9/6 Paris - Museum Day

Carte MuseeWe decided that our knowledge of European history prevented us from fully appreciating the grand palaces. Before we go to Versailles, we need to go spend a day at Museums. We bought two Carte Musee (75FF/each for unlimited visits to most museums in Paris). We went to Army Museum, Invalides, Rodin Museum and Museum of History of Paris all in one day.

9/7 Day Trip to Versailles

Versailles, the grandest of all palaces. Arriving at Versailles is a big change from Fontainebleau. Instead of a palace in the middle of a quaint little town, Versailles is big, Versailles is crowded, and Versailles is full of tourists. As a matter of fact, the train station looks like it is built for shuttling tourists from Paris to Versailles.

Writing daily travel journal by the Grand PalaceVisiting Versailles requires planning. Since there are many different tours (guided or self-guided) and water fountain shows happening all at once, one needs to plan ahead. One thing that should not be missed is any one of the guided tours. Instead of cramming into the over-crowded self-guided tours to see replica of paintings that we have already seen at the Louvre, the guided tours are much smaller (20 to 30 people at a time) and the tour guide spoke English and took us through the not so restored sections of the palace and explained what palace life was really like.
Garden of Petit Trianon
Outside of the main palace, you can see many many fountains. On Sundays, such as today, there is extra admission when the fountains ran with music piped throughout the gardens. This is one of the modern day luxuries that even Louis XIV did not have.

Further down the Grand Canal, you can find the retreats of Louis XIV and Marie Antonette, the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon. These are small apartments built so the King and Queen and stay away of the formal royal rules.
 
 
 
Petit Trianon
Grand Trianon
Petit Trianon

9/8 Day Trip To Chartres

We were debating between Chartres and Giverny. It's a Monday and it turned out that Giverny is one of those "exception" museums that are closed on Mondays (instead of Tuesdays for other museums). So we are back to our original schedule and we are glad.

Chartres is an hour (by local train) from Paris. Train leaves from Gare Montparnasse and travels through the suburbs of Paris stopping at every tiny little town and eventually the scenery gets to be more and more countryside-like. We arrived at Chartres at 12:30pm.

Chartres' attraction is its Notre Dame Cathedral. There is an English-speaking guided tour which is not to be missed. The tour costs 30FF per person and is lead by an English gentlemen who seems to be very knowledgeable of the history of churches and the biblical significance of each piece of architecture as well as the construction process of a gothic cathedral. It turned out that he is really a famous character at Chartres since quite a few friends of mine have heard about him.

9/9 Paris - Housekeeping Day

There isn't much to report for this day. We need to go change for more French Francs and do laundry.

The highlight of the day is picking up an English booked named "Chateaux of Loire Valley" from Shakespaere & Company (along Seine and very close to Notre Dame). This is an "antique" book published in 1930s. I don't suppose the Chateaus have changed much since then.

9/10 Departure to Loire Valley

Ready to depart Paris on TGV. Notice that we still have only two bags.We reserved the early morning TGV leaving Paris to St Pierre-de-Corps in Loire Valley. This is the first time I'm on a TGV and I was very excited. Since we don't know anything about the train seating system, we just hopped on and found our seat number and sat down. Then another gentleman came up and said that we are in his seats.  Oh, there's the car (voit) number as well as the seat number. Oh, well.

The train ride is only an hours, but we are already 180 miles away from Paris. I can't imagine how the Kings and Queens have to endure this long journey. At the TGV train station at St Pierre-des-Corps, we picked up our rental car and drove towards Amboise. We found the Tourist Information center without much problem. However, picking hotels from those deceptive pictures was hard. So we used Peter's antique tour book's help and picked Hotel le France et du Cheval Blanc. This may be the mistake. The hotel is at least 50 years old and has really squeaky floors and noisy toilets and showers...oh well.

It was early enough that we can have lunch and then visited two near by chateaus, Langaeis and Azay-le-Rideau. Langaeis is one of the oldest chateau built around the 9th Century. It is small and is more fort like than palace like. Azay-le-Rideau is more elegant and serene in its design. It is still fort-like, but it is surrounded by a small lake and has a lot more garden around it. During the summer nights, many tourist loaded places in France have Son et Lumiere (Sound and Light) shows. Although most of them close by the end of August, the end of the French tourist season, Azay-le-Rideau's show runs through end of September. We stayed at the Chateau late enough to watch the light and sound show.
 
Drawbridge of Langaeis Chateau
On the fortress of Langaeis Chateau
Inside Chateau Azay-le-Rideau
Langaeis - There used to be a moat under the drawbridge, but it has been filled to make room for a street.
This catwalk overlooks the entrance for protection purpose.
Yulin impresonating my silly poses in Azay-le-Rideau.
Leonardo da Vinci stayed at Azay-le-Rideau and therefore the theme of the show is very much Renaissance. It is very amazing to see the lights making the castle look inhibited and sparked our imagination of the place before the age of electricity.

After the show, we drove back to Amboise where we stayed. And of course, we had our obligatory lost and wound up in Tours. Fortunately, we found our way to the Train station at Tours and got a hold of a really friendly Hotel near by who gave us good directions on how to get back to Amboise.
 

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