Palace of Versailles

On my second day in Paris, I got to go to one of the most historic and amazing places in the world - Versailles. I don't plan to bore you with the details of the palace, but it is still one of the most impressive pieces of architecture I've ever seen. It, like the Louvre is an all day experience, mostly because of the insane crowds.

There was one slightly ENORMOUS problem with visiting the palace when I did. Through the most important part of the place were some of the most horrific works of art by a modern artist. I won't say his name because I don't wish to promote his work or the defiling of this trip I've wanted since high school.

Of course, no stay in Montmartre would be complete without an evening stroll through Paris' red light district to go see the famous (infamous?) Moulin Rouge. At 185 Euros to get in, just seeing the outside was fine with me.

Real train musicians. Pretty good too.

The beautiful Palace of Versailles

The ceiling of the Grand Hall. It's also the world's largest painting.

Louis XIV put in the Grand Canal. He used to put warships on it and challenge other countries to try to shoot them down (or so the audio tour claimed).


The Hall of Mirrors.


In a hall full of mirrors, how do you not take a picture of yourself in the mirror?


The back of the palace at nightfall.


The Moulin Rouge.

So, you remember the atrocities I mentioned about the King's quarters in the palace? Here's a taste of how inappropriate it was. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad in a gallery, but seriously... come on.

Atrocity #1


Atrocity #2


Atrocity #4 (really? Michael Jackson and Bubbles)


Atrocity # 7 - This one was right in the middle of the Hall of Mirrors.


Atrocity #8 (yes it's the Pink Panther molesting Marilyn Monroe)

There were several more, but I couldn't justify publicizing this guy's "art" any more than I have.

Paris Day One

We arrived at Charles DeGaulle airport around 9 pm. We proceeded to take a shuttle into town, but unfortunately, got off at the wrong place. It didn't take long to realize we were well off-course and needed help finding our way to Montmartre, where we planned to find a 2-star hotel for the next few nights. It is at this point that I discovered that despite the many complaints and warnings I had received, Parisians are, in fact both highly friendly and helpful, a trend that would continue over our three days. Of the two of us, one had a very hard time settling on a place, but was quite insistent that we keep looking. Finally, at 1:30 am I put my foot down and got a room. This hotel turned out to be a bit of an adventure.

The next day, I went out early and found a nice little cafe to buy coffee from and some delicious croissants. Catherine's big ambition for Paris was to go see the Louvre. Now, I'm not the biggest art fan, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. So, it turns out the Louvre is enormous and is actually a multi-day experience if you want to see the whole thing. I find that it doesn't take long before one 17th Century French portrait looks exactly like every other 17th Century French portrait. After 2 hours of brain-numbing, library-esque silence with no English descriptions to be found, I hurried on to the Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman galleries and of course, the Renaissance sculptures and paintings. There were definitely some highlights and I'm sure for someone who has some knowledge about art, it would make for a fantastic experience. For anyone else, I highly recommend going straight to the highlights pointed out in the map provided and save yourself hours of pain. The iPod certainly helped matters.

As for the adventure of the hotel room, it's not as though anything bad actually happened, it was really just the fear that the building would collapse and crush us at any time. It seems that the curtain (not the curtain rod, but the curtain itself) was a load-bearing curtain and any adjustment could have disastrous consequences.

We finished the day with a bottle of French wine and escargots over dinner while we decided that our relationship would not survive past the end of our trip.

A view of Montmartre from our hotel room

The Louvre from inside the Louvre.

The sculpture commonly known as the Venus De Milo, which is ironic since it is an ancient Greek sculpture and Venus is Roman goddess. It is actually called Aphrodite.

Michelangelo's Wailing Slave

I hope you know what this one is.

The French Crown Jewels

The Eiffel Tower over the Jardins Toulieres


The Louvre at night

Mmmmmm... escargots.

How a curtain holds up a building.