Versailles: The original Disneyland Paris

We've been home for a few days now, but we wanted to have one last update about our trip in France.

The final day in Paris, we spent visiting the palace of Versailles. Built primarily by Louis XIV, it was intended as a getaway from the hustle and bustle of Paris. Also, as a shrine to Louis XIV's personal idol: Louis XIV.

As far as European palaces go, Versailles was pretty typical. The focal point was the Hall of Mirrors, which sounds like a very interesting funhouse attraction, but is actually just a big long room with a lot of mirrors on the wall.

There was also a rather nice Chapel, where the royal court would sit with their backs to the altar facing the royal balcony so they could worship Louis XIV while he worshiped God.

In comparison to Hofburg and Schonbrunn in Vienna, I think we preferred the Habsburg palaces over the Louis palace. This was at least in part due to the fact that many of the rooms were no longer furnished to any great extent, and just viewing an empty room with art on the walls can get a little monotonous. That said, we left with a definitive impression that Louis XIV was one of the world's great egomaniacs.

What he lacked in humility, he more than made up in style, particularly in the gardens he created. The grounds totalled about 2000 acres, much of which is manicured gardens. The main feature of the palace portion of the grounds are the bosquets, which are essentially rooms enclosed by trees with fountains in the center. In all, there are 50 fountains in the garden, with more than 600 water jets. The entire system is run by naturally fed reservoirs pressurized by the flow of the nearby Seine river.

Of course, while Louis XIV lived in Versailles, it became just as busy as the Palace in Paris had. In an effort to get away from the hustle and bustle of Versailles, and a convenient place to store his mistress, he built a smaller palace near his palace, called Trianon, complete with its own gardens.

His heir, Louis XV, seeking to escape from the hustle and bustle of Trianon, and a convenient place to store his mistress, he built a smaller chateau called Petit Trianon.

His heir, Louis XVI, gave Petit Trianon to his queen, Marie Antoinette for her exclusive use.

In addition to her little palace, Marie Antoinette had a 5 room pavillion built, as well as a small stone gazebo built on a fake lake with fake rock outcroppings. There was, strangely, a very small cave that was referred to as Marie Antoinette's grotto. I'm not sure how she used her cave, but that's, presumably, her business.

In an effort to get away from the hustle and bustle of Petit Trianon, Marie wanted to live like a peasant from time to time, (without the hard work, starvation, disease and early death) so she built a disneyland-style fake farming hamlet on the property, with fake thatched-roof houses, a mill and lighthouse.

Versailles was really an incredible property. The scale of the engineering and work that went into the gardens was amazing. We went on a day when they fountains were running, which we were really glad for, it's absolutely worth arranging a visit during one of those days, because the fountains are even more impressive when they are actually running.

After spending the day at Versailles, we went back to Paris for our last meal and a quick nighttime visit to the Eiffel Tower.

Overall, we had a wonderful trip, filled with good food, good wine, and good company.

We love the Louvre!

Today we left our apartment nice and early so we could get to the Louvre right when it opened in order to beat the crowds. Our first stop was the Mona Lisa. Not because it was something we were dying to see, but more because it seems like you should see it while you're here. She was the only painting behind a plexiglass ​wall. It was fine, but we didn't understand why it was so much more popular than the other Van Goghs they had. I decided her smile was her being patient​ with all the annoying tourists who came to see her.

My favorite part was the Apollo gallery which house the crown jewels and was incredibly ornate.

We also saw the famous Venus de Milo statue and Winged Victory statue and of course the pyramid entrance. This is the inverted part in the lobby. There is also the part that sticks up above ground.

Rather than visit the Egyptian and Middle Eastern collections, we decided to go to the Orangerie Museum which houses Claude Monet's huge water lily canvases. He worked on these 8 paintings for 12 years at the end of his life. Together they total 1900 sq. ft. of canvas. He painted them in what is now the gift shop at his house in Giverny that we visited yesterday. The space where that are excited was custom created for this art, making it one of the first art installations.

This museum also had some lovely Renoirs and other famous impressionist painters. This Matisse reminded me of myself when told to practice.

In between the museums we had a lovely walk in the Tuileries park.

