They Say All Good Things Must Come to An End!

Well, it is time for me to go home!  I've had a wonderful time and so glad I took this time to see new places and meet new people.  Thank you for reading my blog....I mainly wrote it for my family, but decided to share it on FB for anyone else who was interested.  The blogs will be much fewer now that I'm going home to Virginia.  My busy Victory Lap continues....I'm going to Arkansas for about 12 days soon.  We will celebrate Wilson's 10th birthday and my son John and his boys, Eli and Wilson are riding back with me to the Outer Banks to my beach house.  All my children and grandchildren will be spending a week together having fun in the sun!  It's been a couple of years since we have all been together and I am really looking forward to it!

I've been in England for a little over 4 weeks and Paris just for 4 days.  I really enjoyed Paris and seeing all the 'famous' sights, but I dearly love England.  It is a beautiful country, so clean and green....probably because it rains so much!  There are flowers everywhere and the most beautiful gardens.  My very favorite place was Cornwall.  The amazing cliffs and rocky sea coasts are breathtaking.  The history is so rich here and since three out of four of my grandparents can be traced back to England (the fourth is Wales), it definitely has a special place in my heart.  My favorite places in Paris were the Eiffel Tower and the Seine that flows all through the city.  Here is my official picture from my dinner at the 58 Tour de Eiffel restaurant!

Janie, Mary and Paolo are picking me up at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C.  I will be glad to see them!

On my last full day in London, I took the tube downtown and just walked around.  I've been watching Mr. Selfridge on Masterpiece Theatre about an American that started the first department store in London.  My grandson, Paolo, has watched it with me and wanted me to get him a present from Selfridges.  It is an enormous, unbelievable store!  There were 4 floors and took up an entire city block.  They always have amazing window displays which I'm sure was a precursor of Macy's.

Selfridge&Co.

I walked in Hyde Park (gorgeous), Kensington Gardens and saw Kensington Palace.  William and Kate are in Sandringham with George and Charlotte!

Kensington Palace

My final trek was to Abbey Road to see the famous zebra crossing where the Beatles album cover was photographed in front of Abbey Road Studios!

 Taken by a bystander for me!

Taken from the Abbey Road WebCam

My flight home was uneventful....I watched 3 movies!  'The Imitation Game', 'The Theory of Everything' and 'Wild'.  I arrived at Dulles to my sweet family!

I feel so blessed to have been able to take this trip.....

Back to London on the Eurostar

I am back in London for a couple of days before heading back to the grand USA and Virginia!  I will spend the next couple of days doing some London sightseeing that I didn't get to see when I was here in 2011.

Here is the rest of my trip to Paris.......

Thursday, I went to Versailles to see the Palais of Versailles.  It was amazing.  I took over 100 pictures inside the palace and in the gardens.  Every inch of the building is covered with paintings and ornate design.  

Entrance to Palais de Versailles

Palais de Versailles

King Louis XIII

Louis XIII first built a hunting lodge at Versailles but it was ridiculed to be too small.  He then commissioned his architect to build a vast lordly residence, it was still far from royal.  It remained unchanged until his death in 1643.  It was by chance that the future Louis XIV discovered Versailles for the first time in 1641.  He and his brother were sent there to escape a smallpox epidemic.  He returned to Paris 10 years later as the King.  He loved Versailles and although Louis XIII had a hunting lodge with its own gardens , it was Louis XIV who truly created Versailles.

