By now, I think it might be healthier to drink tea of chocolate instead. Too much coffee would be bad for your health. You could have some of the navettes that I had bought from Marseilles to go with your tea.
Just imagine it... Or lick your screen... :-D Just joking, just joking...Remember to make yourselves comfy and read this in a well-lit room with the screen about 50cm from your eyes. Make the words bigger if you need by pressing ctrl down and scrolling the mouse wheel up...
Book 3, Chronicles of France
Day 4 of the France Trip
Day 4 was Easter Sunday, or Pâques in french and so, we decided to go to Versailles, the former capital of France after Louis XIV moved it there some centuries ago. Versailles is now just a suburb of Paris. A very fancy suburb.
Some of you would better remember it as the place where the Treaty of Versailles was signed at. To me, it's a place where a whooping castle and an equally huge garden is at. But as usual, there was a queue to get in, Luckily, we had bought our tickets beforehand and so we only needed to queue for entry.
The Castle of Versailles, Château de Versailles, is one huge and grand castle!!
Each room was lavisly decorated and sinfully furnished. I have never seen so many art pieces and gold in the same place before. Some of the pieces were the same as those in Louvre.
It was really cool! Each room has at least one painting or some gold somewhere. Really, the French Kings either had a lot of money or they were not spending their own money when they built this....
Words can't really describe the splendor of the place. That's what tours are for for you to experience it yourself. sigh, I wish I could properly express myself to tell you guys how awesome the place is. Even the pictures that I take when my camera is in a good mood is insufficient to do justice for such a place like that. So, for occasions like this, always be glad that there are guide books for the place! I bought the book on Versailles, so I can let the book tell you more about the splendor of the place - when you borrow it from me.
Pic of me in the famous Hall of Mirrors. There's really lots of gold here... And look, even the ceilings are completely covered with murals!!The garden outside is, in my opinion, more noteworthy than the castle. Yes, gold is nice and all but sometimes the greenery is a nice change from that.
The garden is splendid! (I seem to use a lot of superlatives for this chateau but really, there is no other way to describe it!) I actually preferred the gardens to the chateau.
They must have hired a whole army of garderners to maintain this place! It looked great! There were statues of greek and roman gods, characters and others of the mythical world and many fountains.
The garden is so huge that it would take about 1 and a half hours of walking to finish the main path, and that is not considering the other trails that lead to other parts of the gardens! I can imagine that the french kings and Napolean would have ridden in the gardens. It would be really cool to explore the gardens on horseback!! But alas, we only have our feet to bring us around, and due to time constraints, we decided to just settle ourselves by the lake (THEY HAVE A MAN MADE LAKE!!!) and enjoy the view.
Pictures, pictures!!
This was taken by me...
This was taken by a professional from some website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alessio72/1278478665/ End of day 4.
Are you still with me? Ok good. It might get boring now, since we are out of Paris now. After all, 99% of the French attractions are in Paris, no? :-D
Alright, for the staunch-hearted, let's trudge on!
Day 5 of the France Trip...
We boarded a plane from Paris to Nice, which was just about 1 hour 30 mins away. After putting down our bags at the hotel (Thank god for that!!) we went exploring to the old town of Nice. The last time I was in Nice, it was just a stop over for a hotel, and so, I was curious as to how the city itself is like.
Old Nice is a charming place. The narrow streets and the easy pace of the people reminded me of that impression of Paris that I had at first. Narrow streets that wind and turn so that one can lose themselves to the charm of the town and people who are in no hurry to get anywhere. They can stop and say a few "konichiwas" or even strike up a conversation that is not too creepy.
We didn't really explored much, just a handful of touristy places that were on the map and guidebooks that labeled them as must-sees. We really took our time with Nice. We ate at one of those restaurant that was at the foot of a historical church out in the sun with a busker strumming classical tunes on his guitar. Some time later, a singing lady came to busk for money near the restaurant too, so we had lunch in the sun, at the foot of a beautiful church and to the music of authentic french songs (the lady was singing Edith Piaf!!). And for after lunch dessert, we ate gelato from the stores nearby. How great was that...
One thing to note was the italian influence in Nice. Because of its proximity to Italy, Nice has many italian restaurants and gelato stores are a common sight.
Before dinner, we strolled to the flea market and looked around a little before they closed for the day. There, we met this lovely lady who was manning a store. We struck up a conversation and chatted a little, IN FRENCH!! I am very proud to say that I understood 90% of what she said and that we had a decent conversation! (She was speaking slowly in easy words and pronouncing her words, so she was easy to understand)
We spent the remainder of the day sitting by the beach and watching the sunset.
In all, we left Nice with a very nice feeling.
End of Day 5...
For continuity's sake, I'm going to end book 3 here. See you in book 4! Before that, here's some pictures of Nice.
The narrow streets of old Nice.
Spring is in the air!
Beer and Lemon Gelato!Jump to book 4
WOW!! castle of Versailles!! so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYour picture of the garden is so barren compared to the one online! It's hilarious.
ReplyDelete