Contiki Chronicles, Day 3: Versailles and the tomb of the Emperor

Enter day three. The plan for today was to take a drive down to the palace at Versailles and the attached village, wonder around there for a while, before going back into Paris for the second free day. There were also some optional activities in the evening which were pretty fun.

Now, remember when I said that the Louvre was big? That was because it used to be the French Royal Palace, and the French Royalty liked big stuff. Which is why Louis XIV decided it wasn't big enough. He ordered a newer palace to be built outside Paris, on top of a Royal hunting lodge near the village of Versailles. And let me tell you, that place is MASSIVE. Here are some photos:

Like I said, massive. It has a floor area of something like 67,000 square metres. and over 2,000 rooms. And that is where the French Royal Family lived. Until, of course, the French Revolution came along and fucked them all over. Some time after that, it was reopened as a museum, and that is why it's such a huge tourist destination, and why the town fills up every day, and empties out every night. Take a look:

I don't know if you can see it, but that first photo shows the ticket office all the way in the distance.

That second photo shows the end of the line.

Naturally, I didn't go in, but instead just took photos from the outside. I've already been in one time before, and it's all hopelessly over the top and ridiculously expensive-looking.

So, we hade lunch at a conveniently located McDonalds, and before long were on our way back to Paris.

Now. Nobody who goes to Paris leaves without seeing this. It's the most visited paid monument in the world. At the time of it's building, it was the tallest structure in the world. It was also one of the most mathematically perfect structures ever built. What is it?

If you said the Eiffel Tower, you'd be wrong.

Okay, kidding. It was the Eiffel Tower. Standing at 324m tall, the Eiffel Tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel (funny, that) for the 1889 World Fair, for which it stood as the entrance arch. Funnily enough, when it was first built, it was criticised heavily by the artistic community of Paris, who said it was an eyesore. Oh well, they grew to love it in the end. Or something. Another interesting thing about it is that it was never meant to be a permanent fixture. It was only meant to stay up for 20 years, after which ownership would revert back to the City of Paris, and they would tear it down. However, it turned out to be quite useful as a broadcasting tower, and was allowed to stay up. A good thing, too - the Tower received its 2,000,000th visitor in 2002, and it is the most visited paid monument in the world. This is what it looks like from the bottom.

You can pay to climb up to the top, as well, and as you do, the views only get more spectacular.

Those are three photos, taken from the first, second, and third floors, respectively. As you can see, it gets pretty damn high. Do you need a bit more of perspective? Do you remember the Arc de Triomphe yesterday? It was pretty big, right?

Nope:

Oh, and what about that spire in the Place de la Concorde? 23m is fairly high, isn't it?

Also nope:

...Oh? You can't see it? Let's zoom in more, then.

That's at 16x zoom. So yeah, the Eiffel Tower is pretty big. And you get a pretty awesome view of Paris from the top, including this, which seems to be advertising targeted solely at people climbing the Tower:

I mean, who the hell else is going to see that? The birds? Passenger planes? I just found that kinda funny, is all.

Anyway, I then headed back down the tower and was on my way to my next destination: Église du Dôme, which is down the back of Les Invalides, which also house the Musée de l'Armée. That is to say, I was going to go to the old veteran's retirement home, which also house the Army Museum, and down the back is Église du Dôme, which contains.... Napoleon's Tomb.

Now, Napoleon did some pretty amazing things in his life. First of all, after being put in charge of an army that had never seen victory, he not only crushed his enemies, but in doing so, won their adulation and loyalty... which he then used to lead a military coup in Paris, which was still under somewhat questionable leadership in the aftermath of the French Revolution. During the course of his life, he set himself up as the Emperor of France, forced the Pope into declaring him the Holy Roman Emperor, won some stupid number of wars, crushed five coalitions of nations against him, created the Napoleonic Code, which is the basis of the French constitution, and invaded Russia, even going so far as burning Moscow to the ground. It was there that his career met it's turning point, though - the Russian scorched earth tactics left Napoleon's army to the harsh Russian Winter, and on the retreat back to Paris. The Russian cossacks harassed the French forces, and by the time Napoleon limped back into Paris, his original army of over 600,000 men was reduced to less than 25,000 men. That kinda goes to show you, taking on the Russians is never a good idea.

His story doesn't end there though. Seeing his weakened state, the Sixth Coalition was formed to take down Napoleon, and in shame, he surrendered without a fight. He was exiled to the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy. However, he escaped less than a year later, and returned to Paris. The governing body there sent Napoleon's old army to capture him, but instead they supported him, and Napoleon again led them to seize control of the country. Other countries then tried to take him down again, and he was eventually defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. After that, Napoleon was exiled not to the comparatively nearby Elba, but instead to Saint Helena, about 1,870km off the coast of Africa. That was where he lived out his last years and died.

This is his tomb:

His Tomb is designed on two levels, such that it's only possible to look up to him, or look down upon him, but never as an equal. The tomb is ringed by a dozen angels, each of whom seems to be wielding a different assortment of items. In fact, I actually found these angels to be more interesting than the tomb.

This one seemed to be holding some kind of flying croissant:

This one had a baseball cap on:

And this one had what appeared to be the world's bluntest sword:

While this one had a vuvuzela:

There was another one which seemed to have a cow pat on its head, but I didn't get a picture of that somehow.

Anyway, after looking around in there, I headed outside. Just near the exit, there was a small souvenir stand, selling classic Napoleon/France-related things, like decks of cards, pencils, fake replica pistols... Oh. And batteries. Made in Germany:

I found that pretty funny. Anyway, I was soon on my way out, and after having a brief look through the Army Museum, I headed back to the pick-up point and awaited the bus.

That evening, there were two optional activities (that is, activities which were organised by the tour company, but you had to pay extra for if you wanted to go on them). They were a dinner at this incredible restaurant, where I had the most mouthgasmic Duck à l'orange you have ever tasted, and an... interesting Burlesque show. We were given free wine at the restaurant and free champagne at the show, and this made for a pretty good night, for our last night in Paris.

Day 4 is coming up next, but I'll warn you now that it's not particularly interesting. See you then anyway.