Paris - Part 6

For our last complete day in Paris, we headed en masse to Versailles. This involved taking the metro to a suburban rail station, where we waited in a line consisting mainly of American tourists that made me feel ashamed to be American and a tourist, in order to get cheaper tickets and allegedly skip out on some line time. Upon arrival at Versailles, we were indeed able to skip the shorter ticket line to wait in the much, much, much longer line to get into the actual palace.

The palace at Versailles is by all means a very impressive piles of bricks enriched by a colorful social and political history. I can bore you for hours (or at least 15 minutes) with some of the tales of what has gone on with it, but alas, I shall temporarily refrain. Let's just stick to the facts and say that it was very pretty so long as you were looking up, as otherwise you were confronted with the heads of way too many people aimlessly wandering in packs, aka, Japanese tour groups. They should be banned. We quickly lost the parents in the melee of little Japanese person dodging, doing our best to get in as many pictures as possible (I waved at a video camera), but caught sight of them just enough to think we were at least on the same track. While lacking the bling of hall of mirrors area, I personally quite enjoyed the dauphin's apartments on the ground floor and the neighboring apartments for King Louis XVs many daughters. They were very nice and fancier than anything I'll ever reside in, but seemed much more livable and therefore approachable and understandable that the stuff above. Plus the Japanese tour groups seemed to skip this area so the crowds were light. Although come to think of it, we did actually hush some loud Japanese men who kept walking around talking loudly in that 'it's in another language so other people must not be able to hear me' sort of way...

Anyways! We eventually all headed out to the gardens, which really bring a whole new level to the concept of big. Take a minute to look at them on Google Earth. Otherwise the sheer scale is hard to get across. It was a very, very beautiful day and we got some baguettes to eat in what seemed like it could have been a bit of a maze, then wandered out towards the two Trianons, passing by what for some reason is termed a canal, where Mark got irreversibly excited about the possibility of taking out a rowboat. The wee Trianon was getting a facelift so was sadly closed, but we took a nice spin of the uber Trianon before wandering out to see Marie Antoinette's Disney-inspiring village. It was tres tranquil (and what a relief that the Japanese tour groups didn't go there either, wouldn't have totally squashed the peaceful vibe!). After our rehydration/ice cream break, we gave in to temptation and rented one of the little rowboats for half an hour, where we learned that on like their second date Kathy rowed Brian around while wearing a striped top with her hair braided. I thought you would all want to know that.

After seeing all that could be seen, we headed back into town and eventually ended up at what was termed a Mediterranean restaurant that was very, very delicious. The next morning, the folks headed off, Mark and I had a nice little breakfast at our local cafe, and then it was my turn to head off for the airport. FYI, Charles de Gaulle is a horrible airport. Anyway, that wraps up my Parisian times. While I could dwell for a few days on the little idioms of Parisian and Parisian tourist culture, so much has been going on in England these days that it's time to get back to normal!