How To Know if You're Baroque: You Have No Monet

We left Beaune on Wednesday and drove to Paris. Burgundy was an amazing place and it was sad to leave, but Paris is... Well it's Paris.

There is just something incredible about walking around Paris. Everywhere you turn, there's an incredible monument or massive palace. Every neighborhood has a personality and there are ganache shops on every street. We generally try not to stick out too much, but in Paris, it's really hard not to feel like unfashionable American parents. Oh well, as always in France, the people are always polite and helpful. They know we are tourists, but they welcome us with friendly smiles.

After arriving in Paris, we checked into our apartment. Our host explained that security was a little high in the neighborhood, because the newly elected president lives a block from our apartment. We got settled and then headed to Luxembourg Garden. It's a big public garden with manicured lawns, topiary trees and lots of states. There was even a pond with mini sailboats in it that kids would chase around.

Today, we went to Giverny. This was Claude Monet's home. They have restored his gardens, which feature heavily in his works, including the pond filled with water lilies. It was a beautiful garden. It's very easy to see how it could inspire him to make incredible art.

This evening, we visited the Eiffel Tower, because we are tourists in Paris. All joking aside, it's still an awesome inspiring structure with amazing history.

Goodbye Beaune

Today we drove back to Paris after a marvelous time in Beaune. Along the drive we passed vast fields of mustard, huge windmills, and lots of white cows. Unfortunately, today is the best weather day of the trip and we're going to spend at least half of it in the car.

One of the things I liked about Beaune and Burgundy was how much care they took to plant flowers and to prune their shrubs. There weren't any formal gardens to visit, but here are a few of the flower beds we saw.

Wine Tasting and More

On Monday we rode the Visiotrain (cute tourist train) for a nice overview of the city.

We also visited the Chateau Clos de Vougeot where wine experts meet twice a year to judge the Burgundy region's wine.

And we tasted wine from a selection of the village's domaines (winemakers) at a cave (cellar) in Morey Saint-Denis followed by lunch in Nuits Saint-Georges at a restaurant that was offering a kangaroo special. Needless to say we did not order that.

We also took a lovely walk at a large park in Beaune,

tried a kir (drink that mixes white wine with creme de cassis, a locally made black currant liqueur), and ate steak frites at a brasserie.

On Tuesday we had a three course lunch with six wine pairings at the Domaine Comte Senard. Our visit there began with a tour of the vineyards and the 12th century wine cellar. Then our meal was jambon persille (a ham terrine with parsley gelatin, boeuf bourguignon, and three fromages. During the meal we tasted three Grand Cru wines, which are made from grapes grown on the best land in the region. They grow almost exclusively Chardonnay and Pinot noir grapes and almost never mix grape​ varieties in a single wine.

After this amazing meal we headed back to Beaune for a wine tasting class. We tasted eight wines blind and learned a lot about both the Burgundy region and its wines and about wine tasting in general.

Finally, we enjoyed crepes, cafe and people watching at a little shop.

Bonjour Beaune

Bonjour family and friends. We arrived in Paris on Thursday after a pretty easy direct flight. After picking up our much too large car, we headed toward Burgundy. Note: if you want an automatic transmission in Europe, they will often give you a large car. 

We started driving and made a stop at Vaux le vicomte. It's a palace estate with some typically French gardens. 

 

 

From there, we finished our drive to Beaune, our base of operations in Burgundy. We checked in, got dinner and crashed. We slept about 12 hours.

Saturday, we visited the city market. It was a big market with lots of produce, meats, cheeses, olives, and a lot of handicrafts as well. It started raining, so we paid a visit to the Hôtel Dieu. It is a medieval hospital that was built to give the poor a place to receive free care. It was built​ in the 15th century and was in use as a hospital until a new modem hospital was built a few decades ago.

On Sunday, we started our day with a drive to some of the nearby wine villages, and the Rochepot Castle. It was built in the 15th century and then destroyed during the French revolution. It was later purchased by a former president and gifted to his son.  The family restored it.

Sunday afternoon we took a wine tour to several wineries in different villages. It was interesting to taste the same two grapes (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) at each tasting and comparing the effects of different areas, even only a few hundred meters apart. The variety of flavor was remarkable.