PARIS TRIP: DAY 3: Paris (Versailles)
Paris, Friday, 16 June 06
(written on 17-18 June)
Guillaume left around 9:30 and I quickly showered, bought two sandwiches (ate one), and went to the RER station and took the train to Versailles. I reached at around 10:45 am. The front of the chateau and certain sections is under massive renovations, making it inconvenient to take photographs.
The queue was huge, but because of my museum pass, I didn’t have to queue up. I got an audio guide and went in. The interiors are very grand indeed, the Schönbrunn in Vienna doesn’t compare at all to Versailles in grandiosity. One starts with a view (from outside) of the huge and gorgeous chapel,
which is the tallest room in the chateau as it spans (more than?) the height of the two stories of the chateau. 
Apparently, Louis XIV had had it built after his wife’s death and he was becoming more and more religious. One goes through the various reception rooms of the king, then comes to the famous hall of mirrors. They are renovating this as well, but fortunately for the public, they are doing this in two steps, in two halves. 
So one can only see half of the room and imagine just how much more grand the huge whole room would have looked like. After the hall of mirrors come the queen’s rooms, including her bedroom. 
The last room used to be for the guards, and now has this huge painting of Napoleon Bonaparte crowning his wife, Josephine as empress. Another version of the same painting hangs in the Louvre.
At the very end, there is a huge hall of paintings, of various battles including the battles of Napoleon.
After getting out of the chateau, I ate my sandwich. Today’s sandwiches, though good, were not as good as yesterday’s.
I explored around a bit, and decided to get a ticket for the mini-trams that go around to the grounds to the Petit Trianon, the Grand Trianon, the Grand Canal, and back. I also got their audio guide. As I realized later, this was a mistake and I did most of it on foot anyway because on has more freedom to explore. The Petit Trianon is rather small and was built for Louis XV’s mistress and then turned over to Marie-Antoinette when Louis XVI became king. The pinkish Grand Trianon and its grounds are very beautiful indeed. 
It was built for Louis XIV’s get-away from the court and to spend time with his children’s governess and secret later second wife. It is still used by the French government for summits and to house heads of state.
The grounds of Versailles are huge and extremely beautiful.
I spent hours strolling around. The weather was great today; in fact I would have liked it if it were a bit cooler. At around 6 pm, I headed towards the station. Prashanth called and suggested that we go for dinner, and then drop by at his friend Jean-Philippe’s place before going to meet the girls from India (whom I had met yesterday) who wanted to go clubbing (I wasn’t keen about the last one).
While returning to Guillaume’s place, I spotted an internet place and finally got online for the first time since coming to Paris.
**********
I met up with Prashanth at 8 pm at the Place Saint Michel. We walked along Boulevard St. Michel and he showed me scaffolded Sorbonne and the exterior of Saint Sulpice—one of its towers is unfortunately also scaffolded so that its asymmetry is not apparent. We went to a restaurant near St. Sulpice, one of Prashanth’s favourite restaurants, and a place where he apparently lunches quite often. We both had grilled lamb with rice and then a dessert. I enjoyed the meal. Afterwards we walked to Jean-Philippe’s place not very far from there. Jean-Philippe is a French/Canadian kid who seems to have a passion for languages. He was learning Farsi and Bengali too, apart from doing a double degree in Politics and Philosophy. I also met his Tahitian boyfriend, Marc, and two other friends of theirs and their very attention-loving dog/puppy. Since Jean-Philippe had an exam the next day, he didn’t want to go clubbing, and Marc also wanted to stay back. Just when the discussion was getting interesting, and we were talking about the passion of the French about their language in the context of the recent walk out of Chirac when a French businessman made a presentation in English at an EU meet, Prashanth announced that he and I should leave because we had to meet the girls at midnight at their hotel.
While waiting at the RER station, 5 minutes before midnight, one of the girls called to say that they had just got back and not everybody was going, so they were a bit unsure. Anyways the decision was first go to a jazz bar where another friend of Prashanth’s, Anthony, who’s German of Indian origin, works. Then they would decide whether to go clubbing. I was of course sure from the beginning that I didn’t want to go clubbing, especially, straight clubbing. I would go to the bar with them though, and that way also meet Anthony.
After waiting for more than an hour, the girls finally came down after 12:45 am. The RER that would bring us closest had stopped. We took a Metro (the last one) to near St. Michel, and would walk from there. The girls were terribly slow walkers and I was impressed at Prashanth’s patience. We finally reached the bar after 1:30 pm, and the bar had closed. The friendly owner and Anthony were still there of course, and we had a drink each. Anthony’s a nice kid, very camp, calling people “Honey” in every sentence. He studies fashion design in an institute close by. Earlier, Prashanth had told me about his interesting or rather, turbulent, family/social history.
