Les Journées Patrimoine

In 1984, the Ministry of Culture started a tradition known as Les Journées Patrimoine (Heritage Days). Every third weekend in September, is Les Journées Patrimoine (yes, I know very behind on the blogging ... I do apologize), which is a weekend full of opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, which are normally not accessible to the public.

Of course, I thought this was a brilliant idea to wake up at 6:00AM on a Saturday to visit the Palais de l'Elysée (Nicolas & Carla Sarkozy home - basically the equivalent to the White House). I was to meet a group of strangers at 7:00AM to wait in line. As what often happens to newcomers (or at least to me) I got a little lost ... so I arrived a little late ... oops! Regardless, I was welcomed with lots of smiles and got to cut in line. :)

An opportunity to visit places normally inaccessible to the public only translates to one thing. Translation - very very very long lines. It's September, at least the weather is nice ... wrong! It was freezing! We were so cold that some of us were starting to turn purple.

After a little over 5 hours, I got to see the Palais de l'Elysée and made some new friends, so all in all a great day! Though, I did not make it to any other significant buildings, monuments, or sites, and opted for lunch and macaroons instead.

Here are some super exclusive pictures of the Palais de l'Elysée.

Oh, did I mention ... that I met Nicolas and Carla too ;)