"Don't anger the dolls"-A France and DLP Trip, June '18-COMPLETED (4/22-ride comparisons)

Yay for surprise DLP morning! Literally ANYTHING for Hyperspace Mountain and DLP's looks FANTASTIC. That whole launch sequence alone, WOW. I'd definitely like to ride that one day.

Omg, I am now OBSESSED with this whole Pirates v. Princesses thing. I know it's over and I saw pics of it through my DLP friends on Insta and Twitter, but this is my first time watching a vid and OMG I NEEDED TO SEE IT! I felt so conflicted watching both stage performances but tbh I'm Team Princess through and through. My gurls were SLAYYYYINNNNGGG ITTTTTT Peter can do as many flips as he wants but Princess Power... that hit me in the feels. Also, their outfits like... can we bring those to WDW and let all the princesses wear those dresses for Festival of Fantasy and maybe give Anna and Elsa a makeover too? Again, OBSESSED.

I NEED TO GET DLP, THE END. But I'm so blessed to live vicariously through you in the moment, but JEALOUS.
 
Omg, I am now OBSESSED with this whole Pirates v. Princesses thing. I know it's over and I saw pics of it through my DLP friends on Insta and Twitter, but this is my first time watching a vid and OMG I NEEDED TO SEE IT! I felt so conflicted watching both stage performances but tbh I'm Team Princess through and through. My gurls were SLAYYYYINNNNGGG ITTTTTT Peter can do as many flips as he wants but Princess Power... that hit me in the feels. Also, their outfits like... can we bring those to WDW and let all the princesses wear those dresses for Festival of Fantasy and maybe give Anna and Elsa a makeover too? Again, OBSESSED.
I knew you’d love it! Didn’t I say you were going to pass out with excitement!!
 
I loved hyperspace mountain!! I actually loved every ride in DLP better than the WDW counterpart. Probably because it was new but they still just seemed better!

I'm glad you were able to see everything on your list for that day!! You got a lot done for a short visit!

Also, I loved the RER to DLP, it felt like the polar express to Disney!
 


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I may have shouted, "Lorelai! Renoir Girl!" when I saw this...:rolleyes1


Ahh! Postcard!


I'd be trying to find the secret room and blast off like in Tomorrowland, lol


Yes!!


This is one of my favorite castles. This and Shanghai are hard for me to choose from as ultimate favorite.


Oh my gosh, this is CUTE!


Love the daisy Mickey...also the Cinderella sass going on here. Moana is just awesome always.

(I think the inspiration was as if kids themselves were drawing everyone).

I LOVE this


I want the aristocats represented more at WDW. Not just Marie on every single souvenir in France, I want the whole gang. I love this faux-piary (good name!)


This is so much better than the lame-o Mary topiary they have at the Grand Floridian. This is gorgeous!!

Ok, I got way behind so did a quick trip through and didn't say as much about the museums as I ordinarily would. I love art museums, and the Louvre is the holy grail for me. I could spend a whole day there.
I'm just loving all the Paris pictures and living through your TR!!
 
Thanks for all the detailed reviews and pictures. That's great you got to do a mini morning at DLP!
 
What an awesome, whirlwind way to spend a couple of hours! Hyperspace Mountain looks amazing. I hope whatever they're making in DHS is half as good. That Princesses vs Pirates show looks like so much fun!
 


Oh, it's all giving me goosebumps!! Love all the bright brilliant colors and Princess dresses. Faux-piaries--LOVE!

What a fantastic idea to give yourself this morning to take in some DLP time. You're a genius.
 
Lesley, hi! :wave: I just read your intro, but I'll be back to read the rest. Can't wait to hear all the details of your trip. So great to meet you! :goodvibes
 
All caught up! I love reading about your experiences - many of the same places we visited, but very different experiences!

This was the one I was most disappointed to miss when the fountains were active. This was the last grove to be finished and was designed as an amphitheatre of greenery. There originally was an island in the center, connected with some small bridges, but that was removed in 1707. Truly gorgeous, and I could totally imagine dancing in there!

