VERSAILLES

Wednesday 29th = visit to Versailles (Palace of King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette)
- HUGE. Everything is covered in classic artwork and/or gold and/or beauty.
- Autumn and Margot were separated for an hour. There was much anxiety and restless searching. But it clearly all worked out and the Palais was still a gorgeous work of extravagant art.
- The gardens: more like fairytales. Disneyland Princess shenanigans (and by that we mean we felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast). Sprawling manicured lawns and hedges, fountains and mythological sculptures everywhere, flowers, mini-shrines to honor Love, millions of ponds and such, a man-made canal for boat-racing. EPIC. Trout in the ponds near the cottages, ducks, swans, dinosaurs (ok, not really, well we're not sure, but it's not likely, but one can dream...)
- Petit Trianon aka Marie-Atoinette's mini-cottage aka our other other summer home when we're not living in Shakespeare and Company. Windows inside the house to see to other parts of the house, spiral staircase, yes please. Note to the world: this is the land of the spiral staircases.
- Queen's Hamlet where her workers worked and lived, truly felt like we were IN Belle's village
- Grand Trianon aka Marie-Antoinette's actual palace. Too overwhelming to even go inside.
We spent 7 hours there and only covered maybe a third of the actual estate of Versailles. Well-played, Sun King. Except for the whole starving a nation thing.

- While walking about, the extravagance and fanciness broke Margot's shoes. Good thing she still has her hiking boots... for the rest of the trip... yeah. What an epic way for a pair of shoes to go, though!
-Exhausted, we left the gorgeous Palaces and gardens in search of a meal and stumbled upon a god-awful Italian tourist trap restaurant. Don't go. Wait a block. Then we got lost in Porchfontaine which is a quaint little something or other in the middle of nowhere, but is, contrary to our belief at the time lead back to Paris.
-We finally got to Paris and had delicious street-side crepes in little Italy/Greece and walked "home" to Shakes & Co for some light reading and then home to let the day go.

Word of the day: Hameau- hamlet (cottage)

Love and Bisous!