Honeymoon Tour: Paris - Day Four

On our last full day in Paris we decided to join the over 4 million people who will visit the Chateau Versailles this year. In case you don't know what Versailles is, it's a royal chateau in Versailles, which is located in the Île-de-France region of the country, about 10 miles from Paris. It was built by Louis XIII in 1624 as a hunting lodge and was the official residence of the Kings of France between 1682 and 1790. It eventually became the behemoth guilded palace it is today. You probably are familiar with it...so I'll stop there with the history lesson. Versailles is super simple to get to from Paris. We just hopped on the RER C line (regional train) and followed the crowd because literally everyone was doing the same thing. You walk up a street and then BAM there the chateau is in all it's glory. Speaking of all the glory, check out this photo I took:

Yeah, that set the tone. As if this view didn't.

And of course the famous golden gate, or "Gate of Honour." Which was so difficult to get a selfie with people are always going up to it. The golden gate was replaced in 2008 (the original gate was destroyed by the "common people" during the French revolution). So, technically those gates are replicas BUT they still have over 100,000 gold leaves so...I think they're pretty spectacular.

We got the audio tour so we could walk from room to room and hear about all the history and stories. It was truly fascinating and I caught myself wishing that I could have lived there back in its heyday. 
The chateau is obviously huge. It has 67,002 square meters of floorspace, including 700 rooms, more than 2,000 windows, 1250 chimneys, and 67 staircases! I mean, I guess you need a lot of room when you're housing the entire royal family and members of the French nobility. In it's heyday it had about 6,000 paintings and 5,000 pieces of furniture and objects in it! What I would do to go back in time and experience all that!!  Much of the furniture was sold after the revolution and slowly some have made their way back. Anyway, the chateau includes Le Galerie des Batailles, throne rooms, les grands appartments, l'appartment du roi (King's apartment), Salle du Sacre, Marble Court, Queen's Grand Apartment, chapels of Versailles, royal opera, and le Galerie des Glaces (aka "Hall of Mirrors"). This is a selfie of us the The Royal Chapel, which was completed in 1710. It's one of five chapels in Versailles--because having only one chapel is for amateurs. 
I was stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this room (lol at calling it a room..). It's the Hall of Mirrors, easily the most famous room in the chateau.

It was enchanting (henceI look like a crazy person in this photo). I learned that this room was especially spectacular because back in the day mirrors were obscenely expensive and to have so many mirrors was a very clear symbol of your wealth....

As if the chateau itself wasn't enough of an indication. This is a staircase. Quaint, isn't it?

And a hallway. That marble is ah-mazing! Put that in my someday house.

We saw the gardens briefly because it was raining on and off throughout the day. We would be in one room and look out the window to see a beautiful sunny day. We would be in the next room and it would pouring. Go figure. Luckily we got some photos during a sunny period. 

And this one of the actual gardens.

We didn't stay in the gardens long because Andrew's shoes had formed blisters on his feet and he was not a happy camper. See Exhibit A...

Poor kid. That photo was in one of the rooms after we went back inside. It was in the rooms that were used by Victoire and Adelaide, who were two French princesses and accomplished musicians. Note the musical instrument in the back. Also note the chandelier...because that shit is stunning and needs to be noted! By the way, I am totally naming my future children Victoire and Adelaide (pronounced Vee-Twahr and Adel-ay-eed), regardless of it they're girls or not. Lol.

