Day Twelve France - Paris (10/7/11)

Today is Friday, October 7, 2011.  This is our twelve day in France and our second full day in Paris.  We're off to Versailles for the morning and the Lourve this afternoon.  It's a lot of walking and touring and time on the RER and metro but we purchased a 2-day museum pass and we need to squeeze things in a bit. 

We found out that the metro is just the metro but the RER is a train that runs under the city.  There are several RER runs.  Like London, there are transit zones.  Your typical ticket seems to cover zones 1 and 2.  If you go out further, you pay extra.  The zone 1 and 2 ticket also works on the bus and RER trains within the two zones.  Versailles is in zone 4 so you will pay extra.  The round trip ticket cost from zone 1 or 2 to Versailles was 6.60Euro on this date. 


So off we go to Versailles.  From our hotel to the Versaillle Rive-Gauche station took most of an hour.  Also, you have to make sure that you are on the right train.  First, you want to be on the RER C line.  But, the big surprise is that the RER C line splits on the way out to Versailles and you could be on the wrong train.  There are monitors in the stations that announce the trains and show the stops when the train comes into the station.  Also, the train runs have names that also appear on the monitor.  Any train name that begings with V will go to Versailles.  Our train run name was VICK.  Here's what you will see on the monitor.

Once at the Versailles train station, it took about 10 minutes to walk to the palace.  Very nice walk.  Below is our first look at Versailles.  The whole complex is absolutely massive.  Those big rusty tall things out front are some type of art work that I don't think Louis IV would approve of.  But somebody did. 

First Look at Versailles

Of course we have Mary and Larry at Versailles

Once you go inside the palace, you are in a 1-way walking tour.  We were in there for two hours and only saw the palace.  We didnt see some of the outlying large buildngs that were included with out pass.  We really saw enough.  For early October, the crowd was large.  Not quite bumping into each other but hundreds and hundreds of people.  I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer months. 

Upon exiting, we took Rick Steve's advice and had lunch in the Cafe d'Orleans which is inside the gate but outside the main palace.  Quiche and a Coke light.  Not bad.  27Euro.  Food is expensive everywhere.  This was not out of line for cost. 

Now, we're reversing our travel and we're off to the Lourve.  Again, about an hour to get there.  Both of us have been to the Lourve before and this time, it wasn't as special as before.  First, we toured the Denon wing along the river.  Almost all Italian painters from 1450 through 1650.  It's the same type of paintings that you see at the Ufizzi in Florence - mostly all Madonna con il Bambino.  Everything is renaissance religious.  Of course, we did see the Mona Lisa and Venus di Milo again.  Can't miss those.  Big crowds around those displays.  We didn't take many pictures (which you can do with no flash) as there are thousands of paintings.  However, here are a couple. 

Mary and Mona

Mona Lisa

My Venus and Somebody Else's Venus

Arch de Triomphe du Carrousel with Lighted Eiffel Tower in Background

It was getting dark so we took a taxi back to the hotel.  The taxi at 8Euro sure beats 300 up and down stairs involved with taking the metro back to our hotel.  That's it for today.