Day Three--Fun in the Sun-7/1

Today was the day for the included tours of our trip. We met other fellow tourists in the hotel lobby at 8am and were off on our air conditioned bus to Versailles to see the palace.This turned out to be the hottest day of our trip---about 86 degrees, so the air conditioning was appreciated. Versailles is about 25 minutes outside of Paris and the tour guide gave us some interesting info. on the drive. When we arrived a little before 9am, the parking lot had a total of 3 tour busses. When we left at 12pm, the entire parking lot was bumper to bumper tour busses. Since the palace is not air conditioned, I'm glad we had an early start.This is the gate to enter the palace grounds. The public is only admitted to a small portion of the entire palace and most of the original furniture, tapestries, and wall coverings are still in place. What is striking is the enormous amount of marble, of many different colors throughout. The gardens are beautiful and the flowers are actually picked and kept in greenhouses during the cold winter months, so the outside changes with the seasons.

Click, and click again to enlarge....




We began our tour inside---some of my pics are a little blurry and there are so many, but I'll post just a few.
Royal bedchambers:








Marie Antoinette--one of numerous royal portraits:



The Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending WWI:









The inside is decorated with so many murals on the ceilings, huge paintings on the walls, ornate decorations and furniture throughout--no wonder the people revolted!













These women decided that the "Do Not Sit/Touch The Furniture" signs didn't apply to them, therefore, they're in my pic:




One of the King Louis' picturing himself as a Roman warrior:




Some blurry pics of the inside royal chapel, mainly of the pipe organ:







Here are some pics of the lovely gardens outside--we took our time wandering and would turn a corner and see a whole new area--beautiful!

Different garden views:
















Back on the bus, when we arrived in Paris, we were dropped off at the Lafayette shopping center for lunch. The place is huge and took awhile for us to find food to buy, but we did. After lunch we had a tour of the Fragonard Perfume Factory and of course, ended in the gift shop! Alana bought some French perfume and perfumed soaps for her friends. We then had about an hour or so bus tour of the city and passed all the places that are "important".

After we were returned to our hotel, we set out to find an internet cafe. After a couple of Metro rides and a walk, we came to the Cyber Cafe. The man who owned it was so friendly and helpful. He had Alana speak to him in French so she could practice and as a result gave us a discount. I'm disappointed that he wasn't there the Saturday before we left as I wanted to get his pic. He dressed in traditional African garb and had such a great smile.

Afer a dinner close to the hotel, we thought we might make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but it was after 11pm by then and jet lag was again rearing its head. We decided to make it another night. One thing we noticed everywhere we went was the security, Everytime we walked near the ETower, there was a strong police presence. Anytime crowds began forming, police would appear out of nowhere. The ETower area is fun as there are performers in the square which helps pass the time while waiting in line.

Forecast calling for rain Wednesday, so we wanted an early start to Notre Dame and St. Chappelle. We also wanted to visit the Louvre and the D'Orsay Museum, so it was off to bed.