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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Day 2: Doha (Qatar) - Paris (France)

Finally we arrived in Paris. The airport looked old and not well maintained. After walking around to find our way out we took the shuttle bus followed by the train. The journey to our hotel was around 1 hour.

Palace of Versailles
It was the summer residence of King Louis XIII. Only one word to describe it, HUGE!! We visited the State Apartments, Hall of Mirrors, King's chamber, Museum of French Revolution and the garden.

In State Apartments, the paintings are covering the four walls and also the ceiling. These paintings are big or even gigantic and it looked so real. I wondered how long the artist need to finish one.

I was quite disappointed that some area of Hall of Mirrors was closed for renovation. Because of that, the mirror effect didn't look stunning at all. I saw a better one from the internet :(

Nothing much to see in the Museum. As I was not familiar with French history, I only stayed there for a few minutes.

The garden was big and so beautiful, it was full of trees being trimmed to perfection. If we had to walk from end to end, we probably need at least an hour. There were other means of transport if we wanted to see the whole garden, either horse-drawn carriage or mini train.


The courtyard








Inside state apartments






Hall of mirrors


The garden



On the way back to hotel, we bought a chinese take away for dinner, it was a bit weird to see all the dishes name in French hehe.. They were sold by weight and it cost around Euro 2 - 4 per 100 grams. Our meal cost Euro 12 (SGD 24) for two. With this price, I could eat at a restaurant in Singapore. :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, how did you get those ceiling pictures, thought you ain't allow cameras?

Anonymous said...

Dear Irene, the palace we see today is that of Louis XIV. Louis XIII's hunting lodge is just the core, the building fronting the Marble Court. The rest of the palace was built around it. (Pity, I'd rather see Louis's private home than his son's palace any day...)