My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

of art, the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the Egyptian collections, and
the Apollo Gallery, that houses the crown jewels. We also saw
another important landmark, the Eiffel Tower, a giant structure
with 1040 feet of ironwork, representing one of the great
personalities of Paris. We took the elevator to the top and admired
the marvelous view of the city of lights. And finally, we took a
sightseeing boat tour on the Seine River and stopped at the Gothic
Notre–Dame Cathedral, which is a magnet for thousands of
tourists from all over the world.
The first time that my wife and I went to Paris, after noting that
the meals were so expensive at the hotel, we decided to go to a
bakery each morning to buy a French baguette, then to a little
market to buy cheese and coffee and to have our breakfast sitting
down on the street sidewalk while we watched the people go by.
What an experience!
While in France, we took the train from Paris to Versailles, an
historical landmark creation of Louis XIV who hired the greatest
architects and landscape artists to embellish a chateau into a
beautiful palace. It is impossible to see everything in one day, so
we studied our itinerary carefully, so that we could see the most
important sites, the apartments and the grounds. We loved the first
floor with the King’s rooms along one wing and the Queen’s suite
on the other. The wings are linked by a magnificent Hall of
Mirrors that once hosted many royal banquets throughout the
years. We then went to see the spectacular grounds with its
fountains and statues, particularly the Apollo Basin, set in the many
flowerbeds. Despite the grandeur of the décor and the furnishings,
the human aspects still echo through the centuries. We were
thrilled to see the mantelpiece in Marie Antoinette’s bedroom. She
was one of the most unfortunate queens in the history of France.
She was a very unhappy woman who ended up facing the
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