Grande Paris …..

Wednesday 14th September

Today we took a historical coach tour of Paris, starting off at the Bastille, which is a huge open place people congregate in for big celebrations. It is also the place where 1,700 people lost their heads during the Revolution including kings and queens – like Louis 15 and Marie Antoinette. Then we headed for the fortress that gave birth to Paris which is in fact an island in the middle of the river Seine. The cathedral of Notre Dame. Crossing over the Seine we drove into the Latin Quarter, so named because of the numerous universities situated there including the famous Sorbonne, in which students came from all over the world and were taught in the Latin language. We also visited many other historical places en route to the Louvre Museum, the largest Museum in the world. It originated as a gatekeeper outpost to collect taxes from people wanting to sell their wares in the city. It then became a fort around the 1200’s. Then Louis 13 decided to build a castle on top of the fort which they buried to raise the castle up. The four Louis who followed added wings to this castle making it into an enormous building. This museum contains quite unbelievable sculptures, paintings and artefacts going back to before Christ.

Inside we saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and many many other famous pieces of artwork. We only had time to see a fraction of what is in there and the guide said to see everything would take 4 months, 24 hours a day!! As we were leaving we came across the original fortifications discovered during renovations and they have been excavated and are on display in their original position, with an exact replica model showing you where each part of the wall belongs. We had lunch there and then got on the coach again for the Palace of Versailles.

When we approached, this just looked like a huge building. This building started out as a Hunting Lodge and took 43 years to build (stop complaining Nic and Dave!!) . It has 800 rooms and we walked through the King’s Wing and saw his bedroom, dining room and reception room. We then went around to the Hall of Mirrors, a most astonishing room that is still used even today for international events. From there we went to the Queen’s wing, (yes they lived separately, but managed to dine together once a week.). We also saw the Queen’s bed and bedroom where Marie Antoinette slept ando the secret corridor the king used for occasional nocturnal visits.

After that we walked around the grounds and gardens which were 2,000 acres of beautiful formal garden beds and trees, laid out with numerous statues and fountains.

A thoroughly informative and interesting day!!

Off to the cabaret now and early tomorrow morning we leave for Switzerland. Au revoir Paris!!