We made ourselves get up Saturday morning and it’s a good thing otherwise Versailles would not have been as easy as it was – not that it was necessarily easy.

If you have visited Europe in the summer you know it’s crowded.  If you haven’t believe that to be true! We were on the early train but probably 5-10 thousand folks still beat us out there. Plan B was to sign-up for a tour to bypass much of the crowd already waiting in line which we did.

So by 10AM we were inside fighting another mass of people I guess we couldn’t see from the outside.  But it was definitely worth seeing and very interesting – and very very impressive. I never knew that so many people once lived there permanently.  The King, court and nobles all lived there with the servants.  At it’s peak it was a small city of about 10,000.

And what a city it was.  Lavishness does not even begin to describe it.  And the gardens are vast today but only a fraction of the size they once were.

It’s tough to get a picture of the Palace exterior because it is more than a camera can take in. Here is a piece of it anyway.

Royal bedchamber. I think I saw a Sealy Posturpedic label sticking out. May have that wrong.

Versailles had it’s own Opera House. Here is one tiny part.  They had to limit the use because it took thousands of candles to illuminate it properly and the cost was prohibitive even for the King.

Opera House ceiling.

The chapel ceiling

The famous hall or mirrors.

One of the small gardens off to the side.

We happened to be there on a day when they turn the fountains on. To give you a feel for the size it’s several miles to the end of the far reflecting pool and today’s gardens are a fraction of their former size.

We headed back to Paris by mid-afternoon and had a few hours before dinner so we stopped by for a close-up view of the Eiffel Tower.  The size of it really surprises you – especially the size of the foundation and how spread out the 4 foundations are.

That night for dinner we met my colleague, Tim Boullion, from the International New York Times.  He took us to a little cafe and afterwards on a driving tour of Paris before dropping us off at the Sacre Couer in time to see the city at sunset.  We stayed until they turned the lights on the Eiffel Tower and hurried down to catch the subway to be over at the Tower itself for a close-up when they came on again at 11PM.

Got back to the hotel late but not a problem since we have a light schedule on Sunday!

Arc De Triomphe

Sacre Coeur atop Montmartre at sunset.

Paris at sunset

Here is a cool video of the Eiffel Tower light show that runs at the top of every hour.  Listen closely to the 2 cool frenchmen with strange southern accents.