The Beginning

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The next day, we decided to visit Palace of Versailles (Official Website), the vast royal palace and gardens built by King Louis XIV. It is a suburb of Paris, and about 20km southwest of the French capital. So, we had to take the subway to get in.

Check out WikiTravel – Versailles 

Starting from the station Porte-Maillot… (btw, Sortie = exit in French)

had a quick lunch before the walk

On the way walking to our destinations~~

Introduction to Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles, the Île-de-France region of France. In French, it is known as the Château de Versailles.

When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris, some twenty kilometers southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

By the time we reached, it was almost 3o’clock and the place actually closed around 5.00pm. We don’t have much time to visit this place due my schedule and also the long queue. At the end, we walked around the garden at the back and took some photos of the landscape. It was fun though and the place is too big and you really need TIME to explore every corner. (plan one day for this if you are keen)

Entrance of the Palace

Gave up buying the ticket after I saw this long long queue

Side view…

The garden is very BIG!!!

Looks cute

I found this site Paris-Photos from Google – a nice photo gallery for Palace of Versailles.

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A quick summary for the remaining route…

Continued from Part Two, we walked across River Seine from Louvre Museum and came to Institude de France. Then, we headed to Notre Dame to take some photo, and walked to the other side of River Seine. Ok, then from there we walked all the way back to the hotel using the same route. Check out the map below (for the part from Louvre Museum to Notre Dame)

River Seine

The Seine (French: La Seine, pronounced: [la sɛn]) is a slow-flowing major river and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie in France and famous as a romantic backdrop in photographs of Paris, France. It is also a tourist attraction, with excursion boats offering sightseeing tours of the Rive Droite and Rive Gauche within the city of Paris. It terminates in the Bay of the Seine region of the English Channel and is navigable by ocean-going vessels for about ten percent of its length, as far as Rouen, 120 km (75 miles) from the sea, while over sixty percent of its length, as far as Burgundy near the Swiss Alps, is negotiable by commercial riverboats and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating. (from Wikipedia)

To me, this is the soul of the city Paris, and I really love this river. I had a good walk along the river bank…Hope that I can back to here one day and enjoy my meal here!!!

Institut de France

I only know this is a French leanred society through Wikipedia….Nothing much, just posed and take a photo here.

(Adapted from http://www.naturepixel.com/institut_france_pont_arts.jpg)

Notre Dame

This is one of the famous landmark in Paris. It is also the cathedral of the Catholic  archdiocese of Paris.

Timeline of construction

    * 1160 Maurice de Sully (named Bishop of Paris), orders the original cathedral to be demolished.
    * 1163 Cornerstone laid for Notre Dame de Paris—construction begins.
    * 1182 Apse and choir completed.
    * 1196 Bishop Maurice de Sully dies.
    * c.1200 Work begins on western façade.
    * 1208 Bishop Eudes de Sully dies. Nave vaults nearing completion.
    * 1225 Western façade completed.
    * 1250 Western towers and north rose window completed.
    * c.1245–1260s Transepts remodelled in the Rayonnant style by Jean de Chelles then Pierre de Montreuil
    * 1250–1345 Remaining elements completed

Then, we took a break and enjoyed our afternoon tea in Haagen Dazs.

Randomly took some candid shots on our way back…

Louvre Museum at night (actually just around 6.00pm)

Visited a stall at the square and bought a choc-waffle

Yummy Yummy!!!

Avenue des Champs-Élysées (fascinating!!!)

Frozen pond with lights decoration…

I remembered it was freezing cold that day and the temperature was around 2 °C, but feels like –10 °C. This also explained why we couldn’t take much photo because it was too cold…

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The next day, we decided to visit the famous spots around Paris. Since we thought most of the famous tourism were just nearby, we can actually walk to those spots instead of taking public transport. Oh, this was a painful lesson!! The weather was so cold and dry with strong wind blowing towards, it was so terrible. However, we still enjoyed with the endless walk, beautiful scenery and attracting stuffs along the way…

First part of the route, starting from the hotel to Louvre Museum…

First Spot – Arc de Triomphe

Yes, we reached this arch after 2km of walk. This is the famous landmark of Paris city, which actually honors to those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic war. It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years, and in 1810 when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed.

 Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile

Second Spot – Avenue des Champs-Élysées

This is one of the prestigious avenue in Paris, with a lots of branded and luxurious shops, cafes and cinemas. According to New York Times (year 2007), this is street can rent up to USD 1.5 million annually per 1000 sq. ft, which makes it to be the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe.

The avenue has a total length of 1.91km, which begins at Place de la Concorde and ends at Place Charles de Gaulle. Visit the official website…

The photo taken looks more like an ordinary street… Check out the photo gallery here from fotosearch.’

Third Spot – Grand Palais

This building is located off from the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, and you can see while walking along the street. It is a large glass exhibition hall that was built for the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Too bad,I didn’t have the chance to stop by and visit the building due to the tight schedule.  Just managed to capture a photo far from the street…

(continue reading…)

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