Paris, Day 5- Palace of Versailles!

Hey guys!

Day Five of our amazing Paris anniversary trip was actually spent outside of Paris proper.  We got up quite early and purchased special train tickets to travel out to the town of Versailles, which is home to the opulent palace of the same name.  In addition to being an awe inspiring as a piece of architecture and a symbol of absolute monarchy, its also amazing to look at in terms of the French Revolution its existence helped to inspire. 

The complex has a long and storied history.  It has been a hunting lodge, the royal residence, several different museums, a hospital for wounded soldiers, 

Paris Day 4- Hemmingway Tour!



Hey guys!

 

Day Four of our Paris anniversary trip was also shaped by the guidebook we'd bought for the trip.  One of my big worries about this trip was that we would wind up doing more stuff that I like and not a lot of stuff for Hubby.  I adored Paris when I was lucky enough to visit after I graduated from high school and I had a very long list of things that I wanted to do.   I was worried that Hubby would sort of wind up following me around as I did those things, so I worked very hard to try to find things that were more for him.

 

One of his favorites (besides Napoleon's Tomb), straight out of out of our travel book, was a walking tour of places where Ernest Hemmingway lived, worked, and visited in Paris.  Hubby is a huge Hemmingway fan and actually had the opportunity to visit where he lived in Key West while he was there for work several years ago.  Yes, with the six-toed cats!

 

Most of the tour took place in the Left Bank and included three separate places where he lived.  They are still private residences, but they had small plaques on the buildings noting when he had lived there and some of the things he had done at the time.  Here are some of the places where we stopped:

 

Paris Day 3- Mont Martre Tour!

Hey Guys,

Continuing with our Paris anniversary trip re-cap, we spent Day 3 in Mont Martre.  This artsy neighborhood is perched on top of a hill, providing AMAZING views of the rest of Paris.  I remember it being one of my favorite parts of Paris when I went after my high school graduation, so I was really looking forward to visiting it again, and it did not disappoint!

This was the first day that we ventured into the Paris Metro system  It's actually quite wonderful.  Even without speaking much of the language, it was easy to use, punctual, inexpensive, bright, clean, and felt very safe.