King Louis XIV

In an absolute monarchy, all power comes from the King.  In Versailles, Louis XIV was Master of his own house just as he was Master of the kingdom that he governed.  He made Versailles the seat of the affairs of government where he dispensed favors:  land, titles, pensions, etc.  Life there was founded on prestige and appearances; luxury compulsory, life extravagant.  The number of servants assembled in the King's House had to be the greatest and his Court had to be attended by the most people;  between 3,000 and 10,000 courtiers, depending on the day.  On the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the court left Versailles for Paris.    Until Louis XV was able to rule, the palace suffered from lack of care.  Louis XV and Louis XVI were both burdened with this heritage and were required to reproduce the same customs as their forefather.  The Revolution emptied the Chateau of its furnishings but spared the building itself. All of the art went to the Louvre and the furniture was sold.  After years of neglect it was first restored by Napoleon I, and then by Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X, both brothers of Louis XVI.  It was no longer the seat of government and nobody knew what to do with it, even demolition was considered.  It was ultimately saved by King Louis-Philippe and opened in 1837 as a monument to France's history.

Here are some pictures of the interior:

 Ceiling of The Mars Drawing Room

The Abundance Drawing Room

 Ceiling of The Diana Drawing Room

 The Grand Gallery 

- my picture - the next one is a wiki pic which does the room justice!

 The Grand Gallery (wikipedia)

 The Chapel

The Opera

The Coronation Room with a painting by Jacques Louis David of the Coronation of Emperor Napoleon I and of Josephine at Notre-Dame de Paris, 2 December 1804, 1808.

 Bedchamber for Louis XIV, XV, and XVI

The Queen's Bedchamber

It was in this room, in public, that the Queen gave birth to the heirs for the throne.  In her Memoirs, Madame Campan, who was Marie-Antoinette's First Woman of the Bedchamber, described what such a birth could be like:  "the moment that Vermont the accoucheur announced 'The Queen is about to give birth', the crowds of spectators who rushed into her room were so numerous and disorderly that one thought the Queen would perish....Two Savoyards got up on the furniture the more easily to see the Queen, who was facing the fireplace on a bed got ready for her labour".....  The births of my four children seem very calm in retrospect!!!  An accoucheur is a male-midwife.  A Savoyard is someone from Savoy!

The Queen's Bed

Marie-Antoinette of Lorraine-Habsbourg, Queen of France and her children, 1789

 The South Parterre

 - Its arrangement of box trees is landscaped in arabesques beneath the windows of the Queen's apartment 

The South Parterre close up (Wikipedia)

The Orangeries and the Pond of Swiss 

- is tucked away on a level below the Chateau.  It houses 1,080 delicate trees, all of which are planted in boxes:  orange trees from Portugal and Italy, lemon trees and pomegranate trees (some of which are over 200 years old), oleanders, and palm trees.  The trees produce little fruit since they are pruned into a decorative spherical form

Back in Paris, I walked down the Champs Elysees and saw this mime!

The Eiffel Tower at night 

The Seine at night

Back to London......

Guess Where I'm Going???

I'll give you a hint....Chunnel!  Yessiree....I'm taking the train through the Chunnel to Paris!  Paris!!  The City of Lights!  I'm so excited!  I'm doing a bus tour of Paris for 2 days and hopefully a side trip to Versailles before I go back to London.  I am staying in an adorable B&B in the heart of Paris.  I am pinching myself to see if this is real.

The Channel Tunnel (Le tunnel sous la Manche) also referred to as the Chunnel is a 31.4 mile rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent with Coquilles, Pas-de-Calais beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover.  At its lowest point, it is 250 feet deep.  The top speed in the tunnel is 99 mph.  The Eurotunnel, began construction in 1988 and opened in 1994 and at £4.650 billion (dollars???), the project came in 80% over its predicted budget!!!  The idea for a link of England and France appeared as early as 1802, so after 192 years of project discussion, the task was completed.  I wish the early pioneers and planners of this could see the finished product....wouldn't that be something?

Here is an on-line picture from the National Railway Museum in York of a cross-section of one side of the constructed train tunnel and the train that travels inside.  They also have special cars to transport automobiles.

Tunnel train

I got up early this morning in Colchester and left for London.  The traffic was very bad on the way through London so I was glad I left early.  I went to the B&B that I will be staying in when I get back from Paris so that I could leave my car there.  It was a short walk to the subway (the tube!), except it was raining.  I only had to change trains once and then I arrived at the International Station for my trip.  I had a quick lunch and then settled in my seat on the train.  The trip took about 2 hours.

