Bean's World

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A Free Man (and Woman) in Paris, Unfettered and Alive . . .


Friday, November 24, 2006
Well, today was Versailles day - or Chateau de Versailles, if you want to get all fancy about it. I had been before, back in February, 1993. It was chilly and cold that day and guess what? It was chilly and cold this day as well – plus a nice helping of wet. I was a bit disappointed because I really wanted to see the gardens this time as I didn’t the last, but as you will see shortly, it didn’t matter and we had a blast. Mr. Bean had never been to Versailles so he was really looking forward to it.

We took the train out to Versailles. I stupidly forgot my magic umbrella, i.e. the umbrella that I always take with me when I don’t want it to rain; so of course it rained. To get to the train, we got off of Line 6 to Bir-Hakeim (Grenelle) and walked to Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel. Once there, we got very confused. Because we had the Carte l’Orange, we used it to just get to the train; but I knew that was not right because I knew the Carte L’Orange could not be used to Versailles. So we went back and forth, retraced our steps; and finally went to the ticket lady right before entering the RER C area who sold us our tix for 5.5 E each, round trip. I was very nervous about losing the tix. She asked if we wanted the pass for Versailles as well – it was 16E for RER tix and Versailles, but we said no, thinking the Museum Pass was enough – which later we found to probably not be – or we were too dumb to figure it out.

The train took about 30 minutes. We rode on the top level and really enjoyed the scenery. We were concerned with getting off at the right stop; but we shouldn’t have been because it was the last one. Also, I was wondering how they knew we had tix, because no one came to check them; however, as we left the train and the station, we had to use our tickets to get out of the station. Made sense to me.

Once we left the station, we took a right, and then our first left; and there was Versailles directly in front of us – beautiful gates. Unfortunately, there was a ton of construction going on so it wasn’t as beautiful in the front as I was hoping it would be.

We went into the Information area, which was on the left when you are looking at the Chateau. We thought our museum passes would cover everything; but it seemed like they hardly covered anything. We paid about 14 E more pp for a guided tour of secret apartments; and then paid something else as well. The escorted tour was at 12:30 p.m., so we had about 2 hours to see the rest.

We then went inside (which was good as it started to rain) and got in line to get headsets with the tour on it (6E each). We first got in one line, then were told we had to go in the paying line first, get a ticket and then go in the second line to actually get the head set. It was very confusing, and they were not very helpful.
Finally, we were able to start the tour. First, we went into the Chapel. This area was absolutely beautiful; and we got there just in time for an organist to play. It was beautiful. This was another spot where I was driving Mr. Bean crazy as I was trying to get the perfect picture. We then moved on through the tour and got to my favorite room of the house: The Opera House. It was amazing – the acoustics were wonderful; and it was just gorgeous. I could have sat in there forever. For some reason, you are not allowed to take pix in there, even without flash, which I just didn’t understand. So I was a horrible person and snuck (sneaked?) a couple of no flash pictures anyway. Sorry (well, not too much). You can see one of my "illegal" pictures to the right.

We then continued the tour through the Hall of Mirrors. I took a lovely picture of Mr. Bean with the mirrors in the background. He then took a picture of me. Now, this leads to a sidenote. I’m the photographer, not Mr. Bean. I do think, however, he had the capacity of understanding that if I want my picture with something, it means I want the picture to show me and then the item I’m with. Not Mr. Bean. And this continued to be a theme seen throughout this trip. If you look at the pix in the previous days' posts, you'll see exactly what I mean. First, at the Louvre, I took a lovely picture of Mr. Bean on the balcony when you first enter the Pyramid part of the Louvre at the top so you can see both the Pyramid and the Museum. I stood in the exact same spot and I could have been at the local mall for all you would know. Look above and compare and contrast the pix yourself. Then, I took Mr. Bean’s picture in front of the Palais de Justice which shows the whole building. I stood in the same spot and all you can see are the stairs – I could have been doing a Rocky impersonation and you would assume I was in Philly and not Paris. Once again, compare and contrast above. The Arc de Triomphe? It looks like I’m with a concrete block. That theme continued here at Versailles – a picture of me in the Hall of Mirrors which you see above right? I might as well have been in my own living room because all you could see are other people. And yes, I continued to complain to Mr. Bean about it; but it never changed. Then I asked a stranger to take a picture of Mr. Bean and I and as you can see to the left, you have no clue where we are - I'll tell you right now that this picture did NOT make the finals for the Christmas card. The Hall of Mirrors was nice, but I hope they finish it soon as I want to see it again in its full glory.

Anywho, we then went into the royal bedchamber where we learned Marie Antoinette had her baby and that all babies were born there. In fact, I learned that all royal babies had to be born in front of the entire Court to make sure no mistakes or exchanges were made and it was the true royal baby. Could you imagine birthing a baby in front of such a crowd? No thank you!

So it was then time for our tour. Talk about a VERY unusual man giving it. He was the ultimate French man, he was in his 50’s, had an obvious disdain of the non-french, had the perfect Parisian outfit – Mr. Bean and I loved him. I think my biggest regret was that I didn't get a picture of him; but to be honest with you, I was a little scared of him. You'll understand as you continue reading. And the things he pointed out on the tour were very bizarre – in such a funny way that we were very entertained. And everything ended with “do you understand what I mean?” Now, I will give you an example of an area he discussed that was so bizarre and he wouldn’t let up on it and even with kids on the tour. The bathing habits of the Court back in that time. He kept going over and over how the men shaved their entire body and took two baths – one with soap and then changed tubs to rinse off in another; but that women did not shave at all and only took one bath for everything, and had a special bathing outfit to wear during the bath. And he would emphasize it by saying “Men shaved, women didn’t shave. Men two baths, women one – do you understand what I mean?” And he said it so often, Mr. Bean and I were trying to not burst out laughing. We even got to see the royal toilets of the time which our french guide thought was a HUGE deal.

