We set off for the Palace of Versailles early in the morning by way of subway. The first stop was the garden, although this was more like Central Park than a garden. God knows how long it would take to explore the entirety of the massive garden, but I’ll tell you one thing, Shelman and I were not about to find out. We took a small tour, hitting all of the main attractions (still took us nearly two hours) where we saw this little bug:
Figure 1: Not sure what kind of bug this was but I sure dug its colors! (Cooler than this bug: http://ghanaphotoandvideo.blogspot.com/2010/05/little-red-bug.html? Vote in the comments section)
Then made our way to the actual building to get a look at the famed Hall of Mirrors as well as whatever else was in the Palace. Keep in mind now that we were on a time budget here. Today was our only full day to see Paris, so not only did we have to tour the palace but we also had to get back to the city, see the Eiffel Tower, and get my Royal with Cheese all before dinner and it was getting sort of late. With a line just to buy a ticket to the palace that looked to be two hours long, there was no chance that this was happening. So Shelman wormed his way to the front of the ticket line (instituted ‘cutsies’ if you will) and I met him there. Getting to the front of the ticket line in a minute when others waited an hour to get there may have been sort of a mean thing to do, but sometimes the ends justify the mean, right? (see: The Office) Anyways, we got into the palace, rented an audio tour type thing, checked out the hall of mirrors, the king’s room and all that good stuff then were on the way to the Eiffel Tower in no time.
The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower is pretty awesome—the climb to the top is not. After goofing around for a bit up top, Max and I made our way back down (took the elevator down because as much as I hate walking up stairs, nothing grinds my gears like having to walk down hundreds of stairs. The whole way down as I thump down stair after stair, all I think about is how much more awesome a slide would be. Like it wouldn’t be that hard to install and it would make the walk up totally worth it. Although if it’s one of those plastic type slides like at McDonald’s with those fat metal screws on them that shock you on your way down, then forget about it, I’ll just take the stairs. Cause if there’s one thing I hate it’s getting shocked by fat metal screws and if there’s two things I hate it’s getting shocked by fat metal screws on slides and cancer (see: East Bound and Down). Anyways, I digress)
That night, nearly out of money, we went to the grocery store for dinner and picked up pasta and beer—a French classic (so we were told). Not wanting to nearly miss our train again, we called it an early night and woke up at 7am the next morning headed for Barcelona.
PICTURES: Max at the Eiffel Tower; Me in the famous Hall of Mirrors; Me at the Gardens of Versailles; Shelman at a fountain in the Gardens; a picture of the colorful Gardens
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