PARIS: May 13-19, 2009-Part III

Part III: Day 4:

Sunday, May 17, 2009: I started the day at 7:30 – got up, showered, dressed, had breakfast, and left around 9:15 a.m. for Sacre Coeur. This church sits at a very high point in Paris. I didn’t realize how high until I had to climb the stairs out of the train station. First there were the usual couple of flights, but then there were the spiral stairs. They seemed to go on forever and I finally had to rest part of the way, swearing I would count them when I came back down (104 spiral steps). Then I had to consult the map – it is comical how bad I am at reading maps and figuring out where I’m going. But I did manage to point myself in the right direction and start walking. I knew enough just to not walk downhill and probably eventually I’d find the church. It did start raining and I had to break out the trusty umbrella again. But as I kept walking, I did eventually see signs for a funicular, which having been to Montreal and ridden one previously, I knew is a little car that rides up an inclined railway. So I assumed that the funicular would be there to take people up to Sacre Coeur. And I was right. I looked up to my left and saw, up past a little lawn and garden, stairs upon stairs leading up to the church of Sacre Coeur. Wow, I knew it was going to take me a little while to get up there, but I really wanted to not ride up on the funicular. I wanted to walk up and approach it visually myself. So I just took my time, rested on the way, and started walking up. It is a pretty church from outside, and when you get to the top and turn around and look down, there is a very nice wide view of the city of Paris. I could see off to the right the Montparnasse building, which I went up to the top of on my first visit to Paris. It does stand out as being towering over everything else because Paris has deliberately avoided building skyscrapers in the city. I looked down to the garden below, and watched all the tourists climbing the stairs on the way up.

Sacre Coeur

I liked looking at the church from the outside. Below it, before you actually reach it, there is a wall with three arches and there are fountains in each. The church is white and reminded me a little of a Muslim mosque or something like it, with the shape of the domes. There was no charge to go in, but there were a couple of guys at the doors with baskets taking donations for something, so I gave them 2 euro. I suspect they were a union or something. Once inside, I was disappointed. I expect few people say this about Sacre Coeur, but I have been spoiled by visiting so many Italian churches full of frescoes by the great renaissance artists and stained glass and marble floors. When you have been to the Vatican and the Duomo in Florence and St. Mark’s in Venice, Sacre Coeur is a letdown. I looked up to the ceiling of the dome expecting to see painting, but just saw gray stone bricks. It’s not painted or decorated with mosaic. It’s just plain. So I started to walk around the church, and there are the usual little alcoves and altars around the church. Some have particular saints in them, and you can light candles. But it all seemed rather crass to me. All the candles had signs, 2 euro for little ones, 10 euro for big ones, take a saint card, leave a couple of euro. I think I would just rather pay an admission to the church to pay for upkeep rather than be hit up at every altar. Just takes away from what is supposed to be a sacred prayerful place. After going back outside, I decided not to visit the crypt for 5 euro. I figured there was no way it was going to be better than the church, and the church wasn’t that great. The best thing about it is that it is beautiful outside, and the view is quite nice.

I decided that I was going to go out to Versailles today, which is about a half hour train ride. So I knew I would have to find a restroom, sigh. There was a sign outside pointing to the left down the street, “WC”. In Europe, that means restroom. So I followed the arrow around the corner and down a ways there was a door with “WC” over it. I imagined this was going to be the worst kind of public restroom experience ever, but when I went inside there were actually attendants. There were free stalls and apparently some that cost money, so I decided to risk it all in the free ones. Well, it wasn’t horrible at all, just a tight squeeze. Each stall had a toilet and a sink. The only thing missing was towels or a blower to dry your hands, but otherwise, I was very pleasantly surprised it wasn’t the horror I was expecting. So then I headed on back to the Metro, counted the 104 spiral steps down, and took the Metro over to the Invalides station which is where you can get the RER C line. The RER is the commuter rail that goes outside the city. The train to Versailles is only 2.90 euro each way. Hanging around waiting, a couple came up and asked me if this was the train to Versailles. Judging by their travel book, I guessed maybe they were from Greece. I reassured them it was. It is about a half hour, and yet again at one of the stops a band of gypsies got on our car and played some music. But they got off to change cars at the next stop. I arrived at Versailles at about 12:15 p.m. and it is easy to find the Chateau from the train station.

