The Moulin Rouge

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Today Fanie, Harmony and I went to the Palace of Versailes, the Moulin Rouge, and I eat snails.

We slept in today, mainly because Fanie and I are sore and tired. We got up midday and I decided to Skype George-Paul, but he did not answer any of his phones. So, I then I Skyped Destiny. I am glad we did, because she gave us a few pointers for the day. One was to see the gardens a Versailes. Now, I have problems remembering English names, let alone French names. I wasn't sure if we had gone there or not. When I checked out our itenerary, I realised that we had not. Destiny told us it was about an hour out of Paris. This gave us a clue as to where to look. We found it on the Metro Maps and went on a venture to discover it. It was in the Country Zone of Paris. This meant that our Paris Visite Card (or the Paris 3 day Metro Card paid to Zone 6) was valid to take us there. We hopped on the Metro trains and changed over to the Country train lines; and it didn't cost us a cent. I figured that we got our money back by going to Euro Disney yesterday, which was in the northern country regions of Paris and now Versailes, which was in the southern country regions of Paris - hence we made a huge saving with the Paris Visite Card. I am chuffed!

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First of all, let me inform you that we got off on the wrong stop. About one stop too short. That didn't matter because we just waited 15 minutes for the next train. The train trip to Versailes took an hour, including our mistake. When we got to Versailes, it was stepped into a beautiful country town, with plenty of trees and wide roads. We tried to board a bus, but the bus driver, speaking in French and me, speaking in English, communicated! He told me that the bus was not going to Versailes (I showed him the map; he smiled and gestured, indicating that I was too smart ... with a smile). He used his fingers to animate that we could walk around the corner, and at most it was a 10 minute walk. I thanked him (important words to learn in a country is: Bonjoure - Hello, Polevour Englis - Do you speak English, and Merrrrrsi - Thank you). He was right, it took us 10 minutes. The bugger calculated my speed by my looks and worked it out to perfection ... I don't know if I should be gratiful or excited.

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Anyway, we walked towards a gate through this GRAND cobble path entrance, only to be harrassed by Gypsies trying to sell us their wares. We walked straight passed them. We walked through the Grand entrance, then ... there was another GRAND cobble path to another GRAND Entrance ... go figure! It was magnificant. The entrances were made of (what it appeared as) iron fences with gold trimmings ... it looked spectacular ... it was larger than life. I then just realised that this was not just a Garden, it was the Versailes Palace (Plafond du salon de L’abondance). We bought tickets to enter the Palace and walked through most of the Grand rooms of were past Kings and Queens lived. The rooms were massive. The Palace was akin to the Marion Shopping Centre back in Adelaide. So much for so few people. One room had and avenue of 2 to 3 Chrystal Chandeliers dangling from the massively high ceiling. All ceilings had larger than life drawings depicting major events of the past. The rich colouring, especially the vibrant and glowing "blue" used in the wall and ceiling drawings, defied disbelief. One room was dedicated to photos. One of the first photos ever taken in the world was in 1866 (I did not know that ... photos were invented back then ... so there you go), at this Palace. They had all the photos taken from that time onwards. There were photos taken of the grand parades, of kings and queens of old visiting the Palace. They had photos of the German occupiers of World War II, and more recent photos of Queen Elizabeth, Ronald Regan US President, etc. It was awesome seeing "real images" of the past. Room after room (not in room as you and I know it, but as in Movie Theatres), was different and all had a view. What a view. The view itself, through each window, left me spell bound. I was looking at the Vasailes Gardens ... all massive ... all different.

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Fanie, Harmony and I could not wait to go out to these garden patches (not patches as you or I know ... no ... but patches the size of at least 10 football fields). They were hiring special "cars" (a bit like golf cars ... but different) to drive though these Gardens - and you needed it, if you wanted to see them all face to face.

But wait ... there was more. We struggled to the end of one of these garden patches and then we saw ... wait for it ... wait for it ... stair wells either side of the gardens, spiralling downwards to a central avenue of trees, maniquired forests, fountains galour, and more gardens ... and a massive lake. People were on paddle boats on the lake, deep in the middle, and they were so far away from me, they looked like mites. The avenue alone was the square area of Adelaide City itself. There was no way we could see these gardens, forests or even reach the lakes. We were running out of time to go back to Paris (a 45 minute train trip) then go to Moulin Rouge on the opposite side of town. We reluctantly left ... but I had no idea that this place existed. I need to thank Destiny for advising us to go there. It would have been a shame to have missed it.

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Before we caught the train back to Paris, we had lunch. We had an assortment of Croissants and an Expresso at Versailes, and, in addition, I had a McDonalds Big Mac at Versailes just to research the taste and price. The price was similar to Adelaide's, at $EUR3.50. So, for the locals it was a normal price in comparison to ours (relatively speaking). However, as a tourist from Australia, that equated to about $AUS7.00, so we, naturally, lose out. The taste ... well ... it was the same as that in Australia.

