PARIS DAY 4

This day just had way too many pictures to be even reasonable. So this post is going to be mostly photos and few words. Because there really are no words to describe Versailles. You could say it's really big, but that would be an understatement. The opulence, lavishness, and general ridiculous extravagance was so much greater than I had predicted, and it was almost overwhelming to think that a place like Versailles exists. We took a train out there - it was about 30 minutes, and was super easy to take which was really nice! I love Paris public transport!

Waiting in line to get into the PALACE!

Thought we'd take the photo op by the front gates while everyone else was waiting in line!

Awesome dark hallways with beautiful natural lighting and LOADS of statues, everywhere!!

L'Hopital - we did something in math that had to do with this guy...

I'm thinking Louix XIV must have had eye problems, that's why he needed every painting in his house to be absolutely enormous. 

The decor never stopped - it coated the walls, the ceilings, every nook and cranny was insanely designed. 

And all the gold IS REAL GOLD! Seriously. 

We were so proud of ourselves for getting a photo in the Hall of Mirrors by ourselves! (minus the guard people of course). This is what the Hall of Mirrors normally looks like (the person who posted this said it was a "light" day):

(borrowed from TripAdvisor)

So yeah, we were pretty pleased with ourselves for reaching the Hall of Mirrors before all the crowds arrived! Go early people!

The mix of Greek gods and Christian art and saints and Egyptian art and all sorts of different cultures was very interesting. He just had so much space that he couldn't stick to one style, I guess.

Marie Antoinette's bed. We <3 pink. 

Taking some tips for our next dinner party...

Inside the coronation room. I can't believe they had a whole room just for this. 

Hall with loads of painting depicting French victories. 

This one is of the French helping out the U.S. during the American Revolution. Thank you!!

On to the gardens!

I obviously thought I was super funny and decided to do something that probably could have gotten us kicked out -- for some reason, there was an empty pedestal in this row of Greek statues in the garden and I thought it would be a good idea to climb up onto the pedestal and pose as a statue of course. The pedestal was huge, it went nearly up to my shoulders, but luckily my upper arm strength has really improved after taking Xtend Barre, and I even did it in a dress! Yeah, we thought we were so clever. 

"Oh my gosh look! My palace is so big I can't even see how far it goes!"

Once again the humor returned, and I thought it would be hilarious to see King Louis' face if he ever knew about someone cartwheeling on his precious lawn, so I had to do it for his memory's sake.  Very grateful no guards saw me, since there were signs all over to stay off the grass...oops. 

I totally think it would be fun to return another time for one of their fountain shows! 

The huge canal in the middle of the garden that extended so so so far. 

We walked over to Marie Antoinette's domain - it was ridiculous how huge it all was! This pink palace seemed like the ideal place for a girls' night. There were little apartment where other famous rich women from different countries stayed, and I can totally see Marie saying, "Heyyy! Party at my place!"

And it had more neatly manicured gardens as well, of course.

Then we walked over to her little "village," which must have been how she thought French countryside life was like. A little absurd, but very very pretty and cute!

On our walk back, we passed the Temple of Love. Obviously, we kissed inside of there. 

More fountains! Because you can never have enough fountains. 

Let's throw in a sphinx!

Backside of the palace -- this probably represents a little less than a fourth of the palace. 

Overview shot of some more gardens - we didn't even make it down to these ones since we had already spent a good 5ish hours wandering around all of the OTHER gardens! Love this shot of Owen though, he looks so cute!

After Versailles, we went to visit Sainte Chapelle, a medieval Gothic chapel. I was SO excited to see this place, it was probably number one on my agenda because I remember doing a virtual 360 tour of it online and thinking it looked SO PRETTY! It was super gorgeous inside, but to my great sadness and disappointment, half of it was under construction! 

The stained glass windows were huge and absolutely beautiful, but they were supposed to extend around the whole church, and sadly, half of it was covered by construction materials! Guess we'll have to go again. 

The stained glass really did look awesome though. It's so hard to capture in a photo because of the light, but it was beautiful! So detailed and intricate and all of the scenes were very different and it must have taken FOREVER to do all of it!

The front of the chapel - you can kind of see on the left how it is covered :( Anyway, I decided that the stained glass kind of reminded me of Jell-O, and my goal is to make a Jell-O representation of a panel from these windows some day.