I spent about an hour in the line to get into Versailles. It started to rain and I needed my umbrella again. Today was a day I was just one of the horde of tourists, and I really noticed them all today. I heard only one American, a guy in line for an audioguide with an accent from down south, talking with the women he was with and saying that he wished he had prepped better and read some history before coming. But mostly today was a day I noticed a lot of Italian tourists because their obnoxious behavior made them noticeable. It started with the ones standing behind me in the entrance line. The woman just talked too loud all the time; her husband hit me in the head with his umbrella, though he did apologize. Since I was in the line for an hour, it grew ever longer behind me so that it then snaked back like a corral line, so it ended up that everybody next to me was actually behind me. There was a young girl, probably about 10-11 years old, wearing a skirt with her bare legs and no coat and a short sleeved shirt and she was all huddled up with her mother because she was cold in the rain. A Japanese girl with her backpack on who was up in front of me in the line went over to her and held out her hand with a little plastic packet in it, pushing it toward the mother like she wanted to give it to her. It was one of those little plastic raincoats in a bag so the mother took it and said “Merci” and put it on the daughter, and the Japanese girl smiled and got back in line. I thought that was nice.

Once I got inside, I told the pleasant and helpful ticket girl that basically I wanted to see the Court Dress and Pomp Exhibition and I wanted to go out to the Trianons and the Hamlet. In order to do both, I would have to buy the full ticket for the whole of Versailles, which cost 25 euro. You could buy one just for the chateau and the court dress, but not for the trianons. Or you can buy the trianons but then I couldn’t go to the court dress exhibit. So I just decided to buy the full ticket. I didn’t have any other plans for the day, and decided if I finished up early at the trianons, I could always go into the Hall of Mirrors or something if I wanted to. She also directed me to the “Petit Trains”, which would take me out to the trianons. I think they cost 6.50 euro round trip. They’re not really trains. They are just what looks like little trolley cars on wheels hooked together. But I knew that walking all the way out to the trianons and back was going to be too far for me, knowing I still had one day of vacation left, so I shelled out for the Petit Train too.

So first I visited the Court Pomp and Dress exhibit. I just love all the glorious dress and outfits from the royal courts of all ages. It is fascinating the importance that people attached to the clothing and all the ritual involved. The French court at Versailles in the 1700s was a time of particular extravagance and extremes when it came to dress. The exhibition had clothing from several European courts because, at that time, the best of the special clothing made for the courts was mostly made in Paris. Sort of like now even – Paris is where all the sought after haute couture designers are, and they were then as well. Hours and hours and hours of labor went into creating just one gown or jacket, with all of the sewing and then the minute details in beading or embroidery or lacework. The dress that one wore to be presented to the King and Queen of France was a dress that was worn only the one time, and it was supposed to be black and white. Here is an example of one of the dresses in the exhibition:



The very wide frame was the French fashion, pretty extreme. Also in the exhibition, of course, were jewels. Not only royalty wore jewels but also, if you were going to appear at court, you must have jewels to wear. Some of the outfits for the men, such as coronation suits, had diamonds for buttons. The exhibition also had portraits behind each costume showing the person wearing the outfit, sometimes also wearing the jewels on display. Imagining myself at Versailles. . .

Lady Richlieu of Dorchester

Then it was time to take a ride on the little train out to the area called Marie Antoinette’s Estate. It stops first at the Grand Trianon. This is where you may also catch the return ride. I stayed on for the ride to the Petit Trianon and got off there. This is a smaller, less formal little palace. There was an entry vestibule with a staircase, and rooms off each side. One of the rooms had one wall of windows and, opposite, a wall of mirrors. This was called the Cabinet of Glass. Reminded me of the Hall of Mirrors in the chateau, and I remember learning then that mirrors were quite expensive back then so having a wall of mirrors was impressive. It does lighten up a room too, with the outside light reflecting back. Out back there was a nice garden and, at the end of it, the French Pavillion. This is just a round building which really is one room and it was a place for the Queen to have a nice meal. I continued to walk and came to a building containing the Queen’s Theatre. Marie Antoinette had acted when she lived in Vienna and took comedy classes to perfect her French. She had this theatre built here and she actually performed in it and, more often, watched plays and performances. Continuing my walk, I then wandered through the English Garden. This was created by Marie Antoinette as well, modeled after English gardens of the time, with little streams, paths, lawns, purple and yellow flowers growing in the fields and different types of trees, and there was a soft breeze, and the sounds of birds. This was really a very pleasant and leisurely walk. Off in the distance, I could see a building with a thatched roof, so I knew that was the direction to go to find the Queen’s Hamlet.