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We caught the train back to Paris, stopped at our Hotel to freshen up, then we went to the Moulin Rouge for the 9:00pm show. We got there about 8:15pm.

Walking to the Moulin Rouge was exciting. The avenue we walked along was glamorous and geared towards adult themes. Fanie and Harmony were not impressed but I was in my glory. It was all tastefully done, colourful and vibrant. It reminded me more like Las Vegas, but without all the casinos. We struggled to find the Caboret because I was looking for the wrong thing. What we found was a windmill, about 1/3rd of the size I was expecting, and it didn't appear to be wooden as in the movie (but that could be because we were there at night with the neons on everywhere). We went in the Moulin Rouge bistro and it cost us $279 Euros for the three of us to sit down at a table. We were not permitted to take cameras or videos.

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The Moulin Rouge bristro was glamorous. It had table seating for about 800 people sitting in tables of 6. All tables had red light lamps, and the whole decore reminded me of royalty. The tables where very slender and rectangular, and the chairs were dainty with a metal gold frame and red velvet cushions. The overall arrangement of tables and people were that of a multitired ampitheatre. We were all quite packed in. The price included champaigne or wines, but because we didn't drink alcohol, we were given two bottles of soft drink and juices each instead. People had arrived earlier than us because they wanted to have a meal first; we just went for the show.

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We entered to the sound of a duet, male and female, signing 1950's French Cabaret songs. When it came to 9:00, all lights went out to blaring sounds of trumpets and drums, and a piano started to play cabaret music. The acustics were superb, with a strong bass sound like a hovering blanket around your feet, and the upper registers were so crisp, that you could hear the slight scratchings of the string instruments. All waiters and waiteress then switched on pen torches to serve. They looked like stars on a blackend backdrop. The stage opened up to three times the original size and it lit up with flood lights zig-zagging in and out of the stage area, onto a mist of cloud. The Moulin Rouge girls, and men, appeared out of bright lights and, as the lights softened, the were standing their in very glittery, flourescent colours, all very loud, yet tasteful costumes. There were splashes of neon lighting amplifying the trimmings of the costumes into an errie glow. Throughout the 2 hour show, there were numerous rapid costume changes. The costumes had streaks for flurescent blues, oranges, greens, and yellows. There were costumes that included feathers, others included long drapes of clothing. There were spikes, and fans, long beaded necklaces, hats, headpieces, and gloves. The men were clothes in similar styles, colouring, and material to the women, but predominantly in trousers and boots. They used a lot of glitters and they had lighting weaved into their their attire so they could light up during certain darkened scenes. The dancing of at least 20 dancers at any one time, was in perfect synchronisaion ... but they had multiple dance routines to the one piece of music, all over the stage. It was a visual smorgasbord. It was all in awe. Half the women costumes used were topless, but most were not - remember, there were scores of costume changes throughout the night.

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The dancing theme included stories from the past to the present, but in glamorous, abstract, athletic, synchronised dance routines. The stage morphesised many times over into various settings that include splitting the floor into multiple levels, rising a glass swimming pool with live water snakes for one of the water dance routines, Pyramids rising from the ground, and the old sailing docking shores of old. One routine involved a male and female dancer dancing over our heads on suspended track wiring, in the dark. The gracefully gestured and used hand routines, while at the same time, cunningly holding personal spot lights to their faces, and hence illuminating, not only themselves, but their extravagent costumes. The male and female suspended dancers looked like angels in the sky.

Inbetween each dance routine, they had a circus entertainment. There was a Juggler, juggling items at lightinng speed that made the pins appear as lighting bolts; they had a vantrilaquite who used puppets, audience members and a dog to play out drama roles; and they had a couple who used sheer body strength to form abstact sculptors with their bodies using the stage and/or chair as their anchor. All these sub-entertainers where dancing to cabaret music.

Some of the themes they covered in the main dance scenes were: dancing in the Ancient Egyptian era, the Pirate era, Old France, renaissance France, the roaring 1920's, the 1950's, the 1960's, and future dancing. But, it was not the usual depiction of dancing through the ages as you may have seen before, this was the Moulin Rouge depiction of dancing through the ages as no other can do it.

We saw its symbolic Can Can being performed. At any one scene there were at least 20 girls and 10 men on stage.

At the end of the show, we went to the Le Palmier Restaurant, adjacent to the Moulin Rouge - we were all in a high. Even though it was 11:00pm, we decided to have tea. Harmony ordered French Sausages and chips, as did I, but I also ordered and ate 6 Escarguts or Snails in Burgundy.  I had to get the waiter to teach me how to use the Snail Utensils (yes, special cutlery for snails ... go figure). He smiled and obliged. As we were eating, we met and spoke to 2 elderly women from Melbourne who happen to be sitting next to our table. Boy, were they were chatty. But as Harmony said, at least it was good hearing another Ausie accent. We finally arrived to our Hotel at about 12:30am.