In the summers, they also do Saturday masquerade balls and fireworks, as well as the fountains going off in evening! I would have loved to see that, but it just didn’t work in our schedule!

We finished our trip at Versailles and had tickets to the nighttime fountain and fireworks show - and it happened to be a masquerade ball night. So, here's the dancing in front of the fountain you missed:

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All caught up! I love reading about your experiences - many of the same places we visited, but very different experiences!





We finished our trip at Versailles and had tickets to the nighttime fountain and fireworks show - and it happened to be a masquerade ball night. So, here's the dancing in front of the fountain you missed:

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Yeah I remember seeing Marc’s Facebook photos and being sooo jealous!!!
 
Yeah I remember seeing Marc’s Facebook photos and being sooo jealous!!!
It was really amazing being there that night! Wish you could have seen it like that too, but you likely covered more ground than we did and saw so much!
 
Yet again, I have to apologize for my tardiness! But here is the rest of the day and I will try to get things going faster...

Day 5, Architecture, Disappointment, Surprise, and Aligot!

Ok, here is the map to help orient you for my actual Paris sightseeing!

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After hopping on the train, I used Google maps to figure out the best route to my next stop. I realized the transfer from RER to metro would be at the Arc de Triomphe stop, so I decided rather than just change trains, I’d go “up top” and see the Arc again (though I didn’t plan on going up to the top, as I did that in high school and I didn’t feel like hiking up all those stairs). Of course… I didn’t quite calculate that transferring trains was right next to each other, while going up to Arc was very far away! Anyways, I made it up and realized they had actually closed off the Arc from tourists. I don’t know if there was a strike or some other reason, but you could only see from across street.

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I used Google maps to check which metro line I needed to get, but I misread the map and thought I needed to enter from a different spot than where I came out, so I started walking around to the other side of the Arc. Of course, lights are timed for cars not people, so at every intersection I had to wait for walk signal! Finally made it to the spot and I was like – where’s the metro entrance? Didn’t realize google maps was showing the station location…underneath me! So, I would have needed to walk all the way back around, and I was exhausted. But I did another google map search and realized though that there was a bus a block away I could take, which I did.

I headed down towards Trocadero to visit the Cite de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (Architecture museum).

Cite de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine

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The actual museum was extremely quiet and empty and I only ran into a few other people in the entire place! It is located in the Palais de Chaillot (Trocadero), which is across the river from the Eiffel Tower. (it’s the rounded building on the right; the left side is the Anthropology museum, which I considered visiting, but wasn’t included in the Museum Pass).

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The actual museum has several areas. On the ground floor are casts of monumental French architecture from the 12th – 18th centuries. So basically they made reproductions of a lot of cathedral decorations. It is definitely cool how detailed they could get! The casts were started in the 1800s and the guy who came up with the idea hoped to be able to give people a way to compare French works with sculptures from Antiquity and other countries. In the mid 1900s, the museum director decided to reorganize it to focus entirely on French works, and he also restored a lot of them. But because a lot of the casts were taken pre-1900, they show the original form of these pieces before they could be destroyed, damaged, or worn down by time! It was interesting to see the progression of French architecture, as they grouped things from different time periods; but I think it also could have been cool to compare the French and other countries too.

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While all the descriptions were in French (and also showed where in France the actual pieces were located), they had English language cards you could pick up in each room.

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And a hands-on exhibit where you could see how they did the casts.

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While I was walking around I found a window and saw the water cannons were going off in the fountain, which was pretty cool!

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In another area of the museum they have copies of murals and stained glass from French churches. I swear I couldn’t find the stained glass though (the elevator and stairs were weird and had a lot of half floors, so despite being a small museum, I got pretty turned around).

And on the upper floor they have models of French and international architecture, focusing more on modern styles.

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Can anyone doubt my favorite – the Moulin de la chocolaterie Menier!

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Overall it was an interesting museum, but not one of my favorites. I don’t think it was bad and if you are into architecture you’d probably like it. It is included with the Museum Pass though.

