South Bank and Versailles

Spent one full day exploring the south bank of Paris, called the St. Germaine district.  The area is classic Paris with windy streets, great architecture and sites at every corner.  We started the morning with a tour of the stunning St. Chapelle church, a masterpiece in stained glass, it was like being inside a jewel.  Then we made our way the the Pantheon, a massive structure built for royal and state affairs. And spent several hours  in one of Paris's best museum the Musee d'Orsay, which has an amazing collection of impressionist art and sculpture.  And had a wonderful lunch from a patisserie in the chairs at the Garden of Luxembourg, felt just like we were a Parisian.  And stopped at several other chapels and ended up at St. Madelaine a most surprising church, with a roman inspired exterior to a much grander interior.

St. Chapelle church

Laurence is learning so much through out this trip but also at the bar.  By watching the actions of the patrons at the pub he noticed they ordered their beer with something first put in the glass.  So we now know all about Picon an orange flavoured liquor that goes in your beer, very tasty.  But more importantly we caught on to drinking Pastis, a licorce flavoured 45% liquor that you drink with water that is only 2 dollars a glass, the cheapest thing to drink here for sure.

Back view of Versailles

The highlight for sure has been Versailles.  The most amazing palace is even bigger and grander than I remember it from 25 years ago.  We spent the whole day there and still did not see all of the grounds,  the site is so immense, the only down fall is we went early in the season and the foutains are not turned on yet.  The royal apartments and the hall of mirrors are impossible to describe, with so much detail and Louis 14 style at its prime.

The Gardens in Versailles

 But the gardens are the show stopper for sure, the site is so immense it takes hours to walk through the gardens and you still do not see it all, we did make our way to the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon as well as Marie Antoinette's village.  Laurence took over 800 pictures in one day he could not stop saying OMG.  This truly is an amazing site to see!