Day 43

Sunday, June 24 -

We all woke up bright and early in the morning (as we have been every morning, you can't waste time on sleep in Paris) and went to see Moulin Rouge! It was around 100 pounds (~$156) to see a show, so we had to settle for just standing outside.

After that we headed back to Versailles to see the gardens. We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's and I was so ready to order my food in French, but then they had machines that you could order off of. It was the weirdest thing! I did go through the machine in French. It was very easy because everything had pictures.

Ordering off the McDonald's machine

When we got back to the palace the line (queue) to get through security was about a million people long. We put on our British accents again to try to get in for free. First we went to the area where the gate to the garden is, but it looked like you could only buy tickets for the firework show there. We were still talking with British accents and we got the weirdest look from this group of people. We heard them talk, and it turns out they were actually British. We stopped talking.

We waited in the ticket line for awhile (it was not as long as the security line, which is the one we went through yesterday, which took 5 seconds and was free) and it turns out we actually needed to buy our tickets at the garden gate. So we went back there and actually paid, but we got a discounted price.

The garden was HUGE. It might as well have been it's own little town. We had great weather the other two days we were in Paris, so of course it rained today. And of course I was wearing sandals and did not have an umbrella. Things got slightly less enjoyable, but it was still pretty cool.

One of many fountains in the gardens

A flowerbed

The palace from the gardens

Another fountain in the garden 

In the hedges

Another fountain

That's the palace way off in the distance

Still in the gardens

You can take a boat ride!

More of the gardens 

A room inside the Grand Trianon  

Another room in the Grand Trianon 

More of the Grand Trianon

The gardens 

More of the gardens

It took forever to get all the way to the Grand Trianon and by that time my feet were soaked, the bottom of my pants were soaked, and everyone's feet hurt. Cobblestone is pretty but not fun to walk on. We ended up taking this little train/trolley thing back to the Palace, and it's really too bad we didn't know about it before we walked all the way out there.

After that we did some more fabulous outdoor activities in the rain and went to Notre Dame and walked down the Champs-Elysees.

Notre Dame

A line to get into Louis Vuitton on the Champs-Elysees

By this time our feet were about to fall off, so we headed to the bus station. Our plan was to stop at the grocery store and get some cheap food for dinner and the ride back, but it turns out the grocery store is closed on Sunday. We went to the bus station, which is an outside station, and thankfully the mall it's right next to was open. We sat in there, but everything was closed, so two of us went out in search for food while the other two waited by all our things.

My friend and I ventured back outside and around a corner and found a little super market that was open. They had some chips that I wanted, but they were behind the counter, so I decided to talk to the guy in French. I tried really hard. He laughed at me. My friend told me she thought he appreciated my effort. I got the chips though.

Then the bus came and we headed back to London!