Day 6 - Paris, day 2

My train leave Paris tonight at 9pm so I need to head off early to maximize the few hours left.

Today is Versailles. 5:30 wake-up, 6:30 check-out, 7am board the 45-minute train to the chateau, 9am chateau opens, 9:30am private tour.

Yes, Parisians all go to McD (and yes it's very make good pastries)	Parisians stay up late which means they go to bed late. You won't restaurants open before 9am. This is your only option for early morning food.	I guess French kids don't need to be unleashed to work their energies out
8:15am - time to explore a bit	This is what I thought of when people mentioned French cafe's	The day's plan - all of this
Once we're done exploring the main house we'll check out Marie Antoinette's cottage (which is included in the price of the private tour ticket)	9am. We're starting at that little red mark in the bottom center of the photo

This place is no joke. The main house, which started out as just a simple hunting lodge, expanded many times and is 720,000 sq ft. After the last king and queen fled the mansion was ransacked and all items sold off by the new republic government. Many items have since been returned upon death-rights of the individual holding the belonging. The structure though is nearly entirely untouched from the day it was created. If you're coming here, buy the extra ticket for the private tour ($10). You get to skip the regular entrance and get to see areas the non-private tour folks can't see.

		There's still a lot of restoration going on
Such an enormous space. We're off to the King's wing (and yes the Queen had her own wing)
	One of the greatest, original pieces in the entire castle, the King's clock	This astronomical clock is precise that upon learning of its workings the King had the gold casing built to protect it. It's never been reset and will keep perfect date and time until the year 9999.

King Louis XIV wanted his own private "little" theater so he had it added to the end of the King's wing. Performances are still held here, typically in the musical styling in existence when the venue was built, yearly with tickets ranging from$30-300 depending on the seat. I'm told the acoustics are second to none, mics are not needed. I need to come back in the summer to catch a show.

Usually the tour would also take you to the Queen's wing but it's closed for renovation. No worries, lot's still to see in the main house / regular tour.

Louie XIV wanted somewhere for his son to get married. So he built this for that occasion	Second-floor view of the chapel
The portrait gallery, designed to show some of the most important battles in French history	An idea how massive each painting is	What the original Versailles looked like as a simple hunting lodge
	If you have an opera house you must have a petite music room

The gardens

After a "brief" 25-minute walk I reached Marie's place.

One of the most beautiful moments. On the way to Marie's cottage I stumbled upon this closed path. I stood in this grove for 20 minutes.

It's now 5pm. This place has taken the entire day and could have been another day if I had walked slower or just sat and enjoyed the space. One more place on the list - the Catacombs. Wasn't sure if I wanted to see this or what I would take away but it was highly recommended. Let's see what this is about.

So back in the day France would mine its stone from under the city and sold it for big bucks. Eventually that stopped but these caverns were left behind until one day the city needed money and needed space for a growing populous. Grave yards from hundreds of years were occupying previous real estate. What to do? Move the corpses! And what luck, all these unused cavers were just sitting there. 

	What the catacombs looked like after miners quarried the previous stone out	The quarry men did some amazing work shoring up the ceilings

What an interesting takeaway I had. This isn't a creepy place. It's a humbling experience. You can't walk the pathway and not stop at times to look at the skulls, see the shape of the eye-sockets, wonder if your leg bone looks like theirs, see a nose cavern that semi resembles yours. In the end we'll all end up like this, being a pile of calcium. History won't remember us, know of our struggles or successes. Why not just take time to make the other pile of calcium enjoy their ever so brief time on this planet.

Well, that's Paris in roughly 48 hours. I'm so glad I came and did this whirlwind trip. I understand better history, I laugh when thinking about how Americans think they're so important or influential, we're just this petty little child in the world of grown-ups. Would I come back? Yes (with a smartphone to help navigate this confusing city subway / street system) and I'd stay far far away from the northeast corner of this city. It's scarier than many US cities overrun with crime and homelessness. On a lighter note, I now know what a pastry should taste like, what cheese can taste like, what history looks like and the beauty of just stopping and enjoying a moment you didn't schedule.

Double chocolate muffin, sitting in the train station while a random train rider plays the free piano before catching his train	Paris train station

Lesson learned - France doesn't take American Express that often. Bring a Visa card, prepared for them wanting a debit Visa instead of a credit card, always carry cash because a lot of times Visa denies your swipe, thinking it's fraud even if you notify them of your travel plans.

My feet are angry but I'm happy I went. 9pm train back to London, 10:30 arrival, then pack the room, sleep and be ready for another early wake-up.Tomorrow - Stonehenge and boarding the ship.