To pay homage to one of the baddest, best dressed queens in French history, my own baddie and I decided to hit up Versailles on day three (mainly because we bought tickets ahead of time for this day specifically) and boy, were we faced with a surprise. Upon arriving, we saw a line that snaked in rows as far as the eye could see and we scoffed, thinking that must be for people without tickets...wrong. That two-hour long line was for everyone with tickets purchased ahead of time. We only found this out by going to customer service and inquiring. She told us that our tickets from GetYourGuide did not indicate that it was a skip the line ticket, so we could either wait in line...or just walk through the massive gardens and go to Marie's personal estate. After naively standing in line for about 20 minutes, my friend and I decided it wasn't worth it to stand around and waste precious time in a foreign country by waiting in line. We exited, heading straight to the gardens, which were HUGE and could take an entire day to navigate in itself! There is a maze that one can enter and stroll for hours, or possibly lie around for a picnic! Statues were everywhere, making for great photo opps and in general, it was a lot less crowded and a lot more peaceful than the chaos happening out front of Versailles. We took a long leisurely walk that ended up being about a half an hour to just get to Marie's estate. Many people drove past on golf carts which seems like the smart thing to do in hindsight, but it was a nice day, and if you CAN walk it, why not? It was a bit confusing to get to the Queen's place, but once we finally arrived, we were appeased as it was basically a mini version of the main palace. We went through a small and quick security line that led to a cute gift shop with all kinds of goodies for both children and adults. The estate was a fairly quick walkthrough and allowed you to meander throughout and take your time with each of the rooms. The decor had a very old film stars house in the hills feel to it and I'm sure that's where they got the theme, but it was still cool to see Marie Antoinette's eclectic style all under one roof! All in all, we probably spent about 20 minutes here before going back outside for the long walk to the exit where we could catch an Uber. For a moment, we wondered if we made a mistake by coming to the estate as opposed to waiting and going into Versailles...after thinking on it, we decided no, we had spent a lovely afternoon that we would have otherwise missed by standing and waiting to be shoved around in the palace, just to look at similar design and architecture that the estate has. Sacré-Cœur BasilicaNext to the Sainte Chappelle, this church is my next favorite for the views outside alone. The architecture on the inside is great as well, but that view from the steps is magnificent. As a visitor, you won't spend too much time inside as it is a quick trip around to see all of the religious pieces they have to showcase, but make sure if it's a nice day, to just have a seat on the steps outside and just take in your surroundings. Once we had finished here, we decided on burgers as we were starving and where better to get an American dish than a burger cafe. We decided on B&M, a cute little burger chain reminiscent of Five Guys, but 100 times fresher and so much more flavorful. I didn't feel like I downed a bucket of grease after eating which was great. The area around B&M is great as well, walking distance from the Sacred Heart and chock-full of cute shops and quaint charm. While eating, we were able to catch snippets of the World Cup on a TV across the street at a bar playing music for "Fête de la Musique", or party of music. On this annual music day, restaurants can be heard blaring music into the street and people perform songs and dances all over the city. While we listened, watched, and ate, we decided that upon finishing we would head over to a bar to watch the France versus Peru game, so we paid and headed over. The bar we went to was called Le Bistrot des Martyrs, a very small bar that allowed anyone in off of the street to watch the game. It felt very cozy and welcoming as we all cramped together to watch France triumph over Peru and get closer to victory for the World Cup. After a couple of drinks, we headed on our way to nap for a couple of hours before hitting the town one last time. |
Paris 2018A trip to Paris in June of 2018 ArchivesCategories |