The Hamlet is a little English village that Marie Antoinette wanted to “provide country amusements for herself and her children”, as the brochure explains. Twelve cottages were built (not all of them survive), surrounded by vegetable and flower gardens around a little lake. The lake has swans in it. There is a little farm, and there was a working dairy, with another little house where the Queen and her children or visitors could have their refreshments, which came from the farm and vegetable gardens and dairy. I took a walk around the farm where there were cows lounging lazily in the meadow, goats which seem very curious and would look right at you and walk over if you call them, a peacock, hens, a rooster who crowed right at 4:00. Hmm. There was a large house for the Queen, and other little houses that contained a kitchen, a guard’s house which, honestly, made me think of Snow White’s house of the seven dwarfs, which had beautiful calla lilies growing out front, and a mill house with a water wheel in front. It’s all just like stepping back in time. Walking past the mill house over a little bridge, I heard all this splashing and looked over the side of the bridge and there were fish literally jumping around in the little lake below. It really was a little fantasyland. How indulgent, but I can understand why the Queen wanted such a place and how much she must have enjoyed it. Marie Antoinette was a “foreign” queen, from the Austrian royal family, when she was betrothed to Louis. She was always suspected and never really accepted in France, and it is understandable that with all the pressures of court life, the Hamlet was an escape for her, where she could just relax and enjoy her life with her friends and children.

House at the Hamlet

I then walked back to the Grand Trianon. This is another little palace, though it is bigger than the Petit Trianon and much smaller than the Chateau. It has a really nice outdoor walkway with pink marble columns and archways on each side and a black and white marble floor, and also has a beautiful garden. Here I could catch the little train back to the Chateau. I sat down on a bench to rest and wait, and watched people. There were a bunch of Italians who I had seen when we went through security to enter the Grand Trianon. One of the women had become really petulant with the guard because he wanted her to open her backpack so he could look in (they will not open bags themselves). This has just become normal procedure these days, at any airport or museum or tourist place like this, and really, my motto is just cooperate and don’t hold up the line. The guy is just doing his job. I had originally seen these people in the entrance line to the Chateau and they had been loud and pushy there too. Then three people rolled up on Segways. A Segway is the perfect means of transport for the grounds of Versailles. One guy was the instructor, teaching a couple how to use the machine and maneuver it.

Then the little train arrived and I got on, and it waits there a few minutes for other people to come. Another group of Italians arrived, these ones older, probably in their upper 50s or early 60s, and they were obnoxious too, really loud. They got on different cars on the train, and then one guy kept pounding on the window of the car in front of him where his friends were. Finally, he opted to get out of his car and get in theirs. Finally, off we went over to the Petit Trianon to pick up some more tourists. There is a little place to line up and there were people waiting there in a line that was long enough that I knew we wouldn’t fit all of them on our train. So then a couple, probably in their late 60s or early 70s, they walk up and must think the people are standing in line for their health because they just decide to jump on the back car. Because they were old, I think the people in line didn’t protest because I know they saw them do it. So off we went again for a little ride around more of the grounds of Versailles, with people walking, riding bikes and Segways, and sheep grazing in the fields as we drove by. By this time, it was sunny again so it was a nice little ride. The last stop was the Grand Canal, which is supposed to be like a little Venice. Some people got off here so we were able to pick up more. Some more Italians tried to get on the back car but this time, the conductor caught them and made them get in line.

We rode back to the Chateau, and I was shocked to see that it was after 5:00, and I had been so involved in my touring Versailles that I had forgotten to even eat lunch. So I walked back to the train station and caught the return train to Paris. It was a full train, too. Across from me was an older Australian couple. Paris is just full of people from all around the world.