Day 3

What a day! We woke up around 9:30 am and got moving quickly. We got out of bed, decided to test our new found wine skills and go to the supermarche to pick up some vin. We went in, bought some camembert cheese for 1.20 €, two bottles of wine both around 2€, a corkscrew to open the wine 5€, a 6 pack of huge water bottles 2.20 € and some more yogurt for 1.20€. The good food here is so amazingly cheap. We ended up with some wine from Beaujolais, which so far is my favorite wine region in France, even though our teacher said it was “meh.”


We then walked back and dropped off our food, saving a bottle of wine, a bottle of water and half the cheese for our trek to Versailles. We walked to the Boulanger and I got a pain au raisin, and Mark got a pain au chocolate. We got two café au lait and a baguette and headed off for the RER. We were able to get right on a train straight to Versailles. We are right on the Versailles route, so it was just a hop, skip and a jump.


Once we reached Versailles, we walked to the palace, which is amazingly wonderful. The building itself is spectacular and our museum pass allowed us entrance without the line. We saw everything, including Marie Antionette’s bedroom (or the queen’s chambers- she was just the last queen to occupy the room), the Hall of Mirrors, and the grounds of the palace. It was pretty neat, the Hall of Mirrors was amazingly beautiful and it’s neat to walk where such historical figures once walked. We had a snack at one of the snack bars before returning to get our bag. We then sat in a park people watching, ate our baguette & cheese and drank our wine. It was fun. We saw lots of fun dogs running around.

Marie Antoinette's bedroom


We took the RER back towards Paris, and stopped at the Musee D’Orsay which has the impressionist paintings from the mid 19th- early 20th century. This museum was the highlight of my trip, I saw many pictures that I remember seeing from childhood, including paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh and many others. We spent a long time in this museum, and really enjoyed all of the sections.




We then took the trek to the Champs Élyesées to see the Arc de Triomphe. Our museum pass allowed us free entrance to the top of the Arc, and we walked up the stairwell that was round and seemed to last forever. Once at the top, we had a really great view of the city, the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré Cœur. We made it in time for the beginning of a military ceremony for the unknown soldier. We continued onto the Champs Élyesées and stopped in a few of the stores.


We went into the McDonalds on the Champs Élyesées because we wanted to get a Royal with Cheese, which Mark got. I like to see McDonald’s in foreign countries, because they’re hilarious. Our frittes we’re not as crispy as the ones in the US, which we were glad that we were not consuming trans fat.


We walked from the Champs Élyesées to the Invalides, back to the Trocodero, to the Eiffel Tower. We walked around 10 miles today, probably. Once we got to the Eiffel Tower, it was dark out. The tower was wonderfully lit. We approached it and as we got close the entire thing began to sparkle. I have seen this on videos and online, but I had never seen the tower do this since we have been there. It sparkled and was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We spend some time around the tower and began our 3 km. walk home. Mark stopped for a chocolate and banana crepe and we headed back. We stopped at the supermarche and picked up some crackers, macaroons, and candy bars and headed home.


We got home, ate the remaining cheese, drank some beers, and now we’re seriously watching Hulk Hogan fight Andre the Giant… Mark is really into it… I'm married to a 10 year old boy.