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Today we took a day trip to Versailles, both the palace and the grounds were equally beautiful. While we spent hours walking around the inside of the palace, one could spend 2 full days exploring all of the rooms that make up this immense building. The interior was exceptionally furnished with hundreds of paintings, busts and crystal chandeliers.

The gardens were immaculately manicured and quite breathtaking. We walked around for hours and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the steps leading down to the Orange grove (it sounds much cooler in French). There were a lot of sculptures dedicated to Roman gods and goddesses scattered throughout the gardens. AJ gave Erika history lessons about the gods and goddesses and went into great detail about the many myths.
This is the famous Hall of Mirrors which consists of a lengthy hallway where one side has wall length mirrors and the other has windows which give spectacular views to the gardens and surrounding countryside. Most people don't even notice the beautiful paintings on the ceiling adorned with gold-leafed frames.

This is an outside view of one of the gardens where the only color you can see is green. It was actually a perfectly sunny day with a slight breeze. Jealous, aren't you?

This is where we ate lunch overlooking the Orange Grove and the countryside. You could smell the just-blossoming flowers and fresh-cut grass.

This was a beautiful fountain with the Palace in the background. In the pond we each made a wish and threw coins.

Another beautiful view of the massive ponds in the gardens. The gardens are free to anyone who wants to see them and we found many people having picnics and you could rent boats at the far lake/pond. It really was that big!

We left Versailles about an hour before we intended and just so happened to have to stop very close to Notre Dame. So we figured we would take the short walk from the metro station to see this beautiful cathedral. There is so much you can say about it without really describing it fully. For Erika, it was really kind of an emotional experience, especially the inside. The large vaulted ceiling was so tall, you feel so small and humbled inside this large expanse of space.