After a couple hundred more photos we hopped on the train to return to Paris for dinner. On my sister's recommendation we found a raclette restaurant...which was DELICIOUS! So what the heck is raclette you might ask. It's sort of like fondu, but better! We went to Les Fondus de la Raclette, which looked like this inside:

We actually sat in the right most see right next to the wooden divider too. 
First you select you choice of accouterments, which can be meats, charcuterie, vegetables, cornichons, or just potatoes, and then you are brought a giant platter of whatever you chose. Here was my platter:

Then comes the cheese. Raclette is usually an alpine swiss cheese made from cow's milk. Depending on the restaurant, you will do one of three things: (1) the server scrapes gooey cheese directly off a cheese wheel onto your plate (they did this at Raclette NYC when I was with my sister after this trip), (2) the cheese can be clamped in a heater to drip onto your plate (my sister had this in Amsterdam), or (3) you can melt it yourself as you go, which is what we had. There was a grill in the table and we were given two mini pans and wooden scrapes. You place the pan on the grill, add a slice of cheese, and let it do its thing (takes all of 15 seconds). Here's a photo: 

Mmmm, letting it get all goey! Andrew ordered beef so he actually had to cook pieces of beef directly on the grill, too, but I ordered the charcuterie platter so all I did was melt the cheese and enjoy. After your cheese is melted to gooey perfection you take the little wooden scraper and sweep it onto your potatoes, meat, or both. I obviously did both! Here's a photo of Andrew mid-raclette:

Mmmmm, as I'm writing this I am remembering how delicious it was and it's making my stomach growl! After dinner we rolled ourselves down to the Latin Quarter for our final Parisian hoorah, Le Moulin Rouge!

Ready for a story? Because this is a good one. (1) I ordered tickets to the Moulin Rouge months in advance. (2) I made our itinerary before going so I wouldn't miss anything that we had booked beforehand. (3) I took French in high school and knew very well how to say the days of the week. None of this stopped me from somehow messing up. 

We walk up to the entry and I excitedly show our tickets to get scanned. We had ordered VIP tickets because it came with champagne and macaroons (and as we learned that night...a goodie bag!). What showed up on the screen? A giant red X. 

Turns out, we bought Mercredi tickets. Mercredi=Wednesday. But when did we saunter on up to the Moulin Rouge? Mmmhmm, Thursday. OH MY GOD. My heart sank. Luckily, we were dealing with the nicest gentleman ever and he quickly vanished to see what he could do. To be honest, he probably saw the newlywed-honeymooning-panic-on-the-verge-of-tears on my face and wanted to hide from me. In about 45 seconds he came back to us and said our table was ready. PHEW. We were in. 

I don't know if they have extra tables for when this happens, or if we got this treatment only because we bought the VIP tickets, but I will be eternally grateful. I hated that we looked like stupid Americans but it was the most honest of mistakes.

Sorry for the poor photos, the red light was strong (and yes I wore red to the Moulin Rouge). 

We got our champagne, our macaroons, and a WHOLE bag of gratis goodies, too! They gave all the VIPs a program, DVD of the show, keychain, and a few other things, all in a beautiful Moulin Rouge bag!

Luckily, it all worked out. The show was fantastic too. Took me a while to realize the girls were topless...lol. We obviously couldn't take photos of that! The show began at 11 and then ended around 1:30. We headed back to the Eiffel Tower for our final goodbye since we were leaving the next day.

Shining bright in all her twinkling glory. I am so honored to have seen the Eiffel Tower glisten in person and I hope I am lucky enough to return to see it again some day. 

The honeymoon continues in England. Check in on my next post to see what we got ourselves into there!

Honeymoon Tour: Paris - Day Three

We set our priorities for Paris like this...(1) Eiffel Tower, (2) fabulous food, (3) champagne, (4) sightseeing. By Day Three we had already accomplished the first three things on our list and it was on to the sight seeing portion of our visit. It also rained (and I mean RAINED) on Day Three so it was the perfect day to spend sightseeing indoors, not that we escaped the rain 100%.....you'll see.  

We started our day at Musée de l'Orangerie, which is located near the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde. It's not a very large museum and we spent about an hour ogling impressionist and post-impressionist art. If I sound like I know something about art...I don't. Don't be fooled. I'm just good at reading signs and informational pamphlets.

We did see some of the most beautiful Monet pieces, including many that spanned whole walls!

