Paris, Versailles, the Seine

By 7:30 we're at breakfast, and by 8 we're on the bus headed for the heart of Paris. Once there we meet our local tour guide for the day, Brian Haldeman, who grew up in Ethiopia, speaks Parisian French, as well as a perfectly "Canadian" English.

Daniel explains to the bus driver the plan for the day.

This first tour of Paris ends up at a photo op with a view of ...

... the Eiffel Tower, which was first mostly hated by Parisians, but  by now  has become such a notable landmark that it's become synonymous with the city itself.

And here we are. And there it is!

Next we head to Versailles, the palace, built by King Louis XIV, the sun king, about 20 kms outside of Paris, on 500 hectares of land. Before we begin our tours both inside and outside the palace, we grab a little lunch.

Taking photos of Dad's taking photos, is my new thing.

The grounds and gardens of Versailles.

The boys chillin' after their tour of the inside of the palace.

Daniel was a very knowledgeable and interesting guide. Here  he describes one of the rooms that  honoured the king and prepared the visitor for his visit. In this room the visitor is presented with a statue of the king with an Adonis-like body, in order to intimidate. King Louis was not, however, Adonis-like in anyway. He needed to make them believe that he was powerful. The palace is filled with imagery designed to create the illusions of power and wealth. Generally it appears that wealth was not an issue, but military might was less sure.

The hall of mirrors was a marvel; the trendiest, richest, most opulent reception and celebration hall of the time in all of Europe.

We were impressed too.

After Versailles and two hours of free time in downtown Paris, we head to a Crepery for supper. (That's a crepe, with chicken and whitesauce inside it.)

Waiting for supper!

After supper we take the subway over to the Eiffel tower and the Seine River for a boat ride up the river. 

As the boat ride ends, we see the tower lit up and sparkling with flickering lights! The city of lights indeed!

Tomorrow we'll tour Notre Dame Cathedral in the morning, and then have time in the afternoon to tour the Louvre, and the many other sites along the river! It was a great, long, day!

Subways can be interesting for many reasons! This guy pushed his way on just before the buzzer and played (busked) for most of the ride. He earned a reasonable bit for 15 minutes of work.