When I got to Paris, it was rush hour, although I have heard from my cousin, Catherine, who lived in Paris that it's always rush hour.  I took a taxi to my B&B and followed all the instructions from my host to get in the building and find the key to his 6th floor walk-up!  I realized after I got settled that it is a one bedroom apartment and the host doesn't live here....I have the place to myself!  Awesome.  I will start exploring tomorrow!!

My Apartment

Tuesday, I started my Hop-On Hop-Off L'open Tour of Paris.  There are four routes and I think I can only get two done today!  

Precious little boy trying to figure out the map!

I saw so many beautiful buildings today, I had a hard time remembering which one was what!!  Here are the highlights:

The Locks of Love on the Pont Neuf Bridge over the Seine

Lovers go to the bridge and place a lock on the chain link fence and throw the key in the Seine.....

The Moulin Rouge

The Champs Elysees

The Arc de Triomphe  

The Arc de Triomphe honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces.  Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI.

The Louvre

The Louvre is one of the world's largest museums that is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century.  In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre as a place to display the royal collection of arts.  The most famous piece of art is the Mona Lisa.

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame

Notre-Dame is a historic Catholic cathedral in Paris and is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.  In the 1790's, the cathedral suffered desecration during the French Revolution.  An extensive restoration began in 1845.

The River Seine

And last but not least.....the Eiffel Tower!

That is almost a postcard picture!! Named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, it was built in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair.  It is now the symbol of Paris.  I treated myself to dinner in the 58 Tour Eiffel Restaurant and it was so special.

 Menu

 View from my table-The Palais de Chaillot

Inside the restaurant

Wednesday, I completed the bus tour with the last two routes:

Assemblée Nationale

The Assemblée Nationale is where the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic is located.  

Place de la Bastille

 A statue is in the Place de la Bastille where the famous Bastille once stood.  The Bastille was a fortress in Paris that played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France.  Louis XIV used it as a prison for upper-class members of French society who had opposed or angered him.  It became a symbol of fear wielded by the crown and state against the ordinary people, although the prison cells were actually not dungeons but rooms fit for "gentlemen".  Prisoners were able to be incarcerated with their own furniture, clothes, books and servants and they could entertain visitors.  The tour guide said that it was so corrupt that when a new prisoner was brought in, the guards were blind-folded so they would not be able to identify the prisoner and use the information to bribe his family.  That most famous prisoner was the Marquis de Sade and 'The Man in the Iron Mask".  It was stormed by a crowd on July 14, 1789 in the French Revolution, demolished and replaced by the Place de la Bastille.

Biblioteque Nationale France

The national library was expanded in July of 1988 by President Francois Mitterrand and is called the BNF, but is being renamed in honor of Mitterrand.  All four buildings house millions of books!

Tour boat on the Seine

Lunch at a Brasserie

Crepes for dessert

 A peek at 'The Thinker' in the gardens at the Rodin Museum

Palais de Luxembourg

Palais de Luxembourg was originally built in 1615 to be the royal residence of Marie de Medici, mother of Louis XIII of France.  It is now a legislative building and is the seat of the French Senate of the Fifth Republic.

The  Church of Les Invalides

The Church of Les Invalides is part of a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans. 

Paris Opera House (Palais Garnier)

Palais Garnier is probably the most famous opera house in the world, partly due to its use as the setting for the 1910 novel, The Phantom of the Opera, and the adaptation in film and on stage of the musical.

Bercy Arena (wikipedia)

Bercy Arena is an indoor sports arena and concert hall.  It is noted by its pyramidal shape and its walls covered with sloping lawn.  Many famous bands and singers have held concerts here as well as American football games, car races (the top has to be opened because of the fumes), skiing competitions and lots of other events.  

More to come......