When planning our trip, we couldn't decide if we wanted to visit
Versailles or not. I had already been to Versailles the summer that I studied abroad, and Jeff was not dying to see a palace. Also,the chateau is a little ways out of the city
and kind of an all-day thing. Because we knocked so much out on our first day,
we decided to take the train out to Versailles and visit the chateau. And we were so glad that we did!
I had read horror stories about the lines to get into the
chateau, so we made a plan. Jeff waited in the super long entrance/security
line, while I got in the short line to buy the actual tickets. I waited in the
ticket line for about 30 minutes, and then found Jeff in the entrance line
where we waited another 30 minutes. One hour in line really didn’t seem that
bad to me, as I thought we would be there for 2-3 hours.
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| Waiting in line |
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| Lines, lines, and more lines. |
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| Made it through the gates! We're in! |
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| Jeff loves audio guides! |
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| The chapel inside the chateau. |
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| The Hall of Mirrors - sorry, don't know why I am not looking at the camera. |
We walked through the palace semi-quickly, and got to everyone’s
favorite part – the gardens!
I love the Queen’s Hamlet and all the irony that it entails.
[Marie Antoinette had it built to escape palace life and to live more like a
commoner in the country.] We decided to rent a tandem bike to get out to the
hamlet. Once Jeff realized he could adjust the seat height, we were cruising
around Versailles.
We hurried back to the gardens for the afternoon fountain show, wandering around all the gardens to find the tucked away fountains and
statues.
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| Apollo Fountain |
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| Enceladus Fountain |
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| Flora Fountain |
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| The Latona Fountain |
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| Statue of Louis XIV - can't talk about a trip to Versailles without mentioning the Sun King. |
After making our way back to the city, we decided to eat at
Le Relais L’Entrecote for dinner. I had eaten at a similar restaurant on my
last visit to France and really wanted Jeff to experience it. This restaurant has
a set menu – steak and fries. You just tell the server how you want your steak
cooked, and they bring a platter to your table. The steak was phenomenal with a
great sauce. It was definitely one of our favorite meals on our whole trip.
After dinner, I really wanted some ice cream. We made our
way back to our part of the city and finally found some ice cream, after two
days of wandering around Paris. And they made it look like a cute little flower
for me.
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