Paris and Versailles

Basilica of Montmartre and the Palace of Versailles

We reached Paris before midnight and luckily found our hotel in Montmartre with a little stumble.

Many visitors to Paris choose this area because of its location. However, after sunset, the surrounding area does not look very safe and tourists.

We had booked Hotel Montmartrois (6 Bis, Rue Du Chevalier-De-La-Barre) because it offered a good price for double rooms (nothing special, but good enough to stay in a convenient location).

The nearest site of interest within walking distance from the hotel we visited the next morning is the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre (la Basilique du Sacre Coeur de Montmartre). Just to mention that this Basilica is one of the most impressive buildings located on the top of the hill (afterwards we saw how magical it is even from the roof of Galleries Lafayette).

While staying in Paris, we spent a whole day visiting the Palace of Versailles (Chateau de Versailles). It is located about 20 kilometres from the centre of Paris. Palace of Versailles was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century from 1682.

An excellent idea was to rent a small car (similar to one golfers use) to ride around the gardens of the palace. The gardens of the Palace of Versailles are huge; they are situated to the West of the palace, and look beautiful and impressive. The gardens of the Palace of Versailles have been largely unchanged since the time of Louis XIV.

There are several very special objects in the gardens, such as Grotte de Thetys, Bassin de Latone and Bassin d’Apollon as well as the Grand Canal. With a length of 1500 metres and a width of 62 metres, the Grand Canal visually prolongs the landscape seen from the palace.

Grand Canal has also a practical role – it collects water from garden fountains located above. Afterwards, water from the Grand Canal is pumped back into the reservoir of the Grotte de Thetys, which supplies fountains with water again.

Disneyland Paris

Those were not all the things we did in Paris; the last day in Paris we spent in Disneyland Paris.

There might be a special story of how our kids enjoyed Disneyland Paris, what the Eiffel Tower and New Paris look like, how the magic collection of the Louvre is and so on.

In general, after three weeks spent in France, I would say that every stop we made during our trip was worth a separate trip to France.

Just one more quick note: we spent a few nights at Hotel Formule 1 (nowadays the name is HotelF1)near Disneyland Paris. This French hotel chain is part of the ACCOR Hotels chain and at that time was also present in Spain, Switzerland, Sweden (not anymore) and Benelux countries (looks like it is only in Belgium now). The main difference of this hotel was that we were able to get a 3-bed room for about 35 euro per night.

We had a sink and TV in the room, although had to share a toilet and bathroom located on every floor (those were clean and the hotel building was well-maintained). While travelling with three kids, this was a real money saver.