 
After heading out, I made a quick stop at a crepe stand to get a snack (Crepe Sucre). Pretty good, though at the end it was a syrupy mess, so I was happy to have some water to rinse my hand with!

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Croissants: 3, Crepes: 5


I admired the Trocadero fountains, which have a great view of the Eiffel Tower. I’ve heard that spot is one of the best to see the light show at night.

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I decided to go ahead and walk to my next planned place to visit and took the route along the Seine (though I didn’t take the route down next to the water, because with my luck, I’d fall in!). I did have a bit of a heart-pounding moment when I almost got hit by a motorcycle (though this time it was totally my fault as I was jay-walking and thought it was a one-way street…oops!).

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I did notice this monument but was getting tired and decided not to cross the street to see it. Though I regretted that later, as I looked it up and turns out it was the Flamme de la Liberte, which is a full-sized, gold-leaf-covered replica of the Statue of Liberty torch. But more importantly, it has also become an unofficial monument for Princess Diana, as it is above the tunnel where the car crashed that took her life.

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At one point along the walk, I did end up hopping on a bus heading down the same road! It was very nice having that week pass as I could almost create my own hop on-hop off bus tour!


But I finally ended up at my ultimate location, the Grand Palais.

Grand Palais

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The Grand Palais is a large historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex. It is known for having a huge glass vault with a large glass roof. You can easily see it in this photo taken from the Eiffel tower.


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The huge hall was what I really wanted to see, and you can imagine why. It often hosts huge fashion shows or art exhibitions.


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And that would have been super cool to see… if I had gotten to see it…

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I first couldn’t get in using the main doors as they were locked. Ok, must need to go in through a side door. I found my way to an exhibit I had seen advertised about Artist Robots, which I thought could be super cool, so I did end up paying to see that. (It ended up being more about technology and computer programming in art, rather than actual robots.)


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But this thing was just freaky (yes it looks like a real person but it is an animatronic)

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It was interesting to be sure, but I realized at the end it was a self-contained area, so no access to the grand hall.

I tried going around to the other side and finally talked to a security guard. Turns out the grand hall is not open! Only if there have a special exhibition or event! WHAT! (I think you may be able to take private tours, but am not certain.)

I was honestly really disappointed! Everytime we had passed the building I could see that glass roof and was looking forward to getting into the hall. Only to realize that I wasn’t going to be able to see it. That disappointment, combined with exhaustion and hunger made me just need to take a break. Luckily there was a quiet park area right there and I found a bench in the shade where I could just sit and just be upset…

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I had considered just giving up that day, but I knew the next was our last full day in Paris, and there was still other things I wanted to see. So, I decided, no – I need to pull it together and try to enjoy what I could see.

After getting that out of my system, I decided to continue on with my solo tour of Paris. (I did end up deciding to skip the Palais de la Decouverte – science museum, which is part of the Grand Palais, but still doesn’t include the great hall. And also skipped the Petit Palais across the street which has more art.)

Because I was pretty dead on my feet, I thought I’d avoid walking as much as possible and took the metro (there was an entrance in the little park I was sitting in). Of course, I didn’t quite think about it, as it was only 1 stop away, and with all the stairs and walking down corridors, it probably would have been less effort to just walk!

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Musee de l’Orangerie

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My next stop was the Musee de l’Orangerie. This is the home of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings (located right across the river from the Musee d’Orsay). The building was originally built in 1852 to be used to shelter the orange trees of the garden of the Tuileries. It ended up being used as a small museum over time.


But in 1927, it became home to its most famous resident: Monet’s Water Lillies!

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So in 1921, Claude Monet decided to donate his water lilly paintings to the French government as a monument to the end of World War I. Originally they were going to go to an existing museum, but another artist friend recommended the Orangerie, as it was empty. He designed special oval rooms for the display of the paintings, incorporating natural light, plain walls, and little interior decoration. The paintings themselves are actually glued directly to the walls of the rooms!


