Versailles With Kim Louis

This morning, we lingered over our first hotel breakfast which was quite enjoyable - comforting eggs, bacon, sausage and fresh European fare of ham and a variety of cheese. I told my parents I reserved our rooms with breakfast for the 1st week to make it easy as we get settled. By the 2nd week, we'll mostly be in Spain which has great markets and I felt like we might get tired of hotel breakfasts. They agreed with my logic as they savored the fresh fruit and tasty cheese.

Although we ran a little later than I had hoped, we made it to the subway and then transferred to the RER commuter train to head out to Versailles. Unfortunately, another train arrived at the same time as ours, and I didn't pay close enough attention. Before we knew it, we had gone 20 minutes in the wrong direction and had to double back. My mom said this humbles me because I'm such a perfectionist, but I was frustrated because I knew it would be crowded on a Sunday when they had musical fountains. My parents chocked it up to adventure and enjoyed the extra sitting time. They have been really good sports thus far!

We finally arrived at Versailles Chateau Rive Gauche train station and walked to the palace. There was a long line for the bag check, and then for the entrance to go through security. While snaking through and waiting in line, we took photos in front of the golden gate. My dad sat most of the time on his walking stick that turns into a chair, so he could save his energy. My dad's Catholic name is Louis, so I kept calling him Kim Louis (as you would say the last name first in Korean) and his "throne" was his Sky mall walking stick!



After waiting in line behind some nice Koreans with a chatty son, we made into the apartments. I didn't take many photos as it was my 3rd visit here and because of the crowds - but here's a collage:



The highlight inside of course was the Hall of Mirrors and my parents were super stoked to see it. But you can't tell by our Asian stoic faces here, but trust me, we're thrilled:



And after seeing all the state apartments and Louis XIV rooms, we made it to the gardens. As we entered, a cute French boy around 4 or 5 came up to my dad and said: "excusez-moi monsieur, mais de quel pays êtes-vous?" And I responded on behalf of him, "Etats-Unis". The boy's father explained his son was taking an informal survey of where folks were from and that's why he asked my father. Justin quipped they probably thought we were from an Asian country - but adorable nonetheless.

Here are some collages as we took in the awe of the meticulous topiary and manicured greens:





During the summer, all day Saturday and Sunday, they have musical fountains with timed shows around the garden and baroque music playing over speakers. I got some fun videos and it was so pleasant to listen to, but there was really no way my parents could walk around the garden to see it all, so we picked a few to watch. Here's a collage of some of the water choreography:



For a midday snack, we enjoyed some paninis and fries in the garden. We then headed out to the train station where we caught a train very quickly - thank goodness we had already bought our return tickets as there were crowds trying to use the kiosks. We took the train back to Paris which took about 30 minutes to the Orsay station. Since the RER stops in front of the museum, I thought it would be a perfect time to see it. I did not come here on my last visit in 2014 and much had changed, but the awesome impressionist collection in this old train station was refreshing to see again as I had such great memories from seeing it in high school.

Here's a photo of the famous window clock from the station - the sky was so clear and blue today:



My mom and I ran around a lot to maximize seeing the museum while you can see my dad and brother from the balcony took several moments to rest:



However, we did see the permanent collection together in all its glory and here's a collage of the family enjoying some famous masterpieces:

You will note one famous painting missing though - I didn't take a photo of Courbet's "Origin of the World" - I remember being shocked to see it when I was 15, studying art history in Paris for the summer. My mom wanted to see this famous painting and my dad was like, "why aren't you taking a photo of this one?" Funny dad.

Although it was one stop to Ile de la Cité, which is an island in the Seine River, I suggested we walk along the river to enjoy the bridges after the museum closed. I underestimated the lack of ice cream or crepe shops and benches which made the walk less bearable. But here's a selfie of us before getting on the island that I compared to NYC's Roosevelt Island:

 

On the island, we found a restaurant where we had crepes, an omelet, and a Croque Madame which I washed down with a beer. Our collective crepe count is now 5. We had dinner across the street from the Palais de Justice and Sainte Chappelle, where I had purchased tickets for a one hour classical concert, recommended by a colleague of mine. The musicians played Vivaldi, Pachelbel, and played with great vigor. Here's a collage below and my mom with the head violinist from whom she bought an autographed CD of the concert:

 

Although I had pondered visiting Notre Dame cathedral, I thought it would be a bit pointless if it was closed. So to maximize our museum pass tickets, I suggested going to the Arc de Triomphe for a night visit and the family agreed. I think the one hour of sitting refilled our energy and we walked over to Chatelet and got on the metro. On the way, not sure what came over me, but I started to quote from the Meg Ryan movie, "French Kiss", and kept repeating "I will triumph" and "George Cinq" with a snobbish tone. When we arrived, the was a queue in the median of the road to take choice pictures in front of the monument. Although this may not be the safest decision, we waited in the line and a nice man from Miami took this for us:

As our museum pass included free entry and I had never gone to the top, we decided to experience the panoramic views on the lovely night. Normally, you would walk up around 240 steps, but the guards permitted us to take the elevator on account of my parents. The elevator was clear on the top and we shot up and then we only had to climb about 46 steps. We took in the lights of both Champs Élysées and Eiffel Tower. After soaking it all in, we headed down and paid our respects to the Unknown Soldier and headed back to our hotel via metro. A collage of our visit:



After meandering through the large Charles de Gaulle - Etoile station, we got on our train which dropped us off directly in front of our hotel. As we were a bit thirsty, Justin and I headed out to buy waters and we returned also with several cones of sorbet which seemed to make the hotel lobby clerk chuckle.

I'm so proud of my dad today. We walked tons and we saw a lot, and he didn't complain once. I also explained today and tomorrow were going to be the roughest as we were visiting Versailles and Louvre back to back. I told him we would take as many breaks as needed and I tried to order our agenda to be as efficient as possible, so he could rest and not be too exhausted. I'm hoping tomorrow goes as well as it did today, but as we wind down our museum pass and since in Spain we'll be driving much, he's taking it all in like a champ - or a king!