Versailles, River Cruise

Our first (and only) free day to explore Paris! We wanted to get out of the city a little bit and see the palace and the gardens at Versailles. WOW, it was absolutely breathtaking! We rode a commuter rail line about 45 minutes outside of Paris to the town of Versailles and tried to beat the crowds. Lots of students from our marketing trip went out to Versailles then, but I’m pretty sure we had the earliest party leaving at about 8:30am. CJ, Kinsey, Caitlin, Jen, Ashley, Laura, Sam, and I all went together. Although the palace is huge, somehow I still think it was the most crowded place I have visited on the trip thus far. People were wall to wall walking through the state rooms inside the building. Some of the paintings on the ceiling were ridiculous! I couldn’t believe that someone actually painted those such a long time ago… upside down nonetheless!

We then went out into the gardens and explored a bit around there. I videotaped Laura and Sam running through the gardens to get a picture, which I’m pretty sure is frowned upon, but it was seriously entertaining to watch happen haha! Our feet were aching from all this walking that we’re doing, so we didn’t explore too deep into the gardens, but we got the general feel. However, I was very much expecting there to be flowers in the gardens, but I never saw any. I don’t know if they’re in between planting seasons or if its normally just all shrubbery. We really enjoyed the gardens either way though. Versailles, the palace and the gardens together, is one of the prettiest things I think that I’ve ever seen!


Finding our way home from Versailles turned out to be more of an adventure than we bargained for though. The train station that we arrived at was suddenly closed when we wanted to leave, so they directed us about a mile to a mile and half away, through city streets with barely any signage. While we were walking towards this mysterious train station, you’ll never believe who I saw! Logan Beall from FUMC Hurst back home! It was SO crazy random I couldn’t believe it. He was with his study abroad group from the OU Accounting Department, and they were going to be in Paris for a month. It’s crazy how it really is such a small world!
Once we got back into the city of Paris itself, we realized we had no idea where we were. We had to find a Metro station, which wasn’t the easiest thing ever when it seemed like everyone we spoke to did not speak English. Finally, Laura and I split off from our big group and went back to Galeris de Lafayette because we both decided to purchase a Longchamp bag. They’re getting to be pretty popular back in the states, but are about 50 more Euros over there than they are here. Longchamp (pronounced LONG-chomp with a French accent) is manufactured in France, so they’re prices are cheaper over here. I got a cross body purse/messenger bag for 98 Euros. It was my big Parisian purchase! Everyone has got to have one! Word of advice though: never EVER go to Galeris on a Saturday afternoon… biggest madhouse I have ever seen in my entire life!
We then headed back to the hotel for a little rest break and dinner at a café down the block before our group Seine River Cruise at 8:45pm that evening. It was really nice to just sit down on the boat for an hour and relax while we got to take in the sites from the City of Lights. Our cruise was during the hour of dusk here in Paris, so we got to view a beautiful sunset as well. Most of the sites from the river cruise I had already seen before just from walking around Paris, but it was still nice to get a different perspective on it all.


Finally, I came back to the hotel after the cruise and went almost immediately to bed. The plan is to wake up tomorrow and head down to Roland Garros for day one of French Open play! I’m super excited and hope we get tickets!