Paris!! Day 5: Palace of Versailles & The Eiffel Tower at Night!

The second part of my trip was just as fun!!  After about a 45 minute drive we arrived at The Palace of Versailles!  What is truly incredible about this palace is that the entire palace is constructed from French materials: the marble, gold, silver, crystal, tapestries, everything!  Nothing was imported into the palace, so it is a true and magnificent display of France's treasures and splendor.  The former royal palace, the Louvre, is actually in Paris and is the biggest art museum in the entire world.  However, the King felt that it was "too small" so the one in Versailles was built and it is absolutely stunning!

There is no way a single picture frame could encompass the entirety of the palace, so here is an aerial  view that I took from the internet.

The palace was built also built so that the King could have a tighter control over his noblemen.  In order to gain more control, he thought he would have everyone living with him so that he could keep a watchful eye over everyone.  The King wore red high heeled shoes so that he would be taller than everyone, and so that the people could see him at all times and never having to question his wereabouts.  There were about 6,000 people who permanently lived in the palace and thousands more came to visit everyday.

It's such a beautiful building!!

The Golden Gates and entryway into the Palace!

This is the incredible ceiling that I first saw when we walked into the palace!  The huge expanse of the paintings and the detail of them was truly unbelievable!

Sculpture of the King

Pictures cannot even begin to capture the level of grandeur of the rooms!

This was the King's bedroom!

This was the Queen's bedroom!  Apparently kings and queens never had the same bedroom because that was far too common; in order to further display wealth and status each had their own room.  In my opinion, the Queen's room was even more extravagant that the King's room!

One thing I learned that day which absolutely blew my mind is that the Queen gave birth to all of her children on this bed in front of a lot of people!  The room was always packed when it was time for her to give birth.  This tradition was established in order to solidify the validity of the future heirs were actually birthed by the Queen instead of being swapped for another baby, which  might have been tempting to swap a boy for a girl if there was not yet a heir.  I was quite shocked by the lack of privacy for the Queen, and could not imagine giving birth in front of all those people!!

The top of her bed adorned with ostrich feathers and complete with a very ornate ceiling!

Apparently ostrich feathers are reserved solely for royalty and only the King and Queen's beds have them!

However, my absolute favorite room was the Hall of Mirrors!!!
This incredible room is comprised of 17 huge arched mirrors with 17 matching arched windows directly in front of each mirror.  The windows looked out over the Palace gardens with incredible views.  Dances used to be held here and I would have absolutely LOVED to attend one back then!!!!  The entire room was adorned with gold as well as magnificently painted ceilings.  It's was truly spectacular!!!

This picture was also taken from the internet because my camera was not capable of capturing the breadth and splendor of this room!!!

Every few feet there were these golden women holding up huge crystal candle holders!

The chandeliers were without a doubt one of my favorite parts of the room.  They were absolutely huge!!  When the King lived there each chandelier held beeswax candles that exuded a sweet honey aroma throughout the room.  The candles were extremely expensive and elaborate display of wealth.

My favorite painting in the Hall of Mirrors of Venus & Zeus!

After the tour of the Palace, we got to enjoy about an hour in the Palace Gardens!!  The flowers were so beautiful, a perfect combination of daffodils and tulips amidst swirling bushes!

This shot was taken from inside the palace, I love how you can see the misty mountains!!

Sweet little bird on a statue in the gardens  : )

I just can't get enough of the flowers!  Everything in Ecija is still pretty brown, so I was completely in heaven here!!!  The flowers that are in bloom now just happen to be some of my all time favorites, Daffodiles & Tulips!!  However the tulips that I have seen today in both Monet's gardens & the Palace are the most beautiful ones that I have ever seen in my entire life.  They are just spectacularly beautiful!!!

I can honestly say that this day was a truly perfect one and something I will vividly remember for the rest of my life.  It really was a dream fulfilled.  


That night Camille took me for a special treat... The Eiffel Tower at night!!  It was definitely my favorite night there,  I loved EVERY minute of it and could barely be torn away from the beauty of the building.  I was completely taken aback at how beautiful the tower is at night, I have never seen an building more beautiful than the Eiffel Tower at night, it truly is amazing!!!  I was just as drawn to it as a moth is to a lamp!!

The tower radiates this golden hue though the night and every hour on the hour there are twinkly silver lights that sparkle all over the building.  Everyone stands around in awe and amazement with huge smiles on their faces while they rapidly try to take pictures.  At the end of the 10 minute light twinkling all the spectators clapped.  It was so fun and the excitement of the other spectators added to my own!

Here you can see the twinkling silver lights

The difference in color is with the flash of my camera turned off or on.  With the flash on, the tower appears almost amber in color.

I was pretty happy when this picture was taken! 

After the twinkling light show, Camille and I walked up to the top of a hill to the science museum where there were a couple of vendor stands selling crepes and other goodies.  I had a chocolate Nutella crepe with an entire banana inside.  There was SO much warm gooey Nutella inside, it was absolute HEAVEN!!!  I could have easily eaten 2 more!!  I also had a hot chocolate to warm me up.  Camille got a waffle, which really cracked me up because apparently waffles are only eaten for dessert here!  We sat on a bench sheltered from the wind and enjoyed our delicious treats while watching the glow of the tower.  It was truly a perfect night and a perfect way to conclude my trip to Paris!!!

