23rd May 2019:
From Amsterdam, we started the 2-day journey towards Paris with a night stop over in Belgium. We had learned from our previous mistake that we needed to book a campsite in advance when staying in larger cities. Mum and Dad (Dean & Fi) had given us a great recommendation for a campsite in Versailles that was reasonably priced as far as Paris goes. The campsite was great and we were only a short bike ride from the Palace of Versailles.
We woke up early, jumped on our bikes and headed to the Palace of Versailles! About 10 minutes into the journey both Morgan and I realized how unfit we are! We were both puffing away, complaining how much our thighs were burning and had built up a sweat! We were very relieved to arrive at Versailles however thankful that a 40-minute walk was really only a 15-minute bike, even if we were huffing and puffing the whole way. We had purposely arrived early as we heard horror stories about the horrendous queues of visitors. Fortunately, we breezed straight in and spent time in the courtyard without anyone there!
A few words to describe Versailles would be: extravagant, wow, breathtaking and holy shit! Walking into the courtyard, you are greeted by checkered floors, gold finishes & towering gates, detailed architecture and windows. Lots of windows! It really does take your breath away.
After spending some time in the courtyard, we grabbed our audio tour guides and set off exploring the palace. Walking from room to room, it was hard to fathom that that was how King Luis 15th and more recent Kings and Queens lived. Each room was more extravagant than the last. The rooms had floor to ceiling artwork along with stunningly detailed ceiling paintings. Morgan and I were in awe of the Palace. Our favorite room was the Hall of Mirrors. Mirrors were seen as a symbol of wealth so King Luis went all diva and had an entire room covered in extravagant mirrors and beautiful chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The photos taken don’t do the Palace of Versailles justice, it is something you need to see for yourself!
Just when we thought we had seen it all, we went outside to the Gardens of Versailles. Sprawling as far as the eye can see are beautifully groomed trees, marble statues, ponds with extravagant fountains, and white pebbles walkways (I would hate to know the maintenance cost!). After hours of walking, we found a beautiful little spot lunch, Unfortunately, though, our egg and mayo sandwiches weren’t quite fit for a king but hey, they went down a treat.
After wandering around for another few hours, we decided it was time that us peasants head off home as a well-deserved beer was waiting for us. We hoped on our noble steeds (bicycle) and rode off into the sunset!
24th May 2019:
Our first full day in the center of Pairs! Whilst we might have been nice and close to the Palace of Versailles we were on the outskirts of central Paris. Luckily for us, the train station was a short walk away. At the station, we purchased our tickets and nearly fell over at the cost! Two return tickets for €24 ($41)! We were a bit dark about that. Anyway, the first stop was the Lourve! Although we appreciate the artwork, we decided not to go into the museum given that since we had done the Palace of Versailles the previous day and had seen enough artwork to last a lifetime! Instead, we spent the morning wandering the grounds, looking at the architecture and people watching. It was hilarious watching groups of people trying to line up their finger with the top point of Lourve to get that typical tourist picture!
From there, we made our way to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Unfortunately, all roads leading to the Cathedral were closed and heavily guarded by police given the recent fire. Us, along with hundreds of people were still able to admire the Cathedral from a distance. It was great to see that heavy restoration work was already in full swing. It was disappointing not being able to visit inside the Notre Dam but that will have to wait till next time!
At 3 pm we made our way to Montmartre for our walking tour! The Montmartre district has a far more laid back vibe compared to the hustle and bustle of central Pairs. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable about the art history of the district. Montmartre was home to hundreds of famous artists including Van Gough and Picasso and is also where the Moulin Rouge was born. We ended our tour at the Sacre Coeur where we sat to watch the sunset over Paris. After working up an appetite and most definitely a thirst, we decided to treat ourselves to the first Aperol Spritz of the trip!
25th May 2019:
Today was our last full day in Paris and we had a big day planned! The first stop was venturing up the Arch De Triomphe followed by a picnic under the Eiffel Tower and a bike tour in the afternoon.
We had been proactive and bought tickets to the Arch the night before as we had heard it was one of the best views of Pairs. As we made our way to the Arch we noticed a large police presence around the area. It dawned on us pretty quickly that we might not get to go up the Arch. Our suspicions were confirmed when we spoke to a police officer in our broken French who stated it was closed due to unplanned protests by the Yellow Vest group. Disappointed, we snapped a few photos from the ground and headed off to find some goodies for our picnic.
We stumbled upon a little market that had the most beautiful florals I had ever seen, fresh pastries, meat, cheese, fruit & veg. We wandered around the market and got an assortment of snacks.
As we walked out of the markets we heard masses of sirens screaming our way. We stood on the foot path and watched dozens of riot vans, police cars and motorbikes wiz past us. This was shortly followed by hundreds, and I mean hundreds of police men dressed in full riot gear running down the road yelling things in French. It was at this stage we realized something serious was going down. Even the local Parisians stopped sipping on their cappuccinos and came out of the cafes to see what was going on. Just as we thought things were moving on, another massive wave of policemen were bumping into us as they ran down the footpath, wearing full body armor and carrying tear gas launchers. We observed from a distance until we felt the burning in our nose and throats and realized this was remnants of teargas coming our way. It was at this stage we felt we were too close for comfort so we hightailed it out of there!! It is actually hard to put into words the number of police that we saw that day.
After an incredibly eventful start to our day, we eventually made it to the Eiffel Tower. We were really excited to see the Eiffel Tower up close and personal as we had only seen glimpses of it as we traveled around the last few days. We found a nice spot and enjoyed a beautiful picnic for about half an hour until the heavens opened and it absolutely poured with rain! Fortunately, the rain didn’t last long too then … but little did we know we were in for a full afternoon of rain.
After our brief but lovely lunch, we made our way to our bike tour. We had literally only pedaled out of the rental office before the heavens opened up yet again and drowned us all! It was at that point that we decided we would invest in some fab ponchos. We all looked like real twits riding around in bright blue ponchos but at least we could pick each other out in a crowd! We biked past the main monuments of Paris but also ventured to parts of Paris that we never would have seen on foot. After 4 hours on the bike, we were tired, had sore butts and yep, you guessed it.. parched! We found ourselves a spot in s cute little street where we polished off a few beverages.. at happy hour of course! We had a lovely evening in Paris.
As we headed home we both agreed that Pairs is somewhere we would love to revisit as we felt 3 days only gave us a taster of what Paris has to offer. We were, however, looking forward to the next part of our trip that takes up to the Normandy Coast to a little seaside town called Étretat.
