Paris - part deux

We woke up Sunday to ominously heavy skies. Hedging our bets, we dressed for rain and jumped on the train toward Versailles where I "sat" next to a horribly evil person that Layne tried to cuss at in every language he knows a curse word in to no avail. Sadly, she will remain unabashed and horrible for all time, but my husband did his best to defend me. 

When we arrived, we quickly saw the line was ridiculous (or so we thought) and decided to hit up the gardens in spite of the misting French rain. They were - like all things French - fantastically imposing and gorgeous. After walking down the side of the chateau and getting his first look down at the gardens, we were completely flabbergasted Sorry for the lack of pictures - I guess I can't remember to talk pictures in the rain!

 

It is a fairly phenomenal sight. 

I also didn't take many pictures inside as I was too busy shuffling like a cow in a herd, but it was even more ostentatious and over the top than I imagined. My vision was overwhelmed with the gold, glitz, and glamour of the foolishly indulgent French court. It quickly became clear to me that living in a place as magnificent as Versailles would have made it impossible for anyone to stay grounded in reality.

It was late afternoon and absolutely pouring by the time we got back to the city. We grabbed a very late lunch at this restaurant looking at the Arc de Triomphe. We tried to do some souvenir shopping but nearly every place we tried was closed. Since we were heading home the next day and had to be to the airport in the morning, we called it an early night.

The only good thing about rain in Paris is the sunsets it creates. Photoshop didn't even hit this baby - it just would have screwed up the amazing colors Mother Nature intended to share!

Hoping to squeeze in a few more sights, we woke up around 5 the next morning and headed to Sacre Coure. We had to climb this huge hill, but it was gorgeous and worth it.

Amazing view of Paris from way up here.

We then headed to the airport, but Paris was not ready for us to leave just then. We didn't make it on to the flight, so we headed back to the hotel. Layne needed a nap since we had been going so hard for so long and I had promised him some sleep on the plane, so I wandered the streets by our hotel and simply admired Paris. We had seen everything on our top list at this point, so that night we just stayed in our own little corner and explored.

Our metro stop