Chateau at Versailles

We visited the Chateau at Versailles on a Sunday. It was amazingly busy as in more busy than the Louvre. We later found out that Sunday is one of the busiest days at Versailles. The first myth that I would like to dispell is that the Chateau is a long ways from Paris. By subway it took no more than 30 minutes.

Getting into Versailles took over an hour. We toured the Chateau first. We then toured the gardens which I will discuss in a later posting. We did not visit any of the other castles as they cost more money and there were too many to do in the amount of time we had.

The Chateau was a little disappointing. All of the furnishings were added back after the revolution once it became a museum. The issue is that the Chateau was invaded by angry Frenchmen during the revolution and was ransacked which basically meant people took what they could carry away from the castle. The cool part about the chateau was the art work on the wall and ceiling. Luckily most of this is original pre-revolution. Again, words cannot describe the detail and beauty poured into these works of art. I recommend the Chateau on this basis. I was not that impressed by the Hall of Mirrors which is something I have heard about since I was little. The ceiling was beautiful but it did not really stand out. One turn off for me was that people had scraped names into some of the mirrors which gave it a cheap feel.

Again, we would recommend visiting the Chateau. I will post some more about the garden which I felt was the high point of the trip.

	Versailles' "Understated" Gate
	Chateau at Versailles side view
	Jesse in front of Versailles
	Chapel inside Versailles. Is that really marble???
	View of Chapel from second floor.
	Beautiful Ceiling
	Wall Mounted Painting
	Carving of Louis trampling his enemies.
	Hall of Mirrors
	Audio tour guide
	Cat on marble staircase

Eurostar Trip

My oldest son has been obsessed with trains for a long time. Due to his obsession, I have learned more about trains and was aware of the high speed trains that run between Paris and London. We purchased tickets ahead of time and paid 220 euros for a ride on the Eurostar train. The Eurostar is a high speed train which runs up to 180 miles per hour under the chunnel into London. Getting through security was a pain, we had to pass British customs at the Gare Du Nord train station in Paris. The Eurostar website recommended arriving 30 minutes earlier but I would recommend getting there an hour early due to security delays and the time it takes to get through British border patrol. Our trip to London was pretty nice. We were in coach 4 which was pretty uncrowded. Our return trip was not so nice. We were placed in coach 18 which is close to the front of the train. As you can see in the last pic, we were placed in the same coach as a Japanese tour group. The Japanese tour group was pretty nice the only problem was that we were behind them boarding the train and they had TONS of bags and each of them was no younger than 60, so boarding was a delight.

In London, St Pancras station was very nice and well organized. The French border patrol was much much easier to get through. They barely looked at my passport.

The ride on the Eurostar is extremely smooth which makes it a comfortable way to travel. I was disappointed that there was no view of the English Channel from the train on either side of the Eurostar. You really cannot see a lot of the country-side as it is flying by at 180 miles per hour. Overall, we would recommend the Eurostar as it is a comfortable way to travel.

	Our Eurostar Train
	Eurostar Coaches
	More Pix of People Near Eurostar

Notre Dame Cathedral

We visited the Notre Dame Cathedral around a week ago. The first item I found interesting was that the cathedral was on an island in the Seine river called Ile De Cite. The oldest bridge in the city is one connecting the island with the mainland.

It is hard to describe the cathedral. It is considered one of the best examples of gothic architecture (not sure what that means). The amount of detail in every carving is hard to convey. Suffice it to say, it is worth seeing!!!!!
There is a funny story about the stained glass windows. Apparently in the 1800s, a priest decided to replace the stained glass windows in the cathedral with clear glass windows to let more light in. Therefore, most of the stained glass windows were removed and the current ones are no more than a hundred years old. I bet that priest would kick himself if he were around now. DOH!!!!!

Anyway, there is a beautiful garden behind the cathedral that was really cool. We did not go in the crypt or the tower when we went there. We planned to visit Versailles in the same day, so we were intent on not spending too much time at Notre Dame. The cathedral was very crowded which made it a little less fun. If you ever get a chance, visit the cathedral. A thought which occured to me when looking at the gargoyles and the stone carvings is that there are no buildings being built now with this level of detail. The skills are slowly dying on how to even construct something like this.

