Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Bigger Must Clearly be Better

From one palace to another. Obviously, I was unimpressed with the king's old palace (the Louvre) yesterday, so I set out to be fully impressed with actual examples of ridiculous over spending by touring Versailles. A message to the past King Louis(s). You have succeeded. Even accounting that you're kings, I can't quite imagine ever having that much disposable income. The whole palace and grounds are truly ridiculous. (In a good way, though I guess- I mean it sure is a huge tourist draw. If only you told all of the revolutionary peasants you were only thinking of the future...
This is how far away you need to stand to almost get it all in the picture
As much of the grounds I could fit in one shot. It's all part of the palace.
To keep people out, you'd need a big fancy gate too.
But seriously, after a while of walking through the giant gardens and seeing the many lavishly decorated rooms it all started to simply not feel so real. It was just so.. I don't know.. over the top? Hard to imagine anyone would really want to live there.
Villagers too ornery? Just build your own village in your backyard...
There's a lot of garden
Only fitting that the inside matches
Got to have art made to scale too
Back in Paris proper, the only thing left on the schedule for the day was the trip to the iconic Eiffel Tower. The view from the platform was amazing? Somehow even though it looks "tall" from the bottom, you really only feel how high it is once you get up.
Wonder what this structure could be...
Yes, that is it's own shadow on the left
While we were too tired to go up the stairs, (what? walking around King Louis's crazy big garden is really exhausting) we did walk down them just as the sun was setting.
This is looking straight down. There are stairs in upper left
This is just pretty. :)
It was really pretty. I may have taken a few photos. (Some people also got impatient) To end our 'highlights of Paris' tour, we took a boat ride back down towards the apartment. (If it's even possible, the city looked even prettier at night).
Last one, I promise :P
Along the banks of the river we were able to view a bit of the culture of Paris. Since the weather was so hot, people wanted to be by the river, however, they wouldn't go in it (too much traffic, too gross (probably)). To make up for it, all along the river there were artificial beaches set up, offering residents (or tourists) the opportunity to relax by the water without having to travel to the coast, or a lake. (or another river, I guess) They also had a bunch of gathering areas that were actually being used by people to get together and dance! In a  row of arenas we passed break dancing, club dancing, swing dancing and some sort of way fancy dancing that I suspect is ballroom (though being an uncultured American, I don't actually know)
I feel like I just keep repeating myself.. but isn't it nice?
Notre Dame nicely framed by the river and some lock laden bridges
Besides passing the Notre Dame Cathedral, we also passed an excellent example of Paris night life. A huge free concert featuring electronic and popular music artists on a stage with all the newest technology, but in front of a huge old building. It was one of those things that really could never happen in the US. (there aren't old enough buildings, and if there were, people wouldn't be allowed to have crazy live concerts in front of them.)
I still can't get over how weird this juxtaposition is

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