European Vacation {Day 4} – Versailles, France

We spent the entire day in Versailles today.   It was so, so hot when we arrived and the line was long and didn’t offer any shelter from the scorching sun.  We decided we would take shifts – one of us would wait in line and the other two would find some shade.  15 minutes later we’d switch.  Carly was gracious enough to let me take shelter under a shirt she fashionably tied around her waist.

The palace was beautiful albeit a bit crowded in some rooms.

Hall of Mirrors

When we headed outside in search of water the grounds were much less crowded and we were able to take a couple pictures.

The gardens were expansive and beautiful. 

We were grateful to find a little snack shop tucked away in the groves where I enjoyed my first French crepe of the trip.

As we were walking around the gardens I saw someone who I immediately knew I’d seen in a movie or TV show.  Not surprising, cause I’m terrible at names and I have a cruddy memory, it took me nearly two hours to finally figure out it was Melissa John Hart (most famous for her role as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch).  A celebrity sighting is always cool – this was even better cause we’re in the middle of France where likely few would know she was anything special.  She was a frazzled mom just trying to buy her kid a popscile on a hot day.

Paris offers free admission to most museums and points of interest for students so the girls got in free to most of the places we visited.  Including the Palace of Versailles.  We walked over to the Palaces of Trianon thinking my Versailles ticket would get me admission but it would be an additional $10 if I wanted to go in.  I was feeling a little palaced out so the girls went in alone.  I thought they’d only be 15-20 minutes, but I think they were in there over an hour.  When I saw how many pictures they’d taken it was obvious that they’d had some fun photo shoots while I waited outside.

We were so close (or so it seemed on the map) to the newly opened Paris temple that we walked, and walked, and walked AND walked {cue primary music} to explore the temples grounds and had a lovely, informative visit with the senior missionary couple serving there. A special, holy place to be (and we appreciated the AC and cold water).  There was so much opposition building this temple; however, since it’s been completed the community has really come to support the temple and it’s beautiful grounds in their community.

It was interesting to hear the story of the Christus standing in the garden plaza.  It clearly testifies that we are a Christian church.  This statue is an exact replica of the statue in the Salt Lake Visitors Center – both created from the original Thorvaldsen’s Christus statue in Copenhagen, Denmark {which we would see later on our vacation}.

I gifted the girls with an Uber ride to the train station, which closely resembled a 007 scene. Seriously those French drivers are insane.  Macarons and a shower were the perfect conclusion to our day.