I finally got back to Guillaume’s place at 2:30 am.
(written on 17-18 June)
Guillaume left around 9:30 and I quickly showered, bought two sandwiches (ate one), and went to the RER station and took the train to Versailles. I reached at around 10:45 am. The front of the chateau and certain sections is under massive renovations, making it inconvenient to take photographs.
The queue was huge, but because of my museum pass, I didn’t have to queue up. I got an audio guide and went in. The interiors are very grand indeed, the Schönbrunn in Vienna doesn’t compare at all to Versailles in grandiosity. One starts with a view (from outside) of the huge and gorgeous chapel,
which is the tallest room in the chateau as it spans (more than?) the height of the two stories of the chateau. 
Apparently, Louis XIV had had it built after his wife’s death and he was becoming more and more religious. One goes through the various reception rooms of the king, then comes to the famous hall of mirrors. They are renovating this as well, but fortunately for the public, they are doing this in two steps, in two halves. 
So one can only see half of the room and imagine just how much more grand the huge whole room would have looked like. After the hall of mirrors come the queen’s rooms, including her bedroom. 
The last room used to be for the guards, and now has this huge painting of Napoleon Bonaparte crowning his wife, Josephine as empress. Another version of the same painting hangs in the Louvre.At the very end, there is a huge hall of paintings, of various battles including the battles of Napoleon.
After getting out of the chateau, I ate my sandwich. Today’s sandwiches, though good, were not as good as yesterday’s.
I explored around a bit, and decided to get a ticket for the mini-trams that go around to the grounds to the Petit Trianon, the Grand Trianon, the Grand Canal, and back. I also got their audio guide. As I realized later, this was a mistake and I did most of it on foot anyway because on has more freedom to explore. The Petit Trianon is rather small and was built for Louis XV’s mistress and then turned over to Marie-Antoinette when Louis XVI became king. The pinkish Grand Trianon and its grounds are very beautiful indeed. 
It was built for Louis XIV’s get-away from the court and to spend time with his children’s governess and secret later second wife. It is still used by the French government for summits and to house heads of state.
The grounds of Versailles are huge and extremely beautiful.
I spent hours strolling around. The weather was great today; in fact I would have liked it if it were a bit cooler. At around 6 pm, I headed towards the station. Prashanth called and suggested that we go for dinner, and then drop by at his friend Jean-Philippe’s place before going to meet the girls from India (whom I had met yesterday) who wanted to go clubbing (I wasn’t keen about the last one).
While returning to Guillaume’s place, I spotted an internet place and finally got online for the first time since coming to Paris.
**********
I met up with Prashanth at 8 pm at the Place Saint Michel. We walked along Boulevard St. Michel and he showed me scaffolded Sorbonne and the exterior of Saint Sulpice—one of its towers is unfortunately also scaffolded so that its asymmetry is not apparent. We went to a restaurant near St. Sulpice, one of Prashanth’s favourite restaurants, and a place where he apparently lunches quite often. We both had grilled lamb with rice and then a dessert. I enjoyed the meal. Afterwards we walked to Jean-Philippe’s place not very far from there. Jean-Philippe is a French/Canadian kid who seems to have a passion for languages. He was learning Farsi and Bengali too, apart from doing a double degree in Politics and Philosophy. I also met his Tahitian boyfriend, Marc, and two other friends of theirs and their very attention-loving dog/puppy. Since Jean-Philippe had an exam the next day, he didn’t want to go clubbing, and Marc also wanted to stay back. Just when the discussion was getting interesting, and we were talking about the passion of the French about their language in the context of the recent walk out of Chirac when a French businessman made a presentation in English at an EU meet, Prashanth announced that he and I should leave because we had to meet the girls at midnight at their hotel.
While waiting at the RER station, 5 minutes before midnight, one of the girls called to say that they had just got back and not everybody was going, so they were a bit unsure. Anyways the decision was first go to a jazz bar where another friend of Prashanth’s, Anthony, who’s German of Indian origin, works. Then they would decide whether to go clubbing. I was of course sure from the beginning that I didn’t want to go clubbing, especially, straight clubbing. I would go to the bar with them though, and that way also meet Anthony.
After waiting for more than an hour, the girls finally came down after 12:45 am. The RER that would bring us closest had stopped. We took a Metro (the last one) to near St. Michel, and would walk from there. The girls were terribly slow walkers and I was impressed at Prashanth’s patience. We finally reached the bar after 1:30 pm, and the bar had closed. The friendly owner and Anthony were still there of course, and we had a drink each. Anthony’s a nice kid, very camp, calling people “Honey” in every sentence. He studies fashion design in an institute close by. Earlier, Prashanth had told me about his interesting or rather, turbulent, family/social history.
I finally got back to Guillaume’s place at 2:30 am.
posted by A.S. at 3:40 PM
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