Tuesday, July 7

Today was a test of our tolerance for crowds.

Our reservations were for 10:30, and we expected it to take about an hour to get there, so we left at about 9:00. The Metro was packed with morning rush-hour traffic. Our route had us change from the Metro to the RER at Invalides station. At that station, there are gates on the platform such that both the train’s doors and the platform gates have to open. Unfortunately, the platform gates at our door were out of order, so we couldn’t debark, and the train wasn’t stopped long enough for us to push our way to a different door. So we had to go one stop further, then backtrack.

Our next task was to find our way to the RER train. We must have looked confused, as very quickly a young Parisienne asked if we needed help. More support for my belief that the French get a bad rap in the rudeness department.

Naturally, the RER train (a double-decker much like one I rode in Chicago) was packed, with almost all passengers staying on until the end of the line at Versailles. From the train to the palace, navigation was trivial – just follow the crowd.

Even being half an hour early, the line for 10:30 entry was quite long. We have to wait on a cobblestone plaza with no shade. We were still a few hours before the hottest time of day, but it was already getting uncomfortable. There are three lines here: one for the 10:00, our 10:30 line, and one for 11:00. You really must want to be at the head of the line if you’re willing to stand in the sun for an hour.

Once we were let inside, it was simply a matter of following the tide of the sea of humanity. But that’s the wrong metaphor. It’s more a river than a sea. We are swept along from room to room, covering more than half a mile, by my guess. After touring only a small part of the interior of the Palace, we went out into the gardens. The scale of the place is difficult to grasp.

I was somewhat prepared for what I saw. When I was in high school, I went on a trip to the Soviet Union with my Russian language teacher. There, we visited the Hermitage Museum, which is the second-largest art museum behind the Louvre. The Hermitage used to be the Tsar’s Winter Palace and was patterned after Versailles. We were told that if we looked at a work of art for 30 seconds, it would take 117 years to make it through. It may not have been 30 seconds or 117 years, but those numbers are close enough to give the scale.

One of the first rooms we visited was the Chapel. The King worshipped there every day he was in residence. The organ is still used today for special events and masses. I didn’t know until we left that there’s also a church on the site. It’s not as big as Notre Dame or the other medieval churches I’ve visited, but I guess when you’re King, having both a chapel and a church at your house is de rigueur.

The most famous room in the palace is the Gallery of Mirrors. It may be the most famous room in any palace. It’s not quite the length of a football field, but it’s narrower. The ceiling is decorated with thirty large panels depicting the important events in the Sun King’s reign. It is perhaps also best known for a few important political events. The Armistice of Versailles was signed here, ending the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. This document should not be confused with the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I. That wasn’t signed in the Gallery of Mirrors, but in a rail car, the Compiègne Wagon. What might Hitler have done to the Gallery of Mirrors had the treaty been signed there?

I can’t say if the Palace of Versailles has as much art in it as the Hermitage, but from what I can tell, the Hermitage is slightly larger. So, if you could access the entire palace and view each piece of art for a few seconds, you’d be done sometime around the start of the next century.

The best word I can think of to describe the place is “obscene”. This place, the building and the grounds, are built on the slavery of an entire nation. Each room is a work of art, filled with dozens of works of art. The ceilings are murals, the walls covered with paintings, the spaces filled with statues and ornate furnishings. Each object of art is the result of hundreds or thousands of hours of effort. It is mind-boggling. What sort of ego would one have to have to employ an entire nation to build, furnish, and maintain his house? Keep in mind, this wasn’t his only palace. The Louvre was one of his homes – it’s bigger than the Winter Palace, bigger than Versailles – and he had at least half a dozen others. Clearly, it’s good to be King.

The gardens are quite lovely, but we didn’t get to see them at their best. I don’t know if it has to do with the heat or if there are water conservation measures in effect, but none of the fountains were operating, and there weren’t many flowers in bloom. There was an abundance of gardeners at work, and the Chestnut Grove is undergoing restoration.

We ate lunch at one of the restaurants in the garden. We were a captive audience and paid prices worthy of an F1 race or an NFL game.

We left the grounds a bit before 2:00 and were back on the crowded RER train, followed by the crowded Metro. When I say “crowded”, I find it hard to avoid the cliché of “packed in like sardines”. It was bad enough that Genae said, “Never again!” and so we’ll be taking a taxi to the airport tomorrow rather than taking another ride on the RER, dragging our luggage.

Back at the hotel, I took a nap before we ventured out for dinner. At the restaurant we chose, our waiter had only a few words of English, but he was friendly and cheerful, and we had little difficulty communicating. Is this an advantage or disadvantage to picking a hotel that’s not in tourist central?

As I was writing my notes of the day, it was 10:00 pm and not yet sunset. We still haven’t gotten accustomed to climbing into bed before dark. We’re both ready to go home. It’s been a long trip, with most of our days packed with activities. I’d say we’re looking forward to some well-deserved relaxation, but Genae is already anticipating several loads of laundry and some grocery shopping because we have no produce in the house.

In any event, we’re off to the airport in the morning for a long airplane ride home.

Wednesday, July 8

Everything on the return trip went according to plan. The taxi, although much more expensive than mass transit, was quick and comfortable. We bought some sandwiches and snacks for the flight, anticipating we’d have service much like our flight over. They darken the cabin, even though it’s a daylight flight the entire way, and I don’t want to be “that guy” who has his reading light on, disturbing the other passengers, so I watched three movies (one good one, one bad one that was funny, and one that was just bad).

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like the guided tour of Normandy. If we hadn’t used our “free day” to go back to the invasion beaches, I would have been disappointed. But I enjoyed the places we visited that I’d never have come up with. We both enjoyed it enough that we’re considering going on another one in a year or two. Perhaps one that is more focused on scenic beauty than on churches and museums.

As to our self-guided visit to Paris, I enjoyed it, too. Having no (or few) specific plans and making it up as you go may not be the best way to see the world, but it works for me. There’s no direct correlation between this and hiking off trail, but I think both stimulate the same part of my brain. I seem to enjoy answering the questions “Where do I want to go next?” and “How do I get there?”

So, how thorough a job of seeing France did we do? Of the 20 most visited attractions (according to tripsavvy.com) in France, we managed to hit 5 of them:

• 3 – Eiffel Tower
• 4 – Château de Versailles
• 8 – National Museum of Natural History
• 11 – Omaha Beach American Cemetery
• 17 – Mont St-Michel

Not bad for a 10-day trip, I think.