Strolling around in Versailles and a fun flea market...

After checking out the major sights in Paris, we decided to go to Versailles which is about half an hour from Paris. 

The walk from the station to the palace of Versailles is pretty good, a nice long avenue with trees lining either side... it's a beautiful stretch and this is how avenues should be you know, quiet and calm with trees swaying peacefully overhead and you walking around with not a care in the world, just the thought of another exciting day. Versailles, was a nice change from chaotically exciting Paris, it's more peaceful and charming not to mention less crowded and intrusive than Paris.

The golden gate at the entrance to the palace of Versailles. 

There was quite a long queue outside this gate waiting to enter the palace, one look at the winding queue and we retreated the way we came through the beautiful avenue and continued strolling about Versailles,exploring other places. I and I guess the others too weren't keen on seeing an opulent palace, a castle would have been a different matter... anyway, we just walked around for some time and then headed back to Paris.

Saw this beautiful lace curtain at a restaurant... 

A neat little restaurant... I love places like this, where one can sit outside and observe people going about their life.  

A pretty intricate door...

A dog lapping up water from a fountain...

Cathedral Saint Louis in Versailles....

Inside the Cathedral. 

After visiting the church, we took the train back to Paris and reached Hotel Atelier Montparnesse (this is the foyer of the hotel). This is such a good place to stay, the people who run it are so courteous and charming. They go about their job with a ready smile, after a long and tiring day in Paris, coming back here truly felt like coming home. 

(picture taken from here)

This is where we would have breakfast every morning, on that white couch, munching on croissants, muesli cereal, wheat bread, ham, salami, sausages, scrambled eggs, and flavoured yogurt among other things.

 The flea market...

We wanted to go shopping and I asked the guy behind the desk about some nice shopping districts in Paris, and he told me about this flea market that takes place once a year on the street outside the hotel. We were fortunate enough to be there for it this year, so after coming back from Versailles we roamed around here checking out the different items on display. There were so many antiques and other random things on this long stretch of road, I picked up some pretty things for a few euros.  

A few glimpses of the assortment of items that were on display. See that greenish blue bottle in the last picture, it was too pretty to not buy. 

On the flea market day, stalls were set up outside restaurants and this is where we had our lunch, a nice chicken panini sandwich.

While searching the net for English masses in Paris, I came across St. Joseph's church, located a stone's throw away from the Arc de Triomphe. What a quaint little church this is, in marked contrast to all the extravagant and opulent churches we've been visiting in Paris, I really liked this small parish located in a basement.

Next post will be about the Eiffel Tower at night.