How The Other Half Lives, XVIIieme Century Style - by Jenni

When we started to plan this trip last winter, we told Emma to do some research and tell us what she wanted to see in Paris. She said "SHOPPING". We said "And what else?" She just looked at us. A few weeks later, she texted me one afternoon and said "When we go to Paris, can we go to Versi?" I texted back "We'll see", figuring "Versi" was a store. Then I went to Google and typed in "Versi Paris" and Google said "Do you mean VERSAILLES"? Ah-hah! Google knows my daughter better than I do.

Rick Steves and at least one person on ParentNet suggested the guided tour as a way of skipping the (long long) line to get in. Rick Steves also suggests going to Versailles on Thursday. Too many people must be reading Rick Steves, because the Thursday tours were sold out. It's good to be flexible. We went today. We walked about 20 minutes to the train station, and of course we walked past the boulangerie so we could pick up our pains chocolat and our croissants. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. 30 minutes on the train took us to the Versailles station, and a short walk brought us to this view.

It just gets better from here.

We checked in for our tour and had about 45 minutes to wait so we wandered out to the garden. The weather was gorgeous - we have been amazingly lucky so far and today was a jewel. Sunny, mid-70s and low humidity with a bit of a breeze. We all fell in love with the gardens immediately.

"Did they own all that?" "They owned the whole country, sweetie". "And this was their backyard?"

The guided tour took us through the king's private apartments. They start the English tours every half hours, alternating by 15 minutes with the French tours. That makes for a lot of tours and a lot of people and if one guide runs a little late...you have a tour traffic jam. Our guide was a charming young woman who coped very well with the resulting chaos and kept us moving as best she could. She explained the court ettiquette and the reason for the private apartments. One of the first rooms we saw is the Chambre des Chiens (room of the dogs), so-called because that was where they kept the dogs and where the king's footmen stayed. I think the dogs had a better life than the footmen.

Much of the original art and furniture was removed at the time of the Revolution. Some magnificent pieces remain, including a clock that provided the official time for the entire country for at least a hundred years. Louis XV was apparently quite a student of the sciences, especially astronomy. The clock has an orrery (a working model of planetary orbits) on the top, and it's mounted in front of a mirror so that the king and his guests could appreciate the movement through the clear glass back of the clock. I don't have a picture of it - couldn't do it justice on the phone.

I do have a picture of the writing desk. The desk is, of course, exquisite.

Many of the rooms were altered by subsequent kings, including the library, which started life as a game room. We admired the books and globes and then left through the secret door. I love secret doors.

After the tour of the private apartments, we were able to go directly into the publicly accessible spaces without waiting online. Definitely worth the price of the tour to skip the very very long line we saw at the gates when we arrived. The consequence of the long line, of course, is that the public spaces are so crowded that you can barely move around. By this time we were all hot and tired, so we didn't linger to admire artwork or take any pictures except for this one in the Hall of Mirrors.

We finally left the building at 12:30 and headed back to the gardens. The gardens of Versailles cover about 2000 acres. We were not going to walk the whole thing. No matter what, we weren't going to see the whole thing. Rick Steves (there's that name again) suggests renting a golf cart. He also points out that while the rules say only adults over 24 can drive the carts, there are long stretches of path where no one is looking that closely....so Emma was determined to get us into a golf cart. She was so determined that she didn't even want to stop for lunch. We were suprised how short a wait there was and by 1:00 we were golf-carting our way down the hill to a lovely little restaurant called La Petit Venise. I don't know why there's an Italian restaurant on the grounds of Versailles. I don't really care. It was good food and we sat outside in a courtyard and enoyed ourselves.

Emma and I were amused by the name of the limonade.

From there, we drove to the Petit Trianon, which started out as the home of Madame Pompadour and was subsequently Marie Antoinette's favorite residence. In the garden is the temple of love, build by Louis XVI for Marie Antoinette. It is, as you can see, quite restrained, like everything else they did. 

The pools and streams surround the Petit Trianon are more naturalistic than the manicured and symmetrical topiaries and canals and fountains of the rest of the grounds. There were also fewer people and it was very peaceful.

And after we left the Trianon, Emma got her chance behind the wheel.

She did fine. Her initial anxiety gave way to complete elation. This might have been a tactical error, since she was already obsessed with driving. Oh, well. She had fun.

See? Happy girl. This is the Grand Canal, where you can rent rowboats and take a pique-nique along as well.

And here we are near the top of the hill, close to the end of the golf cart tour. Those of you who know my mother will note the gilt frogs in the fountain. We turned in the cart and walked back to the station and came back to Paris, dusty and footsore and very very happy. 

On our morning walk to the train, Emma spotted a store she thought would be a good source of presents for her friend Caleb, so we stopped there on the way back, along with half of Paris - it was the first day of the summer sale. Emma, of course, was right. She found a shirt and sweater that work well together and was very pleased with her purchases.

We came home, cooled off, had hors d'ouevres here in the apartment, and went out to dinner at a brasserie around the corner. Emma had steak, David had goose and I had duck. We found another Amorino's right nearby and finished our day with ice cream and sorbet. 

Only two days more...hard to believe. Time to put my sore feet to bed and rest up for tomorrow's adventures. Bonne nuit!