We then stopped by the Musée d'Orsay....or M|'O as the sign said...

Musee d'Orsay was a particularly neat museum because it is built in the former railway station, "Gare d'Orsay," which was built between 1898 and 1900. That explains a lot about the architecture, right?

In addition to the artwork, this museum also had the coolest clock I have ever seen.

After the Musee d'Orsay we took a break from museums and ventured outside for some sightseeing at the Arc de Triomphe and Notre-Dame. Here's a photo of the Arc, the tunnel passage to it, and Andrew doing something on his phone while I ham it up for the camera. Don't worry, I got a good one of both of us in this same spot. I just think this one is funny for here on the blog.

The Arc de Triomphe was especially fun to get to because you couldn't walk across the street to get there (or I guess you could--you would just get hit by a car!). You had to take an underground passage and then pop up under the Arc. This is what you see when you pop up.

Then you can go up the stairs to the top. So. many. stairs. This is actually a photo from the top looking down so you can actually see the steps.

Good thing I'm decently in shape.....not. I was winded.

It was worth it though because the views from the top were pretty spectacular, even in the bad weather.

I spy with my little eye, Monmartre and Sacre Coeur!

After the Arc de Triomphe we wanted to refuel and ended up stumbling upon a cafe I found on google maps when I was just looking at the city one day. I saw a random location called "Honest Lawyer." Naturally, because I'm a lawyer and all, I wanted to go. But I wasn't sure we would actually do it. Turns out it is about 10 minutes walk from the Arc! And let me say this...it's authentic! And by "authentic" I mean it was not a tourist trap. It is supposed to be an English pub but the waitress only spoke french and the lunch time crowd was mostly French businessmen so I think we found a good local spot. I was so excited to try out my french ordering and we managed to make it through the whole meal without a problem. Plus the food was delicious! How funny is the sign??

After le dejeuner, we headed to Notre-Dame Cathedral. At this point it was POURING. We spent plenty of time walking around inside the cathedral safe and out of the rain's way...

But we knew we would have to brave the rain in order to go to the bell tower. Luckily, we made good use of our raincoats and my mini travel umbrella and managed to stay somewhat dry. Mostly I was just concerned that my good camera was getting wet in my bag, which it was, and Andrew ended up putting it under his raincoat. Yes, my purse was water-resistant but NOT waterproof.  We took some quick photos outside and then went into the bell tower. Like the Arc de Triomphe there were so many stairs...but we finally made it to the top. You can see Andrew's hair is wet here but overall we look in good spirits. This is when we were walking around the top with all the gargoyles.

And check out the tiny door to the bell tower! Now I know why Quasimodo was a hunchback!

Notre-Dame was so so so beautiful. You hear about the stained glass windows all the time but to actually be there and to see it in real life was a really special treat.

After Notre-Dame we wanted to get back out of the rain so we headed to the Musee du Louvre for the rest of the evening. It is open late on Wednesdays so we had quite a few hours even though we showed up around...2 or 3 pm?  I was so worried I wouldn't get a photo in the pyramid because we entered the museum from underground. 

This entrance is much less cool. Although we did get a photo with the inverted triangle...

Luckily, we exited that way at the end of the night (the Louvre was open late on Wednesday) and I grabbed my selfie then! Still raining...

Did you know that the Musee du Louvre is actually a part of the Louvre Palace, a former royal palace that was originally built as a fortress in the medieval period? It because a royal palace in the 14th century under Charles V and was used as the kings of France's main Paris residence from time to time. In 1793 the museum part of the Louvre opened....which has expanded to be most of the building now. Fascinating, no??

We made sure to see the highlights. Like the Venus and the Mona Lisa, of course!

Everyone always told me how small the Mona Lisa was but I impressed to see if was not as small as they led me to believe. It was protected by super thick glass...and four security guards. Sheesh! 

Afterwards we headed back to the Eiffel Tower briefly before calling it a night. 

