Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Versailles

Today I got to live my lifelong dream of going to Versailles. Ever since seeing Napoleon & Josephine: A Love Story I have dreamed of going to Versailles. Sadly Armand Assante was not there, but it was still a pretty cool day.



Above is a picture of us toward the end of the line, after waiting for about an hour and fifteen minutes and snaking all over the uneven cobblestones of the Versailles grounds.



After finishing out the morning in line we were pretty hungry so we grabbed a quick lunch before heading out onto the grounds to check out all the gardens and the "small" getaways of the various kings and queens.



Jen found her favorite home on the grounds where she would like to be a shepherdess and I found an alternate location where I could take my mistresses. All I have to do is somehow get my dad to prove through the magic of genealogy that I am the rightful heir to the throne of France. I figure it's only a matter of time before we move in.



After hours and hours of walking we cheated and took a tram back to the château. An alarming number of pregnant women were able to skip ahead in line and get on before us. Personally I think they were just making it up after a while. I think Jen should have just said she was pregnant so we could get on the tram.

Oh, and the tram costed €3.50 each even after paying €20.00 each to enter Versailles after waiting in line for well over an hour. At least there were no shitty Italian teenagers like yesterday.



We then got into the château where it was so unbelievably crowded that we almost lost our minds. There were loads of tour groups going through that would periodically block an entire room so that you were trapped between rooms and had nowhere to go. We rather speedily made it through but before we left a lady was nice enough to take our picture in the Hall of Mirrors making for the only picture of the two of us not taken by me!

When we got back home we rested for a bit and pondered what to do for dinner. We were going to try to go to Tante Marguerite because this review of the restaurant talked about how this guy says his life coach, Paga, insisted that he worried too much about the presence of suits and ties. Unfortunately for us (and Paga) we were too tired to venture out this evening.



Instead we had a little picnic dinner in our room with smoked salmon, pita, tapenade, tzaziki, tomatoes, peaches, cheese, wine and hazelnut chocolate. It was pretty delicious and now it's an early night (only 10 o'clock) and we're going to turn in early, sleep late tomorrow and hopefully be a little revitalized for whatever awaits us on the morrow!

5 comments:

Cemetery Guy said...

Sorry Nate, I tried my best I could find out is that we are a direct descendant of the 4th assistant stable boy.

Lauren.Story said...

It would be nice if you too would actually go and see some stuff when you are in France.

Jen said...

Too bad about the stable boy, although that being said: The stables were pretty nice! And then we could go look at the various other homes.

Bunny: I know, we've been slacking. But today we are planning on doing nothing at all that is not walking or shopping. Or having a petit cafe in a cafe ...

Unknown said...

After 11 hours of sleep we should be in much better shape today! Versailles was pretty exhausting!

Also, forgot to note that they predicted rain from 11AM to 5PM yesterday. It rained about twice as much as it did the previous day, which is to say about 40 seconds.

Lisa Marie said...

I seem to remember the Versailles Chateau as being really empty when we went.

It's a shame Armand Assante wasn't there. He should work as a greeter there.