I want to sincerely thank Camille and her parents for lavishing me with unparalleled kindness, thoughtfulness, love, and hospitality.  I have never in my entire life experienced such hospitality and graciousness.  In the short week I spent with them I learned so much about what it really means to be a good person and be an example of character to others.  Just one example of their graciousness out of hundreds is that every morning I would wake up to hand squeezed orange juice and a surplus of bus tickets that I might need for the day.  I was so well cared for and never wanted for anything, my experience with Camille and her family in Paris was truly incredible.  I cannot even begin to express how much their kindness meant to me, I will remember it forever and I hope to one day be able to embody a mere fraction of the thoughtfulness and generosity that was so lavishly bestowed upon me.  Because of Camile and her family, Paris was truly a trip of a lifetime.  I could never have even dreamed of a trip this wonderful.  Every minute was truly heaven!  Thank you

Paris!! Day 5: Monet's Gardens!!!

Thursday was my last full day in Paris and it was my favorite!!  I had really been wanting to see Monet's gardens in Giverny, France for about a year now.  However, it is about a 2 hour journey away from Paris and therefore Camille could not go because she had class.  I was planning on going by myself and was in the process of sorting out the details when Camille's parents surprised me with the trip of a lifetime!!  They bought a tour of Monet's gardens AND the Palace of Versailles!!!!!!  I was SO excited about the trip and completely humbled by their generosity!!!  I was planning on making a huge blog entry of the whole trip, but this first section ended up being so long that I thought I better break it up.  So this is what the first part of my amazing trip entailed....

About 35 people were in the tour group together and the guides spoke both English & Spanish, which was wonderful because it helped me to practice my Spanish after not speaking it for a week!  We took a very nice charter bus into France's country side.  The drive was absolutely beautiful!!!

After winding around the bends of the country we arrived at Monet's house and gardens in Giverny!  It was a crisp foggy morning.  The foggy mist was so beautiful and truly added a bit of magic in the air.

Monet's House!

Looking out over the gardens from Monet's bedroom window

It was really fun to be able to tour Monet's house and see where he lived.  They had his gallery room set up with copies of some of his artwwork, and many of the paintings I had seen the originals of in the Musee d'Orsay!!!  It was so much fun to be able to have seen the origional painting by Monet of his garden and then two days later be actually standing in the exact place that he painted.  I truly felt like I had stepped into one of his paintings!

I would have assumed that Monet decorated his house with a similar impressionistic style artwork, however almost all of the art consisted of Japanese paintings. 

My absolute favorite room in his house was the dining room!!!  Since Giverny gets a lot of fog and rain, Monet wanted his dining room to look like sunshine and for those in it to feel bright and warm.  I think he captured the feeling perfectly!!  I absolutely LOVED this room and would have one like it in my own house, even though everything was yellow.  I was not overwhelmed at all by the yellow, I absolutely adored it!!  It was just so happy and bright!  The room also had bright rich blue accents, which suit the room perfectly.  I just LOVED it!!  So this is my fair warning that my dining room might be this intense one day (minus the floor)!   : D

Monet said that his greatest piece of artwork was his gardens, this is because he carefully placed each flower and color in a certain spot for him to paint.  He was able to see the picture in his mind that he wanted to paint before a seed was ever planted.  Only after "growing" his painting would he pick up his paintbrush.

I had such a wonderful time exploring his gardens in the cool mist and discovering all the different types of flowers exuding their brilliant colors, I could have stayed there all day!

The Exquisite Gardens!!!

The flowers were truly incredible here!!!  I was in Heaven!!!

 

The pretty mist

There were SO many brilliant shades of tulips that were all in their perfect peak of blossoming.  They were absolutely stunning,  I have never seen tulips this remarkably beautiful.  Purples, pinks, yellows, reds, oranges, whites, it was truly spectacular!!

 

The colors in these tulips are so strikingly beautiful!

 Monet's gardens were broken up into two sections.  The first section by the house can contained most of the flowers.  The second section was across the road that used to be railroad tracks when Monet was alive.  Here is the second part of his gardens where his famous waterlilies were painted.

Daffodils by the pond!  One of my absolute favorite flowers in the whole world!

I've never seen daffodils like this before!  How fun!!

Beautiful weeping willows by the pond

The famous bridge in his water lily paintings!

After we finished touring the gardens, we ate at this delicious restaurant!  Our meal was so delicious!  We had salad, salmon pate, chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, apple pie, red wine, and coffee.

I sat by a lovely woman from Australia who I had made friends with on the bus.  She has a 19 year old son whose father was never in the picture.  She said she was very lonely now that he was at college and decided to do something for herself, so she is taking a 5 week vacation and traveling around Europe.  She was so shy and sweet, I was so glad to meet her.  She had been in Paris for a week but this was the first time she ate at a sit down restaurant here, because she had just been picking up a sandwich an take it back to her room to eat alone.  I really liked this woman, she was so sweet and thanked me for sharing her first meal in Paris with her. 

This artist was painting outside our restaurant.  I just loved him, he looked so authentic and very French, complete with his scarf, hat, and cigarette.  We had a lovely conversation and I truly enjoyed meeting him even if it was only for 15 minutes, and his paintings were so good!

Beautiful tree outside the restaurant and sweet little swan bench

There was a watermill beside the restaurant too!

Foggy pasture beside the restaurant

The charter bus was parked beside this pasture with several horses!  I'm sure most people didn't even notice or care, but it made me so happy!

Headed to Palace of Versailles!!

This part of France was so incredibly beautiful I could easily move there tomorrow!!  The town had little quaint stone houses with ivy that were nestled amongst the rolling hills covered in grass and flowers.  I really fell in love with Giverny and am dying to go back already!!