Paris day 3

We had two goals for Sunday.  Hyrum wanted to see the soccer stadium(s) and I wanted to see Versailles.  So we left our hotel in time to get to the stadium and back before check-out.  We took the metro all the way to the other side of the city to see the stadium, and when we tried to leave the metro station, we couldn't get out. [side note: unlike in most cities, Paris metro systems are set up so you have to put in your ticket when entering AND exiting.  If it doesn't accept your ticket, the door doesn't open for you.]  We wandered around trying all the different machines, and our tickets didn't work.  We tried using new tickets (that I had in my purse.)  They didn't work.  We finally found a sign that said this was in "zone 2", which explained why our zone 1 tickets were useless.  However, that didn't help with the small problem that we were trapped.  The platform to return to downtown Paris was only accessible if we wanted to jump over a fence, and then face a 50 feet drop-off.  There were no ticket machines, and no employees in sight.

Hyrum snapped some pictures of the stadium while I tried to figure out our options.  After 15 or 20 minutes we saw some security guards walk by outside, and we flagged them down.  I tried to explain that we had the wrong ticket and couldn't leave.  He told us we needed to buy a zone 2 ticket.  I wanted to yell, "Yes--but I'm still stuck in here!!"  

They eventually let us out, and we went to buy the right ticket.  And while we had "escaped" we decided to walk over to the stadium really fast.  I enjoyed the sun while Hyrum walked around taking pictures.  

This is Hyrum's angry face while trapped in the metro station.  He was not happy to be so close to the stadium, but unable to get to it. 

MUCH better!

This is as much as I need to see of the stadium.

Using our newly purchased ZONE 2 tickets, we hurried back to the hotel to check out, and drive an hour west to Versailles.  (Traffic driving around Paris is BAD!  It took longer to get out than it should have, and took forever when we left.)

The upside is while driving, we got to see Paris's second soccer stadium.  Not planned, but Hyrum still got excited.

So finally, Versailles.  Our last stop.  This is the palace that King Louis XIV dreamed up when the Louvre became too "common-place".  As we toured through the palace it was interesting to see how over three kings, Versailles went from being a small hunting lodge to a HUGE palace.  It housed up to 5000 nobles at a time.

The Royal Chapel. 

View of the gardens from inside the palace. 

Enjoying our audio guides, and that ridiculous ceiling.  I believe this is entering the Hall of Mirrors (250 ft long with 24 gilded candelabras!)

Another view of the hall. 

We saw this little boy in one of the paintings and both agreed it would be a great outfit for our firstborn son!

Here's that coronation painting thats also in the Louvre. 

Right off the Hall of Mirrors you have the bedrooms of the king and queen.  They're pretty insane.  I just hope the queen liked this wall-paper, because its EVERYWHERE!  I can't imagine the lack of privacy in their bedrooms-- basically half the court would be there when you woke up.  I guess its a small price to pay...

After we finished the tour of the main palace, we wanted to go to another part of estate that our ticket covered.  (Grand Trianon).  Because it was the weekend, we couldn't walk through the gardens for free, so we had to walk around the estate.  There was a train, but it was an additional 7 euros so we thought we'd just walk.

On the way, we saw this TINY street, and a car was trying to get through.  (The one in the middle.)  There were people outside guiding it, but it was seriously inching along so it didn't hit the cars to the sides.  NO IDEA why it tried to take this route in the first place, but streets here are insane.  Made me glad to be walking.

 But the walking got old.  Our feet were killing us.  Here's a view of the sheep fields we passed.

Finally we got there, exhausted.  I took a long break on the stairs.  The house itself wasn't that impressive, but the garden area was nice.  The house was a summer get-away, and eventually Marie-Antoinette moved out to this area (into Petit Trianon).  The house is pink marble.

 Hyrum was impressed with his straight they cut the trees and bushes.  You can kind of see it in this picture below.

On the way back, we definitely took the train (and it was half-off, since it was just one way).  We hopped in the car and slowly drove out of Paris to a hotel, spent the night, and drove home on Monday.  It was a lot to do in 2.5 days but worth it.  Paris turned out to be just what we expected.  Lots of famous sights, a ton of old buildings and architecture, great food.   Nothing more, nothing less. Now I can cross it off my list and visit Turkey this weekend!