Anseth Family Adventures: Do you mind if I paint cherubs everywhere

Wednesday, June 22, 2022 seemed to start extra early for some reason. The routine is the same in the morning, up and on the bus. No packing up today, two nights in the same hotel is a glorious thing.

After getting organized we met our guide, Astrid at the hotel and began our bus tour of Paris. I will not put a lot of photos up from this as you can see these back at the beginning of this blog and none of the bus photos were satisfactory.

Astrid hit us hard with dates and fact all the up into the city.

The original Statue of Liberty on the river

Our bus finally came to a stop at this little cafe in Paris. It was time for butter croissants and hot chocolate

The hot chocolate 🍫….magnifquie

The current and future leaders sipping espressos and lattes and talking smart.

Museé de l’Armée. Was a military hospital and now is a military museum. This sits across from our coffee shop. The built was built in the 17th century.

Katie and Elise. Hawkeye nation!!!!

Katie and her dad. Where am I looking? What is wrong with me?!?!?!?!?!?

After the coffee shop we cruise around Paris, past the Louvre and the obelisk and finally down the Champs-Élysées, the main drag of Paris. We parked the bus near the Arc de Triomphe. We got of the bunch to grab a little lunch and some macarons from Ladurée. After achieving our primary objective: macarons and our secondary objective: lunch we were ready to get on the bus to visit the Palace at Versailles.

The Arc de Triomphe

The girls enjoying baguettes and the Arc de Triomphe

Our trip to the Palace of Versailles was almost disrupted because the French police force felt it was critically important to spend 15-30 minutes randomly inspecting our bus. Luckily our bus driver, Derek was well prepared and England again triumphed over France.

We made our way to Versailles. The plan was to split up in to two groups of roughly 18 a piece. The first group would explore the palace and then the gardens.

I am not sure anything can prepare you for the opulence of the Palace of Versailles. It was build by Louis the XIV and was continually improved and expanded by Louis the XV and Louis the XVI and was the de facto capital for some time.

One of the Louis loved the Greek god Apollo and so his iconography is seen throughout the palace and the grounds along with other mythological figures from Ancient Greece or Rome. I will do my list to label as appropriate but it was just so much.

The golden gates at Versailles

Royal Chapel

Ceiling in the Salon of Venus

Salon of Venus

Louis the XIV

Katie and Louis the XIV

Ceiling in the Salon of Apollo

Salon of Mercury

The Hall of Mirrors is so amazing.

The other end of the Hall of Mirrors. What are looking at kid? You better check yourself.

The queen’s bed chamber

Bust of Louis the XVI

Meal at the House of Simon the Pharisee.

Salon of Hercules

Salon of ????

Nellie and Katie in the courtyard at Versailles

Our crew in the courtyard at Versailles

Did you turn in your whisper?

Next we traveled to the grounds. Massive and amazing seem to be the only words that fit. Not a lot of caption here

Wow

Roses

Wow! Fountain

Katie and I. I am looking into the camera. Yeah me!!

A few sculptures that line the ponds

More sculptures

I found this area back in the gardens

Louis the XVI statue in front of Versailles

A selfie in front of the golden gates of Versailles

From here it was back to Paris for dinner. After dinner we walked over to the a Cathedral of Notre Dame. It is still under construction from the fire in 2019. Then we walked around the Latin Quarter for a bit. We stopped at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. Many years ago one of the dads on the trip stayed above the bookshop one night in exchange for board, JW need to provide 1 hours worth of work so he helped build a bookshelf. 30 years later he returns with in days of the bookshelf being remove for remodeling purposes. JW got his picture with the new owner and the bookshelf. Crazy how things work out.

Notre Dame

Protected for your safety

Old church near our cafe.

The Latin Quarter and Crepes

The setting sun on a Paris street.

We took Ubers over to the Eiffel Tower to watch it sparkle at 11. It was close but we made it. I am not sure if I inspired our driver given my soccer knowledge or if Elise did by dropping Drake in for the ride. Either way we all made it for “sparkle, sparkle”time.