Paris - Day 5

After having a nice sleep in and a relaxing morning we made our way to Parisian suburb of Versailles. Can you imagine how happy I was when I came out of the RER train station to see this sign:

1 Grande Caramel Machiato please!! :) YUM!!!

After purchasing my morning coffee (did I say yum?!) we started to follow the crowds to the Chateau De Versailles. What an amazing palace, the architecture and beauty is unbelievable.

Louis XIV transformed the Chateau from Louis XIII's hunting lodge into an extravagant palace that took over 50 years. Construction began in 1661 and employed 32-45,000 workers. Louis XIV wanted to build a palace that would be the envy of Europe and create a symbol of opulence copied, yet never duplicated, the world over.

The french government is planning to spend 455 million euros for a grand restoration that is estimated to be completed in 2024.

The entrance to the Chateau De Versailles...unbelievable!

Statue of Louis XIV

Front gate...can you imagine?

Some scroll work in the corner of the ceiling, beautiful.

The Royal Chapel was built in 1699. Louis VXI was married here in 1770.

The most famous room is the Hall of Mirrors, it is 233' long. The treaty ending WW1 was signed here and the German Empire was proclaimed here.

After touring the inside we went out into the gardens. There are 247 acres of gardens to walk around and at the peak of their glory 1400 fountains were used there. We had been told that their was a musical water fountain show at 3:30pm so we did all our touring and came back to sit by Parterre of Latona and wait for the show. Of course we were thinking of something like the show in Las Vegas so we were kind of surprised that the show was really just the fountains running and music in the background. It was really impressive to see all the fountains running.

Dragon Fountain in the distance

A shot of the back of the Chateau De Versailles

The man-made rock in the Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon

I couldn't resist, this cat was giving us quite the show as a mouser. He would stock and then leap in the air and bury it's face into the ground. Very entertaining.

Intricate hedges with statues in background along allee de l'Ete

Baths of Apollo

Parterre of Latona with Fountain of Apollo in the distance

North Parterre Fountain

South Parterre Garden

As we were leaving I decided to take a picture of just one set of windows. We loved all the intricate stone work.

After visiting the Chateau, we spent the rest of the afternoon visiting shops in Versailles. It was a very busy place and had some nice open air shopping and markets. The market reminded us a lot of the St Lawrence Market in Toronto.

One of the streets with shops, a church in the distance.

Such cute shops.

We have decided this is the nicest pastry shop we have seen so far.

After touring around we stopped at McCafe (a part of McDonalds but true Paris Cafe style) for a cold coffee and treat before getting back on the RER to head home.

Till tomorrow....I believe it will be caves and sewers tomorrow ;)