Also, this French guide was offended that Versailles has only retained about 10 percent of what was in Versailles “back in the day”. What’s interesting though, no one stole the items, the French sold them. So the reason they are not in Versailles now is because the French wanted money and sold them to private entities. And then this man was VERY offended that these same ingrates would not give the items back.

We also went to the Opera House again, but this time we got to sit on the upper level and got an even better view. Here's another illegal picture to the right. We learned that they still hold operas there. I don’t want to tell you this part because I don’t want you to take my tickets; but if you go on-line you can get on a waiting list for tickets to see something there. Also, dignitaries have dinners there – a royal family from Belgium had an event there the week previously. And we also learned that the stage could be expanded by going over the lower seats – I guess this was a huge deal back then.

During this time in the Opera house, we also had question and answer session. And boy, if he did not like your question or thought it was stupid – he had no problem telling you so. We were cracking up over the way he answered people’s questions. And as this was the time the movie “Marie Antoinette” was out so of course someone had to ask about that. I’m not kidding you, the tour guide looked around to make sure no one else from Versailles was there and when he saw no other employees, he told us it was a disgrace; and a horribly inaccurate movie. He was so offended you would have thought the movie was about this mother. And that ended the tour.

There was one complaint I had about Versailles. Because of the “Marie Antoinette” movie, it seemed like most of the souvenirs were geared towards that and very flowery and foofy, which I am not. So I bought no Versailles souvenirs except two umbrellas, which were very nice; and only 9E each.
We got the umbrellas to go out into the garden. Mr. Bean didn’t want to go far; however, because of the rain. But then we got lucky because even though it was not summer, they were still renting golf carts! Yes, they were 28 E per hour; but they were worth every euro; and we had such a blast on them it was the best part of the day! That's us in the cart in the picture to the right. The golf carts also came with an audio tour guide; so when we drove past different spots, the audio would start to tell us about the area. We got to see so much more than we would have otherwise, and it was a blast to drive around the gardens – how many people can say they have driven on the Versailles gardens? I would recommend this part to anyone; and up to four people can ride in it. We rode around the lakes, like the one to the left; and sped past people, bikes, police officers on horses and even sheep and dogs!


We went down to Marie Antoinettes Petit Trianon. We quickly looked inside and took that picture of me on the left (Mr. Bean actually got the whole thing!). We then went outside to see her gardens. I actually liked this home better than the huge Chateau. I got COUPLE PICTURE # 3 in front of the Temple of Love. After quickly taking that picture, we looked inside and it was very pretty.

We then bee-bopped it around the rest of the gardens, flew by the Grand Trianon as we didn’t have time to stop because of our hour limit; so I only got to take a quick picture of the outside as we flew by, which is the picture on the left. We then saw more police officers on horses.

Finally, we took a couple last pictures with the wonderful golf cart.; and made it back about 10 minutes over time. Thankfully, they didn’t charge us; but I have a feeling that in the summer, we would have been.

After the joy ride, I then wanted to walk back a bit to get a "couple" picture in front of Versailles, on the garden side. Mr. Bean didn’t want to because he was tired and ready to go – we had been there about 5-6 hours by that time with no lunch. I had something in my arsenal, however. You see, when I saw Versailles back in February, 1993, I was with the guy I was dating at the time; and we had a "couple" picture in front of Versailles. So I said to Mr. Bean, "Do you want my only picture as a couple in front of Versailles to be a picture with someone who is not you?" So needless to say, I got my picture, one with our backs to the Chateau (PICTURE #4) and then one with each of us with our backs to the gardens. We also took a picture in honor of of our baby dog Jefferson Kennedy which is to the right and our cat McKinley Roosevelt to the left.
So then we were ready to go. It was a lovely day, but we had had enough. And we were starving. So we decided that, on the walk back to the station, we would stop for lunch. Well, this was a lovely idea except for the fact that it was 3 p.m. and everything had just closed for that time between lunch and dinner. We finally found a sandwich place and grabbed some to bring on the train. Don’t misunderstand me, it was very good – and I had diet Orangina for the first time which I loved – but I was really looking forward to a sit down meal. Oh well. And I was also disappointed because I had been in Paris for three days and still hadn’t really shopped yet. I only had one more day in which to do it.

So we got back to the train station and took the train home. Then on the metro back to our hotel, we saw the nice American family from Italy who we met at Notre Dame on Thanksgiving – we gave them some directions to the Eiffel Tower; and then we went back to the room and rested before dinner.

Now, we were supposed to go to Au Petit Marguery for dinner based upon recommendations from Fodors; however, we were just too tired to do it; so we ate at an outside café called Le Malakoff right outside the hotel.

Although it was cold, we were still able to sit outside because they had heaters everywhere. We had a nice night, eating while looking at the Eiffel Tower. We each got the prix fix meal. I had escargots for an appetizer and of course soaked up the butter with some bread; duck with raspberry sauce for my entrée with some fried potatoes and crème brulee for dessert. And of course a ½ carafe of red wine. Mr. Bean had a “country” plate with foie gras, cheese and bread; beef tartare for the entrée (whch had to have been about 2 pounds of meat); and a hot fudge sundae for dessert. With bottled water, it was about 60 E. Very relaxing and enjoyable – a nice night for dinner. Afterwards, we walked across the street to get some nice nighttime photos of the Eiffel tower. We then went back to the room and to bed.

1 Comments:

  • Going to Paris next week; thanks for info on Versailles and on the restaurant with the great/cheap beef tartare. Will not send you leftovers.
    PerfessHER

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:34 PM  

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