Versailles and Chartres by Mia

Yesterday we drove to Versailles first thing in the morning to see the Chateau. It took ages to get there because we kept getting lost, but thats normal. When we finally got to Versailles it was about 9:30 and we had been aiming for 9. I don't even know why we bother aiming for a certain time because I can't remember the last time we have actually made it. It took a little bit to find a parking spot, and daddy ended up dropping us off while he went and found one alone. The parking lot in front of the palace was absolutely packed with tour buses and other cars so he had no chance there.

We spent about two hours in various lines and at one point daddy walked off and came back with frappuccinos from McDonalds, and that was really good! When we finally got into the actual palace, it was extremely crowded. We had the audio guide so we had that stuck in our ear the whole time and it told us about the different paintings, furniture, and other decoration (all equally lavish) in all of the rooms (which varied from unnecessary to just plain stupid). Each gilded bedroom had several antechambers and every single room had extra chairs for spectators who could come watch the king and queen do anything from eat dinner to give birth (ew, but not kidding).

We walked through about a bazillion of those rooms, and then we got to the Hall of Mirrors. The people who built the palace must have really liked looking at themselves because there was at least one mirror in every single room of the place. The hall of mirrors had mirrors (duh), tons of gilded fancy detailing (again, duh), lots of crystal chandeliers (wow, this is starting to sound like the rest of the palace), and a giant pair of shoes made of silver pots (phew, that is definitely not in any other room). They had lots of random modern art in some of the rooms of the palace, including several spinning things hanging from the ceiling made of plastic eating utensils melted in floral designs, some random sculpture things wrapped in doilies, and the pair of giant pot shoes in the Hall. Anyway, the hall of mirrors was for having parties and entertaining guests (again, like most off the other rooms in the palace, I think the lives of the royals were similar to the Kardashians'... Really public).

After the palace we hit the palace gardens, which were colossal. There were tons of fountains, which had never all worked at the same time, mazes of tall hedges and lots of pretty flowers. All of it was perfectly manicured. We checked out a few fountains and then lay around in the lawn for a little while in front of a big pond. Then, we walked to the Grand Trianon, which was a smaller house (more like a mansion) that had pretty pink stone pillars, and a gorgeous flower garden. It was full of rooms with portraits of lots of different important women. Then we walked all the way back to the main palace, stopping at an ice cream place along the way. We also stopped for a few minutes to watch a cool musical fountain show at the only fountain in the park that actually works. Then we got the heck out of there, as fast as our numb legs could carry us!

After a bit more driving in circles we got to our next (and last) destination for that day: Chartres Cathedral. Chartes has a really cute historical quarter and in the center is the Cathedral. The walls on the inside and outside of the cathedral are blackened with soot, but they are cleaning the inside. The difference between the dirty part and the clean part is really crazy. The real color of the stone is more like a creamy white than grey. If the entire interior was like that it would seem so much lighter inside! I actually thought that they were painting it that color, but they only painted some of it. Chartres also has almost all of it's original stained glass still, which was also quite dirty, making the inside seem even darker because there is barely any light coming in. They are pretty much in the middle of a giant restoration of everything, so all of the best parts of the cathedral, like the altar and most of the ambulatory, was covered up. It was really pretty anyways!

By then we literally had to ooze back to the car, stopping at a bakery on the way for some quiche (which was really yummy) for dinner. We drove back to the hotel, getting lost on the way again, and finally got there at about 10 pm. Then we hung out and watched TV until 1 am. Fun!!!