Day 8

In the morning we ate breakfast at the hotel (it was the same as everywhere else) and then took the bus to Versailles.

Versailles is HUGE. And we only were given a few hours to see it all. The Palace itself is only about 1/10 of the total size of Versailles. Most of it consists of gardens in the back. We started in the palace with a audio guide tour, and then were allowed to go outside and look around. I wish i hadn't spent so much time inside, bc the gardens were really cool. It probably looks even sweeter in the spring/summer time.

Outside Front:

Inside Tour:

Each room we went in had a different theme that was centered around a greek/roman god. I don't remember what one this is (they all started to blend together).

The Hall of Mirrors

Outside Tour:

After the tour, we all met outside and then went to lunch. Most of us ate a McDonald's bc it was the closest place, and we were in a little bit of a hurry.

Next we drove back to the Fiap Hotel (the same one we stayed at before) and dropped off our stuff. We then took the metro to an old chapel and jail. I didn't think either of these places were super interesting. The jail was famous for holding Marie Antoinette. We were supposed to see this earlier in the trip, but it was closed bc of the ice.

Cathedral:

Jail (it took me about 10 minutes to go through the whole thing. It was pretty boring.) They had a good amount of mannequins representing prisoners.

After visiting the Jail, we were given the rest of the day off. We all decided to go to the modern art museum called, Musee Dorsee. I wasn't actually that interested in this, and my tour of the museum was quicker than everyone elses. When it comes to art, i just wanted to find something i recognized, and there wasn't anything there that i knew. Because of this, i do not have any pictures of the museum. (sorry to those of you who are art fans).

After our whirlwind tour of the art museum, i broke off with a group to go back to the Arc de Triumph to take a picture of Paris at night. It was pretty cool. The lights made it hard to take clear pictures.

We went back to the hotel for a free dinner, which was probably not that great (they usually weren't, but it was free). Then we took the metro back out to the Eiffel tower to get a closer picture of it at night. At night, the Eiffel Tower would sparkle (or shimmer, if you like) every hour for about 4 or 5 minutes. It was hard to capture in a picture, but it was really cool.

That last 4 pictures are when the Tower was sparkling (in case you couldn't tell).
After the tower, we went back to the hotel and played some Euchre. Then we went to bed.