If you're not tired of me yet, join me next time to see what we did on day four of our honeymoon!

Honeymoon Tour: Paris - Day Two

On day two in Paris we woke up (I felt like I got hit by bus--thank you jet lag) and headed downstairs for our hotel's breakfast. I swear I am telling the truth when I say that the maid/waitress ran out and picked up fresh croissants from the cafe down the street every morning for all the guests. I told you it was a small hotel! So every day we had a delicious breakfast of croissant, jam, some deli meat choices, and of course, some cheese! I'm sitting here and my mouth is watering as I remember all the delicious morsels we had while in Paris. It was the perfect amount of food before our day's adventure. We took the train to Epernay, also known as "Champagne region," which is about an hour and a half outside of Paris. If you like champagne, you'll LOVE Epernay! Also, just a brief interruption--as I'm writing this I am watching a program on Versailles IN FRENCH (it's on the channel TV5MONDE) so that is sort of funny. I would try and write this post in French but I am not that skilled.

The train was not bad at all. We departed from Gare d'est (is that right?) and took the train straight to Epernay. Along the way we saw some adorable French country towns that I want to run away too now that I'm thinking about it. A short walk from the train station was our first stop: Moet & Chandon! We were visiting the Champagne house for a tasting and tour of their champagne cellars.

We arrived a bit early for our tour so we hung out inside the champagne house and had a walk around the store. Is there anything fresher than champagne sold at the actual champagne house?! I don't think so! How cute is this display? It's all the different sizes of champagne that is sold. No, I promise I did not buy the ginormous one all the way to the right. I did buy some minis though for us and my sister.

Once it was time for our tour we met our guide, Alisa, who gave us a brief tour of the main level of the champagne house. How beautiful this? It's the courtyard to where private events are held.

After our history lesson and education of the Moet and Chandon families we headed down into the refreshingly cool cellars. The cellars all were illuminated with very yellow light -- it's better for the delicate champagne since sunlight can ruin champagne. Quelle dommage!

Moet & Chandon has over 17 miles of cellars across multiple levels underground. And in the cutouts throughout the cellars are stacks and stacks of bottles of champagne. The sign at the top of each stack tells you how many bottles and the year of the champagne in that stack. 

See what I mean about the yellow lights?? I also learned that Moet & Chandon acquired Dom Perignon. There is an entire Dom Perignon wing of the cellar. Here's a photo of me just chilling with an entire wall of MANY bottles of Dom! Who is ready to pop the cork??

After the tour of cellars was finished we walked up to the tasting rooms. For the tasting they opened a few bottles of the 2008 Vintage. Fun fact, it is up to the cellar master to decide if he or she would like to create a vintage. Vintages are typically made when the grapes are particularly good. Another fun fact, there was a vintage made during my birth year of 1990--I was destined to be a champagne baby! Lol. They poured us each a glass of Moet & Chandon Vintage 2008 rose and Moet & Chandon Vintage 2008 brut. Don't ask me to tell you which one I preferred...they were both delicious!

Overall, we learned about the champagne region, types of grapes, champagne-making process, and history of the house. Did you know that in order to be "champagne" the grapes must be picked by hand ONLY. The harvest lasts about 2-3 weeks between August and September and it was just about over when we visited but you could still see it happening if you walked up into the hills.

Then we walked around the town, which was STUNNING. We must have been walking around when school let out because next thing you know there were a bunch of french students (that were much cooler than us) hanging out around this building.

Picture perfect, right? When there got to be too many school kids we walked to Georges Cartier for another champagne tasting and then headed to dinner. I highly recommend Chez Francoise! I had just the right amount of champagne to order completely in French like a pro. I ordered ratatouille...because it's French, duh!

That champagne went down soooo easy let's just say we bought a few bottles!

Then it was back home to Paris for some more twinkling Eiffel Tower, macarons, and sleep. Join me  next time and see what we did on Day Three in Paris won't you?