164 - Versailles ~ Europe Day 8!

June 7^th, 2011 – Versailles and St. Severin’s

                After a breakfast of chocolate au pain (chocolate in bread/pastry), croissants, baguettes, juice, ham, and fruit, we headed out to the Palace of Versailles!  It ended up being a longer drive than planned, due to traffic, but we still had about 1.5 hours to view the building.  Talk about ridiculous extravagance!  It was beautiful, despite the intense crowds.  Lots of great pictures were taken. 

Entering the gates!  So many people!



Shiny gold everywhere...

 

Yay roommates!

 

View from inside the gates.

 

Louis XIV, the Sun King in all his glory.

 

Napolean Bonaparte.

 

We could only view the gardens through the windows... but they were lovely!

 

The famous Hall of Mirrors.

                I ended up navigating the building with Adam and Jessie.  We escaped for lunch at about 12:10 and found sandwiches à emporter (to go) at a small café called “Le Bleu Roi” – The Blue King.  The bus left at about 1pm for St. Severin’s Church where COW had a sacred music concert.  This church was beautiful – exquisite stained glass and gothic architecture.  We sang really well, much better than yesterday, and we all felt it.  J  Love those magical music moments!



St. Severin's ceiling.

 

Some of the stained glass.

 

The altar area where we stood to sing.

                From the church, we met our city tour guide, who told us a lot about Paris as we sight-saw from the bus.  The tour culminated in a stop at the best view of the Eiffel Tower (besides being directly under it) … cue pictures! 

Whee!  Family photo!  haha.

We were freed from the bus for dinner on our own in the area around the Opera House.  Steph, Lauren, Kelvin, Megan and I went to a pizza place – a lot of pizza for not being in Italy on this trip!  As the sole sort-of French speaker, I was in charge of talking … my friends had a lot of faith in me!  Haha.  Luckily, the waiter was pretty good with English, though I think he found us very amusing.  Oh well, we ate!  The food was good – I had a vegetarian pizza. 

I guess they trust me, guys!



Outside the restaurant where we ate.

On our way back to the bus, we stopped in a souvenir shop; I almost bought something, but we’ll have more time on Saturday and the less to carry around, the better.

                Back at the hotel, we were pooped and ready to sleep, but we ended up inviting Kelvin over, and later Amanda, to play some Phase 10 while we packed up to head to the next hotel.  Then, bed!

Our view at night, Eiffel Tower lit up right of center in the photo.  :)

                Love&Harmony,

                Erin