And really, pictures don’t do justice how awe-inspiring the display is. These paintings are huge! The whole painting series is over 250 oil paintings, but the eight murals displayed here are the largest. The oval rooms are also designed in a figure 8 layout, so you are naturally encouraged to proceed along a route that follows cycle of light during the day. (I took photos out of order though, so don’t quite remember which way it goes)

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My best attempt at a panorama

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It is really cool to get up that close to these paintings and see the brush strokes

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The museum also has some more works of art on the bottom levels, including some from my favorite, Renoir (and yes, this is a similar painting to the one in the Musee D’Orsay)

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The Orangerie definitely is worth a visit. It can be on the expensive side for only a few paintings though, so this is where the Museum Pass is a big help (I’ll do a whole breakdown of the Museum pass and whether I got my moneys worth)!

Tuileries Garden

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After finishing looking at the art, I continued to head east though the Tuileries Gardens (the Orangerie is on the west corner of it).

The Jardin des Tuileries is located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde. It was originally created by Catherine de’ Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564 and opened to the public after the royal family moved to Versailles. I didn’t really focus on visiting historical places in the gardens, instead just walking along the main path.

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From there, onto the Palais-Royal

Palais-Royal

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This was a formal royal palace (duh!). Various members of the royal family lived there, but eventually in the 18th century it was turned into shopping arcades, having wooden shops and places where Parisians could socialize. This was the start of the “Arcade Era” where these types of enclosed arcades popped up all over Europe. It was used for other purposes, including theatre, cafes, etc. over time. Now it houses some government offices, library, as well as shops/cafes.


The north side is a large garden though, including a plaza that has a pretty well-known outdoor art exhibit.

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So…I’d like you all to pay attention to the left side of that panorama photo.


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Closer…

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Yup… that was my family! Neither of us had given our plans for the day or even been in contact since I had left that morning. But somehow we ended up in the same place at the same time! It was pretty hilarious!

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It was also fortunate because I got to meet Giselle and her husband, Jean-Pierre. Giselle and my grandmother were pen pals when they were in elementary school… in the 1940s! They kept in contact all those years, including visiting each other as adults. I think my mom’s family stayed with her when they visited Paris when mom was 16ish, and then her kids eventually visited my grandma when they travelled to Vancouver. So, my mom and dad made plans to meet with them and visit. There was a bit of a language barrier, as Giselle only knows a little English and Jean-Pierre doesn’t know any (though that didn’t stop him from talking on and on about things, knowing we couldn’t translate – my brother loved him)! But overall I think they had a great visit.

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Aside.

Before we met up my family had also split up. Originally Lauren, Joey, and Anthony had hoped to visit the catacombs but they were closed due to a strike. So, Joey and Anthony both visited the French film museum (which they said was not well done at all and very boring), and Lauren stayed with mom and dad (the boys met up with them for lunch).


They checked out the lock bridge and Thomas Jefferson statue…

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…met with Giselle and Jean-Pierre outside the Musee D’Orsay and went to a café…

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…and took Mini-Monet to see his paintings.

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(End Aside)


We did walk around to the back side of the garden, which is full of trees that make basically enclosed corridors. Though the bugs seemed to really love me, so I spent most of the time swatting them away!

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And took some photos together.

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I think Jean-Pierre was some type of architect though because he liked to point out interesting buildings!

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After getting to meet and visit a bit, I then split off from everyone else. It was a Thursday and a lot of Paris museums are open late on Thursdays, so I wanted to take advantage of it. I told them I was headed to the Arts et Metiers museum and Jean-Pierre got very excited because I guess he went to school there?


Anyways, we said goodbye and were on our separate ways (he took them to see the Palais Garnier opera house, but it was closed for the day, so they just saw the outside).

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I checked on google maps and also realized Galerie Vivienne was nearby. Disney Tourist Blog had marked it as a cool shopping arcade to walk through, so I thought I’d give it a wander.

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After taking a short break to rest my feet, I ended up hopping on another bus and heading to my final stop of the day.
 
Musee des Arts et Metiers.

