this point. Actually, come to think of it, this may have been taken AFTER our approx. 3 hour nap. I’m sure he’d be THRILLED to know I put this picture on my blog, so shhhhh… this will be our little secret. ;)

That same evening Mme. Martin (my sister's house mother/host) joined my sister in visiting us at our hotel and then proceeded to take us on an evening walking tour. Some of the places we visited on the tour were:

Notre Dame

The center of France (in front of Notre Dame)

Hotel de Ville (very, very fancy) & some frenchmen

La Tour Eiffel

We hopped on the metro to get to the scenic lookout for the Eiffel Tower. This is during the light display which apparently happens every hour on the hour for about 10 minutes. Its flashing and glittering looks kind of like a giant christmas tree. Kind of hard to see in this pic, but there it is. Oh, the little woman in the lower left corner is Mme. Inge Martin (pronounced like Inga).

Riding on the Metrooooooo (Sung like Berlin)

I had to get a picture of this - a french movie poster for SuperBad! This was one of the MANY advertisement posters in the Metro tunnels. Some of the best (and craziest) were for Orangina. Can't stand the drink but love their ads. I'll have to scan the postcard versions I found at a little pub by our hotel.

Jardin du Luxembourg

This is a fountain statue with a view of the Pantheon in the background.

View from our balcony

I have a lot more photos from Versailles and still in my camera so I'll save those for my next post. Until then... au revoir!