After moving from Amsterdam, to Brussels, to Paris, and to Versailles, let me take you to a part of France that not many tourists include in their itinerary: Lourdes. My mother’s only request for our Europe trip: go to Lourdes and pray for me. And so I did.

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While in Paris, if you have a day to spare, you may want to visit Versailles, a small town around 30 minutes away from Paris.

Versailles (pronounced versay in French), formerly de facto capital of the kingdom of France, is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and is still an important administrative and judicial center. The city of Versailles, located in the western suburbs of Paris, 17.1 km (10.6 mi) from the center of Paris, is the préfecture (capital) of the Yvelines département. Versailles is made world famous by the Château de Versailles, from the forecourt of which the city has grown.

Versailles is one of the more charming and historic parts of France. It is a small town, and a day or two is all you need to go around. It has its unique charm though! It has a very important role in the politics and history of France because it was once the unofficial capital of the country. It also became the home of some of France’s most notable political figures. But although it is a tourist spot, it is not as famous as Nice, Toulouse, Monaco, or of course, Paris, and most people don’t even know about it, which is sad because it is a very beautiful place.

The most popular site in Versailles is the Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles [which, hereafter, is what I will be using to refer to the Palace]. And this was our destination one Saturday in France.

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Known as the City of Lights, Paris did not disappoint me. It was everything I had been imagining, and more. After our trip to Amsterdam and Brussels, I thought that it would be just easy when we arrived in Paris. However, as we stepped out of the train at Garu du Nord, I felt a certain feeling of uneasiness, maybe because I felt that this was France: THE France. I felt uneasy and uncertain, and I was thinking, “What a bad way to start my Paris stay…feeling uneasy.” The feeling, fortunately, was short-lived, because as soon as I saw the tip of the Eiffel tower from the taxi, all uneasiness was replaced with excitement [not to mention heart palpitations]. And that then set my Paris adventure: full of excitement and heart-stopping adventure.

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