Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2017 Paris, France - Day 4 - Versailles Palace, France LDS Temple and the Moulin Rouge.

April 11, 2017 - Versailles Palace, LDS Temple

Before I jump into today, a couple of interesting stories that occurred last night.

First, while buying tickets at the Eiffel Tower, the fellow in the kiosk asked where we were from. When we told him Utah, he responded saying his sister lived in Utah. We asked where...but he could not remember. So while selling the tickets to us, he called her! Made me laugh. Turns out his sister lives in Centerville. Small world.

Second, turns out we have some grocery stores nearby. We went in to one looking for some stuff. I wanted some low cal, low fat chocolate milk (does that exist?). They had everything but cold milk. Now, I found some stuff that said it was milk on the shelf not cold. I was going to buy some but Denise came over and told me it was baby formula. I said it was milk. She said it was impossible that milk had to be refrigerated. I don't know...it looked like milk to me. What is your vote?

I slept until 4:30 AM this morning and then stared at the ceiling until about 7 AM. Crazy...feeling it now. We got ready and headed out around 9 AM to the Palace at Versailles. We had to use a metro and catch the RER C train. It was pretty crowded. After landing in Versailles about 40 minutes later, we followed the crowd like good sheep to the palace. I could not believe what I saw. There were thousands of people there making a line that went about 250 yards 10 times! And it was going slowly. This was the line for those who had tickets! We did not. So we split up. Denise stayed in that line and I went to the ticket line. I was afraid that we would never see each other again! I stood in line for about 30 minutes when I noticed a 'Cash Machine' line. I wondered what the lines looked there. So I asked someone behind me if I could check it out and come back. When I got to the machines in the other room...no one was using them! So I thought, what the heck? I put in my credit card, selected 2 tickets and paid for them in about 30 seconds. I was amazed. I went back to my place in line and told people to use the machines if they have a card. Then I left.

As I left the ticket office, I looked out across the sea of humanity. I'd never find Denise in that. The line was like a snake...going down from the palace and back up towards the palace. It did this at least 10 times. I decided to go to the head of the snake and wait until Denise came to the head portion. It took about 30 minutes, but finally she showed up. She was mad and thought should have been walking the snake until I found her. No way was I doing that. But...we found each other. It took over 2 hours standing to finally get in the 1 set of double doors to get in that silly building. By then, I had lost interest and the desire to see anything was gone. But I pressed on with a smile on my face <not!>. The Palace was like most of that day. Pretty ornate with a lot of 'rich' overkill. I'm amazed in their ability to over do back then. Pretty similar today I suppose among the rich and famous.

After a couple of hours, we headed out of the palace to 'walk' to the new LDS Temple that is about to be dedicated later this month. I had taken a picture of a map showing how to get there. But it was not good. And as we started walking, we quickly knew we were in trouble. We were hungry. It seemed like it was a long ways away. We sat down at a bus stop hoping it would show a way there. But nothing. It was decision time...turn on my cell phone, pay $10 for the day to use it and then fetch Uber. We did just that. Worked like a champ. For 5 euro, we were there in 5 minutes. When we arrived at the temple, it sits right on the street. There is no fence that goes around like many. The temple doors go out to the street. But. There were people in suits standing on the street. It was VIP day at the temple and they were hosting folks of that status to come and see the temple. They fellow that saw us get out of the car, came over and asked if we had been invited which we had not. He then said that we could wait another 1.5 hours and we could get a tour. We said...that is kind of long and probably not. But we talked our way in to go see the grounds. As we did that, a young lady who was an usher came over and guided us to an information desk where they said a couple would come and take us through speaking English. It was Elder and Sister Woods from AZ. They are to direct the Temple Visitor center there and had only been in Versailles two weeks. He was a former Mission President of the Baton Rouge, LA mission in the states.

The temple is BEAUTIFUL. The stained glass in there was amazing. Represents the beauty of France very well. I'm sure this gift to the Lord will be well accepted by Him and greatly used by his children in this part of His vineyard.

In the garden area, a Christus that is an exact match of the one in Denmark stands. It is wonderfully done. It is so beautiful standing there. The young lady told us that the day it arrived, the locals upon first seeing it said that the Mormons brought Christ there. They were right!

After seeing the temple, the Woods had a young lady that they were taking to the train station. They asked us if we wanted a ride. We said sure. I hope this guy is a good Visitor Center Director...better than he can drive a clutch car. I now have whiplash as a result of his crazy driving! :-)

We made it back to the hotel around 6 pm. We quickly ran and got some food. We were starving as we had not eaten since our bakery run before leaving for the day. We ended up in a Diner just down from our hotel. It was ok. Pretty overpriced. But we were fed burgers, fish and chips. We came back to the hotel. I quickly listed us on flights for tomorrow and packed a bit. Denise did some packing too. Then, with a number of metro tickets in our hand, we decided to run take some pictures of the Devils workshop... The Moulin Rouge for our daughter Ashley. It was easy to find. It was in a fairly seedy area. We came up out of the metro. It was right there. We snapped some pictures. And then headed back into the metro and back to our hotel. I think we did the round trip thing in about 50 minutes.

Well, our trip is complete. Off to the airport tomorrow we will go. I will not blog again for this trip unless something really crazy happens. I hope it doesn't. It has been a great trip. Really fast for a place like Paris. It is SOOOO big with SOOOO much to see. We'll have to come again.

Pictures:

Our hotel...it was small, but nice. Well located.

Sheep following each other to the palace....

The crowds weaving like a snake trying to get in....

The single little door where the thousands entered...crazy!

Palace golden gates....

Us in front of the palace...

Lots of art about Marie Antoinette and King Louis XIV....

The mirror room. This one was pretty....

The grounds were beautiful....and huge!

This is the part of the temple facing the street. The entrance doors are in the lower left hand corner down the street. We entered by the Visitors Center.