Our last full day was very busy. We were up early, at least for us, to have
breakfast (prepared by our host Pierre) and get to Versailles before the
crowds. There are two lines to
Versailles and fortunately just down the road was one of the lines which would
take us to Rive Droite. This is the furthest
station from the Chateau but within walking distance. We were standing in the first queue by about
10am and then it took about 20 minutes to get into the Chateau proper.
This is my second visit to Versailles and
Bev’s first. Despite knowing what to
expect, the Chateau (not Palais we were told in no uncertain terms) is
extremely large for a home. There was
quite a crowd, but we were told it was not as crowded as it can get at its peak. Two parts of the chateau were not open - the Queen’s
rooms and the children’s rooms. What we
saw was a glance at the artwork (there were too many people to get anywhere
near reading anything about it). We had
to shove our way through some tourists who kept taking pictures of every detail
and wouldn’t move to let others see the King’s chapel and the King’s rooms
including his bedroom and that was about it.
We managed to have a good view of the Hall of Mirrors which is stunning
and the size a couple of New Zealand mansions alone. Nonetheless that took us
around an hour and half altogether.
Exhausted by the slow shuffle we took refuge in the Grande Café for a
coffee and a bite to eat.
We spent the rest of the afternoon
exploring the vast estate. This included
the Petit Trianon, the Grand Trianon and
Marie Antoinette’s hamlet. This area is amazing and vast. I will let the photos tell part of the
story. It needs a better writer than me
to be able to describe the size, grandeur and beauty of the place.
As we walked back from Grand Trianon there were lots of people having a picnic in the grounds. Earlier we had seen an elderly woman ignore the signs, have a driver of one of the Petits Trains trying to explain to the woman she could not go that way but I think she was unable to back a car so the only way to go was forward. He was so frustrated as it was creating a bit of mayhem.
We had an ice-cream and sat by the canal watching a couple women try to row a boat, one woman gave up and the other marginally more coordinated. A few minutes later a man tried to help another couple of women who were having rowing and steering problems. A crash of these three boats looked about to happen. Fortunately there was no wind to really create mayhem.
By the time we caught the train back to
Paris we were rather tired and our legs ached, having walked somewhere between
12 and 14 kilometres.
On our return to our apartment, we had the
remainder of a rather beautiful Chenin Blanc before going out for our final
fling at a nearby restaurant. We had decided
to go back to a wonderful place called Viola which we had discovered on our
last visit. It is Italian but it is a fusion
of Italian and French food. We chose a
tasting menu accompanied by wine. It was
very, very good. The food was cooked
beautifully with the flavours both contrasting and in harmony and the wines a
good complement. The photos below give some idea of what we had.
The plates were small so at the end of the meal
both of us felt we had eaten well and we were full but not overly so. It was a great way to end the holiday.
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