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This museum is an industrial design museum that is a repository for the preservation of scientific instruments and inventions. It was established in 1794 and has over 80,000 objects and 15,000 drawings in the collection (only 2,500 are on display).

The whole museum is divided into different areas – scientific instruments, materials, energy, mechanics, construction, communication, and transportation. I found it fascinating, since as an engineer, I had to use so many of these types of instruments in my labs in college (some of which felt like they were old enough to be in a museum). So getting able to see the development of these was pretty cool. They also had lots of great information and hands-on exhibits. I could definitely see it being boring for anyone else, but I loved it! I just wish I wasn’t so tired, as I didn’t get to enjoy it as much!

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They have an abbey next door that houses lots of transportation methods, but I was just way too exhausted to make it up those stairs!

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I was done after that (I did over 25,000 steps this day; this was after 21,000 steps the day before, 30,000 steps the day before, and 16,000 the day before)! Rather than try to get a bus or metro back, I just couldn’t even make it all the way to a stop. So… I called an uber! Totally good decision (I think I forgot to mention we had first taken an Uber to get from the Louvre back to the Airbnb) and made an easy drive back to the apartment.

Before heading back, I decided to make a couple sugar stops! First, Le Bac de Glaces (ice cream). Delicious!

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And then Patisserie Des Reves, where I got a chocolate cake for all of us to share for dessert

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I then made it back upstairs, and I guess I got home right after the rest of the family (they pulled up in their Uber while I was in the patisserie). So we all crashed for a little bit.

For dinner, we ended up heading back out to that restaurant I had wanted to try the day before: Ambassade d’Auvergne. This was due to their specialty: Aligot! This is a French dish made from cheese blended into mashed potatoes. It’s sort of fondue like, but most solid. Lauren and I had both seen something on buzzfeed about it and wanted to give it a try. Ambassade d’Auvergne is the place most known in Paris for having it. (We ended up using Ubers to get there and back, as we were too tired to deal with a metro or bus.)

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I think we shared a charcuterie plate for a starter, but I didn’t get photos (you can see it on the table in front of us). Dad got some sort of soup (maybe pea and foi-gras?)

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Then they brought out the star of the show…

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I think Mom, Dad, Anthony, and Lauren got the option with beef, so it was a Filet, plus some marrow. They all really liked it, and I tried a piece of the filet and it was very tender.

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Joey and I got the Duck Breast, which was also delicious.

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And of course, we all loved the Aligot!

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So, in the end, a good, but exhausting day. I think I decided not to go touring commando the next day and may have even turned off my morning alarm!


Coming up: Visiting a place of girl power on our final day in Paris!

 
While I was walking around I found a window and saw the water cannons were going off in the fountain, which was pretty cool!
Cool I never made it there to see them while they were going off. If I remember right they weren't turned on for the season yet.

Turns out the grand hall is not open!
Bummer, it is beautiful architecture.

Great pic of all you kids

isiting a place of girl power on our final day in Paris!
Guessing Joan of Arc related.
 
While I was walking around I found a window and saw the water cannons were going off in the fountain, which was pretty cool!
Cool I never made it there to see them while they were going off. If I remember right they weren't turned on for the season yet.

Turns out the grand hall is not open!
Bummer, it is beautiful architecture.

Great pic of all you kids

isiting a place of girl power on our final day in Paris!
Guessing Joan of Arc related.
 
Man oh man, that was a busy day for you! You definitely made the most out of your solo touring day.

What a bummer that you the Great Hall was closed, after you went there specifically to see it.

I bet seeing the Water Lilies up close was an amazing experience. I had no idea the walls were shaped to fit the paintings and followed the day's natural light. Interesting tidbit of information.

Pen pals in the 1940's...that sounds awesome and how great that you were able to meet up with them for an afternoon.

I had seen videos of the aligot, as well, and it looked delicious! Glad to know it lived up to the hype.


(I also have to include that after reading about your day at Versailles, my friend and I are scoping out train ticket deals in November to go see it for ourselves. You sold me with those gold carriages. :rotfl2:)
 

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