Paris: Day 3

Day 3 in Paris started with a trip outside of Paris, to Versailles.  When I started planning our trip to Paris, this was the first place I wanted to see.  We took the metro to the station, and from there took a half hour train ride to Versailles.

Inside the gates.

The interior court of Versailles.  The once royal residence has 2,150 windows, 700 rooms, 67 staircases, and over 6,000 paintings as part of its collection.  As amazing and grand as the chateau is just a small dot on the over all landscape of Versailles.

We walked through the chateau and which included what seemed like endless rooms, all color coordinated, with paintings historic figures, battles, and landscapes covering the walls.  About half way through we walked into the Hall of Mirrors.  This is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 to end the first World War.

Once we were finish in the chateau we ate lunch and then ventured out to the gardens, this was our view during lunch.

The gardens were beautiful, and we were only able to explore a small portion of them.  Once we had finished walking back to the chateau, we headed back to Paris on the train again. 

We had started to make it a habit to have coffee mid afternoon as we were usually very tired and it was a great opportunity to people watch.  So this time we went to a cafe that was on the walk from out hotel to the Champ de Mars.  Dad and I both had coffee and I had a crepe with raspberry jam.

After coffee we headed back to the hotel for a short break since we had planned on going to Montmarte to explore during the evening and to have dinner.  This time, we took the Metro, which dropped us off just at the base of a steep hill.  The street was lined with tons of shops selling just about anything you could imagine, but once we reached the end of the street and the shops cleared we found the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris.

 The basilica is at the highest elevation in Paris so we trekked up the stairs to see the view.

We made it to the top, which wasn't exactly easy, rested a bit and enjoyed watching the musicians who were playing.  We then preceded to walk to through the streets and markets, we eventually settled on a place to eat.

The Moulin de la Galette, The windmill and the atmosphere surrounding this well known windmill has been depicted in paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh, and Picasso.

This was our fancy dinner for Dad's trip so we spent a good amount of time here talking, while it was still light out when we went in, it was dark about about 11:00 pm when we left.

Tomato gazpacho

Caviar with pepper sauce.

Fried faux gras with lemon jelly and a salad.

Sea bass, clam, and shrimp with carrot, turnip, and basic sauces and black rice.

Lamb with mashed potatoes, root vegetables, and balsamic vinaigrette.

Chocolate layered with wafer, caramel ice cream, fresh fruit, caramel sauce, and crushed pistachio.

We left very full and ready for bed, but we had one more stop to go by, the Moulin Rouge.

After that we got right on the Metro, which as just a few feet from the Moulin Rouge, and headed back to the hotel.  Our night was amazing, but our feet hurt, so we were eager to get to bed.  Plus, we had a plenty of sights planned for the next day.

For more photos of our third day in Paris, click here.