L'etat, c'est moi!

Before I read through all the guidbooks, I didn't really want to leave the major towns to do any day trips. I figured it would be best for us to just stick to the metro areas, not have to travel, and try to get a feel for the area we were in. For the most part we have stuck to this plan. Today was the exception, Versailles. As Rick Steve's says it, "If you see just one palace in Europe, see Varsailles."

We got up fairly early, which is to say around eight, did our usual bakery croissant and cafe cafe au lait, took a short Metro trip to the the train stop, then hopped the train to Versailles. The trip out was uneventful. It was a nice to see some of central Paris from a far and was interesting to see some of the further out areas of Paris. We arrived at the Versailles station, and walked the palace.

The palace from the front isn't all the impressive. The whole front area is basically a parking lot, so it just feels like walking up to any big building. The size becomes more and more impressive as you get closer. It's not that tall really, just a few floors, but it's very spread out. We bought our day pass ticket thing, then lined up to see some of the less busy sights. The first two things we did were the Madame area and the Dauphain area. These are the lesser sights inside the chatlet. While seeing old rooms in a palace was kinda cool, the whole thing just wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. Part of that likely had to do with the audio tour. Most of what they talk about are the paintings and the furniture. It gets old after about two rooms. I could have done with more history, but I suppose that's information you are supposed to already know.

Next we saw the main area of the chatlet, the State Rooms and the Hall of Mirrors. This got more interesting. Seeing the actual bedroom and Louis XIV and the room where Marie Antoinette hid from the mob was a step up from the tour before. But the audio guide continued to disappoint. Another downside, the hall of mirrors was being renovated so we only saw about one third of it. C'est la vie. On the other hand we did get to walk through the Opera House which I believe has only recently been made accessible. So overall the chatlet was OK but not great. We had lunch in the basement.

After lunch we headed out to the Gardens. Wow. Way more impressive than the chatlet itself. Seeing all the land sculpted perfectly was pretty darn cool. We were there at the right time to see the fountains running with classical music accompaniment. Sitting on the steps looking out over the grand canal and looking back at the chatlet is one of the cooler experiences of the trip so far. It just felt grand, large, royal. We walked around the gardens for a while trying to catch the highlights and eventually made our way to the Grand Canal. Around this time the fountains went off, so we stopped to catch our breath, then walked over to the Marie Antoinette are.

The walk over was a little longer than expected and so we, and our feet, were quite tired. We quite literally ran through some of the sights, the Grand Trianon and the Petite Trianon, took a quick peak at the some of the grounds around, then headed back to the train station. Forty-five minutes later, we were only a train headed back to Paris. It was a very long day, and despite the disappointments, still worth it.

Later that night we went to dinner at a nearby Rick Steve's recommended resuarant. When we sat down, I laid the book on the table, and the owner of the place, upon seeing the book, gave us a free round of a drink called bryyh, just like the book said she would. Awesome. Our dinner that evening was long and enjoyable and we knocked out a few classic French dishes such as escargot and creme brulee. Jerry liked the creme brulee so much, he was only half way through his when I was finished. It's true. I have pictures.