Versailles, Amusement Park, and Wandering Around

Saturday was spent in Versailles!

I took the RER—the train that makes few stops in Paris proper and serves to connect the outskirts of the city to the inner city—over to Versailles. So here comes the list of things that everyone says about Versailles. Wow! The palace is so beautiful and opulent! Everything is gold! Can you imagine living in a place like this? These gardens are massive and so well kept! What would it be like to just take a stroll in your private gardens every morning? And it goes on. Sure, these things are all true, and all things I felt while there. And don’t get me wrong, the place is amazing, but I wasn’t all that wowed by it. The museum part of the palace seemed quite small actually, and I felt like I got much more mileage out of my free Louvre ticket (as a student) than I did with my way-too-expensive Versailles ticket. Everyone did say that the real attraction of Versailles is the gardens. And this was certainly true. You could get lost in there if you’re not careful, they’re all filled with cool patterns in the flowers! Certainly something very cool to see from above.

Palace at Versailles

But soon after we got into the gardens, the sky opened up and a torrential downpour of rain hit us. I, like an idiot, took my laptop in my bag with me for no reason. Luckily my friend had an umbrella and I gave him my stuff to keep dry. But to keep everything dry, I walked outside the umbrella and got soaked. Honestly, once I was wet, it wasn’t too bad. We did get some more time to enjoy the gardens once we were all wet, and it was a little nicer with less tourists crowding up the place.

Lots of Rain

The next day, I went with a friend to Parc Astérix, a theme park based on a French comic book series! We had the best time there. The original plan was to go to Disney, but Disney was about three times the price and I had heard that it’s less fun for older kids, but to go instead to this Parc Astérix.

Parc Astérix is really great: so well themed, filled with cheeky puns and slapstick humor, and isn’t in the price-gouging machine like it appears Disney is… The only issue with it is that it’s rather far out from Paris, and no public rail lines run out that way. You have to take a bus from CDG Airport instead. We ended up Ubering on the way over (which was a fortune) and taking the bus to the RER back, which took two hours.

Well-themed Roller Coaster Station, Supposed to be a Greek Train Station

Astérix is about a village of Gaulish people who fight the Roman empire and travels around the world when doing so. Therefore, different regions of the park are themed on these travels. There’s the Egyptian area with the coaster Osiris, the Greek themed with a statue of Zeus in funny pink-with-rubber-duckies underwear, and the Gaulish forest playing Celtic music. It’s so well done, and would recommend it 10/10. As for the little elements of humor in the park… it’s based on a comic book, so elements of the books’ humor are certainly in there. Rix in Gaulish meant king, so Astérix, the main character’s name, is a Gaulish-inspired play on words with the word asterisk. His sidekick, Obélix, is a play on words with obelisk, and their dog, Idéfix, is a pun on the French word “Idée Fixe,” pronounced the same, meaning obsession. The park also took inspiration to create more of these names; the stations to help guide your visit were named Atonservix, playing on “À Ton Service,” meaning at your service! That made me laugh a lot when I figured it out for the first time. Plenty of other funny things you come across when you visit the park.

Left: Obélix in his natural habitat. Right: Zeus’s Rubber Ducky Underwear ;)

We hit, by the end of the day, almost all the rides in the park.

Monday was spent mostly relaxing. I walked around for many hours trying to discover new areas of Paris that I hadn’t seen yet. Though I only live about a ten-minute walk from it, I hadn’t yet seen Place de la Nation, a town square, since it’s in the opposite direction. I decided to head down that way with a friend of mine. We ended up at the Boulevard Périférique, the boulevard that encloses Paris proper. It’s a rather stark border; you certainly can feel the second you’ve left Paris.

Nothing too exciting on Tuesday, but I did get a chance to explore the Marais a little more. I also explored the Marais Wednesday afternoon. Over the two days, I was able to see both the Jewish Quarter, Pletzl, filled with falafel restaurants, and Marché des Enfants Rouges (market of the red kids), a North African and Lebanese market. The food from both were delicious, and both L’As de Falafel in Pletzl and that Marché are must-eats.

In order: Place de la Nation, Pletzl Sign, in Hebrew, and Marché Des Enfants Rouges

Tuesday dinner was another Eiffel Tower light-show watch party, and Wednesday was a Thermo class bonding dinner over Vietnamese food! On the way home, we stopped at the Arc de Triomphe and climbed up at sunset.

More exciting updates to come…