Paris Day 2: Palace of Versailles (Damn Big!!), Moulin Rouge

Main Entrance to SC's friend's place (the place we r staying)

Got up early in the morning n bought a weekend ticket to Zone 4.. VErsailles is situated quite far away from Paris city centre
Entrance to Versailles

Black teenagers peddling souveniors.. some of them can get pretty annoying.. at nite around Eiffel Tower, they would peddle the same stuff.. those small glow in the dark Eiffel Towers.. n will keep on saying... "Bling Bling" Come get some "Bling Bling"..
Avoid them as much as possible unless u really wanna buy anything from them..

More pictures of Versailles..



The queue to get into the palace is crazy.. one can wait up to 20 minutes.. n as the palace consists of many parts.. u have to get separate entrance tickets for each part n queue up for them all over again.. so one have to queue to buy tickets n then queue to get in with yer tickets.. n thats only for say PArt A of the palace n the whole process repeats.. We took the easy way out.. for 15.50 Euro.. we get a ticket that will save us all the queuing n includes entrance to all parts of the palace as well as to other parts of the large garden which requires entrance tickets.. the Audio Guide is also included (it costs abt 4.50Euro if rented on its own).. very good deal despite being rather ex.. u have to get an audio guide or else u wont understand wat the hell is going on in the palace.. its very ncie but it would be more worth it if u noe wats going on..
The palace interior

Me with my audio guide in one of the many extravagant rooms in this palace..


The King's bedroom..

a preview of the hall of mirrors...


the actual Hall of Mirrors.. the most famous room of the Palace of Versailles..



Other parts of the palace..






There is a long hall with many many paintings hung on its side..

The palace itself took us abt close to 2 hours to finish.. now we r out of it, we decided to walk around the palace grounds.. its damn big.. in this picture, to walk to the end of the river takes abt 45 minutes..

there r other smaller buildings that housed other exhibits like Napoleon's house which takes abt 20 minutes to walk there from the palace.. there is a train available but it costs abt 3-5 Euros.. rather ex.. we decided to walk there instead..



At Grand Trianon.. after a long walk (abt 15 minutes)
This is Napoleon's apartment.. Its not as crowded here becos its rather far away from Versailles.. our 15.50 euro ticket covers this entrance as well..





Along the way to Petit Trianon.. there r some farms...

however after a 10 minute walk, we realised we went the wrong way.. all thks to LL, haha.. i was lazy n told her to lead the way.. but she got it wrong.. haha sigh.. gers cant read map.. (Proven!!) turns out Petit Trianon is just beside Grand Trianon.. bo bian loh, we walked back..
At Petit Trianon..



The Pavilion of Love..


We proceeded next to the Queen's Hamlet.. its almost 6pm liao.. but since we got the ticket n we came all the way here.. might as well.. wah... this Versailles palace took us almost the whole day.. anyway Queen's Hamlet is rather nice.. diff from all the palaces n stuff.. i tink the Queen or her ppl could have stayed here b4, thats why they kept this hamlet..



By the time we walked back, its rather late abt 7-8pm liao.. haha..we went back to the palace to take some more shots.. by rite, we r not allowed in but there was a function so the gate was open.. LL as usual, lost her gloves, so she decided to go back to the Lost n Found Department to look for her missing glove.. she couldnt find it so anyhow took one glove back.. she lost just one side of her gloves.. she said that when she enquired abt the glove, there is a whole box of gloves for her to choose from.. haha


We took a train back from Versailles to a station near the Eiffel Tower where SC's other friend is staying.. SC recommended this Kebab store which is rather cheap.. Kebab at 3.50 Euro.. very cheap liao by European standard..

luckily we arrived at the just rite time.. becos immediately after we ordered n settled down.. there was a large crowd queuing up..
After dinner, we proceeded to Sacred Heart church hoping to take pictures of its interior.. its very nice n unique.. n since we have the weekend ticket, might as well make use of it.. but unfortunately it was closed..
We proceeded to the Artists' Corner.. where LL was rather tempted to get a portrait of herself drawn.. some old woman came up to us n asked us if we wanna be drawn.. she quoted us a price of 50 Euros.. LL was very tempted but the price is too steep.. so she quoted her 15 Euros instead.. old woman thot for a while n accepted it..

Another artist drawing for another ger..

While the old lady is drawing a portrait of LL, a group of French teenagers gathered around us.. they asked me how much r we paying for the drawing.. they said the same old woman drew it for one of the gers for just 10 Euros.. when the drawing of LL was done.. the French teenagers pressured the old woman to charge LL just 10 Euros instead n she reluctantly agreed..
LL posing with the other ger whose portrait was also drawn by the same old woman..

There were only abt 4-5 artists at this Artists' Corner that nite.. LL felt that there will be more during the day.. so we decided to come again the next day..

Sacred Heart church was closed.. so we took some pictures outside it..



To me.. i tink the drawing doesnt really look like LL.. it looks more like Michael Jackson or Janet Jackson (as shown on the left).. just had the look of the Jacksons..






The funiculaire which we took up to Sacred Heart.. its smt like a tram lift.. we could use our weekend ticket to use this lift..

After taking some photos with the Sacred Heart church, we decided to go to the famous Moulin Rouge.. a Moulin Rouge show costs abt 70 Euros (according to SC) n its just a cabaret performance.. with naked gers dancing n singing..



After this, its around 11pm liao, we proceeded back home to Goncourt...
This Big M means there is a Metro downstairs..

These r the exit doors from the Metro.. there is a pressure sensitive mat near the door which will activate the opening of the doors..

as can be seen here, the 2 levels of barrier at the entrance..

The Metro station..

The streets around the place we lived in.. SC told us that this region used to be rather complicated.. but now it seems much better due to police around the region..
SC told us of some incidents of his friends being robbed at gunpoint.. he himself was almost being robbed once..