Chateau de Versailles
Mom and I went to Chateau de Versailles today. Versailles was everything I wanted it to be since reading so much about Marie Antoinette and the rest of the French monarchy. It takes about 45 minutes on the RER C train to get to the Versailles Rive Gauche stop. (Which is the last stop and you MUST be sure you are on the right train, because the C line splits all over the place and can easily confuse. Here is a link to the Paris metro, and on the bottom left corner of the map is where the stop is. http://www.ratp.fr/)
After going through the Chateau itself, we took the Petite Train to the Petite Trianon. You can get there on foot, but it takes about a half hour. You can also rent segways or Golf carts. The Petite Train takes you to the Petite Trianon, the Grand Trianon and the Grand Canal before it makes its way back to the Chateau. You can get on or off at any stop if you like, if you pay the full fair 9euros. There are also one-way fairs for 3.50euros.
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The Petite Trianon is Marie Antoinette’s estate. The building itself was closed but Mom and I walked the grounds to visit her little village, the theatre, rock grotto, temple of love etc. You can download a podcast to tell you about each of those locations off iTunes and off the Versailles website. I surprised Mom with it so she didn’t have to listen to me rant excitedly about the place.
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On our way back to the Chateau, a Filipino Family came on the Petite Train and sat where we were. Mom was finally able to communicate in France without me being a middle man, and in fact, it was vice versa. I can understand Tagalog, but not really speak. They were taking a month long trip through Dubai, Paris, Spain and somewhere else I couldn’t remember and they were trying to get their 20 year old daughter to skip the last year of school to live in Paris. I kept nudging Mom telling her how ‘interesting’ that was, given she wanted me to do the opposite. The girls’ mother and her sister lived in Switzerland for a year and both knew French, Spanish, English and Tagalog. Very impressive. I’d love to have command over that many languages. I think I will take Spanish classes when I get home to Toronto. (You know the ones advertised on the subway for the Spanish Centre. “Think in Spanish!”) They were upper-middle class from the city of Makati and kind of huge snobs.
We came back to Montmartre, shopped and had dinner. I bought a new purse. My current one is falling apart. It was from this store on Rue Des Abesses close to Abesses station (Ligne 12) This street has a lot of cute shops. If I were to compare Montmartre, I would say it is close to Queen West, relatively. The lady was so cool who owned the shop. She told me, which I couldn’t believe her, she had three daughters in their 20s. She was aging pretty fabulously and I told her she was really beautiful and she gave me this big hug and told me I was, “Trés gentil.”
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Mom leaves tomorrow… :(
After going through the Chateau itself, we took the Petite Train to the Petite Trianon. You can get there on foot, but it takes about a half hour. You can also rent segways or Golf carts. The Petite Train takes you to the Petite Trianon, the Grand Trianon and the Grand Canal before it makes its way back to the Chateau. You can get on or off at any stop if you like, if you pay the full fair 9euros. There are also one-way fairs for 3.50euros.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
The Petite Trianon is Marie Antoinette’s estate. The building itself was closed but Mom and I walked the grounds to visit her little village, the theatre, rock grotto, temple of love etc. You can download a podcast to tell you about each of those locations off iTunes and off the Versailles website. I surprised Mom with it so she didn’t have to listen to me rant excitedly about the place.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
On our way back to the Chateau, a Filipino Family came on the Petite Train and sat where we were. Mom was finally able to communicate in France without me being a middle man, and in fact, it was vice versa. I can understand Tagalog, but not really speak. They were taking a month long trip through Dubai, Paris, Spain and somewhere else I couldn’t remember and they were trying to get their 20 year old daughter to skip the last year of school to live in Paris. I kept nudging Mom telling her how ‘interesting’ that was, given she wanted me to do the opposite. The girls’ mother and her sister lived in Switzerland for a year and both knew French, Spanish, English and Tagalog. Very impressive. I’d love to have command over that many languages. I think I will take Spanish classes when I get home to Toronto. (You know the ones advertised on the subway for the Spanish Centre. “Think in Spanish!”) They were upper-middle class from the city of Makati and kind of huge snobs.
We came back to Montmartre, shopped and had dinner. I bought a new purse. My current one is falling apart. It was from this store on Rue Des Abesses close to Abesses station (Ligne 12) This street has a lot of cute shops. If I were to compare Montmartre, I would say it is close to Queen West, relatively. The lady was so cool who owned the shop. She told me, which I couldn’t believe her, she had three daughters in their 20s. She was aging pretty fabulously and I told her she was really beautiful and she gave me this big hug and told me I was, “Trés gentil.”
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
Mom leaves tomorrow… :(