Day 5: Versailles

Moving right along with our Paris trip....



On our 5th day we took a trip out to visit Versailles, which was a 30 minute train ride outside of the city. The palace was immense and a bit overwheliming with all the ornateness. My favorite part was the grounds, which seemed to go on as far as the eye could see.



Inside the palace, we toured the private apartments of the king and queen.





It seemed like the beds were so small!

We also went through the hall of mirrors.







We couldn't go inside the chapel, but I got a good photo.



Once outside we walked down to the great canal, then over to the Petit and Grand Trianon, "smaller" palaces (if there is such a thing).



It was a lot less crowded there, probably because most don't make the 20 or so minute walk, although they did have bikes for rent.



The Petit Trianon was a favorite of Marie Antoinette, who had a little hamlet village recreated on the property.





This was called the Temple of Love.



Once we got home, we rented the movie Marie Antionette because it was filmed on location at Versailles. We enjoyed seeing the palace again through the movie.

Day 4: The Marais, Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower

It has been 2 months since my trip, but I'm only on day 4!! To speed it up, there will be less text and more pictures.

On our 4th day we ventured through the Marais, visiting the Place de la Bastille, the Promenede Plantee and the Place des Vosges. We walked through the Ile St-Louis and Ile de la Cite and toured the Notre Dame. Later that evening, we went up to the Eiffel Tower. We only went up to the 2nd level, as the 3rd was closed.

Paris Day 2: Invalides and Sacre Coeur

After walking through the Rodin garden we headed over to the Invalides, where the main attraction was Napoleon's Tomb. Jeff was fascinated with Napoleon and we couldn't get over the scale of the room and how massive the tomb was.



They also have a very good WWII museum on site and beautiful gardens. It was interesting to get a European perspective on the war, and to understand what happened in Paris when they were occupied.





Later in the day we went to Monmarte to walk around and visit the Sacre Coeur. Monmarte was a lot of fun - small, winding streets with lots of shops and food vendors. Did I mention how hilly it was? We stopped for some crepes before making the final climb up to Sacre Coeur. There were a ton of people all around Sacre Coeur, its got great views of the city and its a beautiful church.







The metro stop near Sacre Coeur is one of the few remaining in the original Art Nouveau style.

Kauai Photos!

I added a slideshow to the sidebar with some of our vacation photos. There are too many to add to the blog...if you'd like to see them all go here

San Francisco

Getting ready for our upcoming trip, I was reflecting on our last out-of-town getaway to San Francisco. We went for my birthday in December of last year (wow - 9 months since a vacation...I NEED to get out of town!!) and had a wonderful time. Since I was looking through our photos, I thought I'd share a bit of our trip to SFO.

One of the most fun things we did was take the ferry over to Sausalito to see the town and drive to Muir woods. We started out at the Ferry Marketplace, a beautiful re-done bulding with many local merchants selling food. We were there so early no one was open yet!

Most of the ferry activity was boats bringing people TO San Francisco, so our trip only had maybe 10 people on it.

The ride over gave many photo opportunities of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Muir Woods was so quiet and peaceful, I could have sat there for hours!!

Since we rented a car in Sausalito for the day, we ventured around to a great lookout over the Pacific.

And took the obligatory picture in front of the bridge.

We bought a trolley pass, so spent plenty of time going up and down the hills of the city.

A guide book had mentioned some off the beaten path stops not everyone knows about. One such place was Macondray Lane. Walking up to it, Jeff swore I was lost, but when we turned the corner and saw this little magical enclave of houses, he knew I was right. What a beautiful place. Wonder what the houses cost there??

We also walked down Lombard Street (easier than walking up!!)

Upon a friend's recommendation, we visited the Japanese garden at Golden Gate Park.

What a great trip! It was fun reliving it here for you.