	Front View
	More detail of Notre Dame front
	Doorway with amazing carvings
	Cat in front of Joan d'Arc statue
	Ornate wood carving
	Enormous Stained-glass window
	A better picture of the interior
	Cat in front of one of its many doors
	Jesse in front of its door
	Side View of Cathedral
	One of its towers
	Garden Behind Cathedral
	A view from the back

Monmartre - Our Favorite Area

One of the best kept secrets of Paris is the delightfully Bohemian neighborhood of Monmartre. Away from much of the tourist hustle and bustle, Monmarte is a neighborhood north of the Seine that is hilly, filled with fun cafes and beautiful architecture. We met up with the owner of La Cave Cafe who is originally from New York and now owns a cafe in Monmartre. I highly recommend his cafe for a cappucino or a bite to eat.
When we go back to Paris next time, we will stay in MonMartre. The people are more relaxed than busier portions of Paris. If you are looking for a more adult experience, Monmartre captures the essence of Paris without the huge crowds associated with the Tour de Eiffel and other high traffic areas.

	Metro Sign in Monmartre
	Monmartre the area of hills and stairs
	Another Art Deco Metro Sign
	A gentle hill..
	La Cave Cafe Owner

Parisienne Market Food

As part of our French cooking class, we visited Le Marche which is an interesting place indeed. To understand French cuisine, history assists us. For example, it is a French tradition to have fresh food and open markets. Everyday of the week, there are markets open that have fresh meats, vegtables, fruits, etc. In the distant past, Paris was ruled by a king and the royals so good cuts of meat were not readily available. Therefore, the French generally utilize and eat most parts of an animal.

I was shocked to learn they ate horse meat. Apparently, Paris was under seige during the Franco-Prussian war and Parisennes ate all the horses in Paris as well as all the cats and dogs. There still some 50-60 horse butchers in Paris. I did not try horse meat but it is still a delicacy in France.

The good aspect of the markets was that Paris has an excellent selection of fresh foods see the pictures below of the beautiful tomatoes and bananas. The strength of French cuisine is in the use of superior ingredients. In the USA, restaurants use whatever vegtables their suppliers bring. In Paris, it is not uncommon for a mid-tier restaurant to buy everything fresh daily to be cooked for lunch and dinner. During our cooking class, we were introduced to 4 different types of salt and 3-4 different types of pepper which are used for different aspects of cooking.

My personal favorite was the boulangeries which are bakeries.....we found a baker with a 200+ yr old oven and bought some fabulous bread. I was less happy with the meat situation as I am not big on seafood or duck but that seemed to be the majority of dishes available.

	Horse Meat Butcher
	Another Shot of the Horse Butcher
	Ducks in a regular butcher shop
	Skinned Rabbits with head (per French Law)
	Crustaceans & Seafood
	Fresh Tomatoes & Bananas
	Fresh Fruits

Power Killed the Radio Star

Yes, video did not do it. Lack of power did it. We went to England without a proper power adapter and watched as our cell phone died and our laptop died before we could post to this blog. We come back to Paris to fly out and our transformer dies! Man, we are not meant to show you any good pix. We will be back in the states tomorrow and will probably be posting for the next two weeks with all the stuff we have done. Needless to say, London was awesome. Riding the Eurostar was awesome. It has been an awesome trip!!!! Look for more updqtes tomorrow and let this be a lesson to you BRING BRITISH POWER ADAPTERS FOR LONDON AND EURO ADAPTERS FOR FRANCE. You would think a power engineer would know these things!

Quick Update

We had a good time yesterday and today. Yesterday we went to Notre Dame and Versailles where we saw the chateau and the garden. We also went up in the Eiffel Tower which is what the above pix show. Today we went on a river cruise and went shopping for a new camera lens which took a while. Our dinner was at a place called Bistro de 7eme which came recommended by our eye doctor. We are having trouble with getting internet access so more pix are on the way.

Tomorrow we head to London on the Eurostar which we are excited about. We will post again soon.

Sacre Couer & Place De Concorde

This is us on top of Monmarte hill in front of Sacre Couer which was built as a memorial for the Franco Prussian war. It was beautiful!!




Cat having a fabulous cappucino at a cafe run by an expat from New York.





Us in front of the fountain at Place de la Concorde.




In front of the famous Ave. Champs de Elysses. In the background you can see all the way to the Arc de Triomphe.

Cooking With class!

Today we took a French cooking class in Monmarte. Lots of fun!




Making the vinegrette dressing!




The entree (appetizer in america) white asparagus and french proscuitto, yummy!







The main dish was a fish similar to Red Snapper with celery root puree.




The dessert was chocolate souffle.





SACRE BLEU!!!!!!! This souffle was excellent!!