We went to the Palace of Versailles in 2000 with our 3 boys. We took a guided tour of the palace only...none of the grounds. R&L and J&B had never been to Versailles before, so when we started planning for this trip, we decided we wanted to spend 1 day there. I booked the tickets long before we left. This might be a good time to mention that we checked the historical average weather in each of our French destinations before we booked ANY of our plans last year. Looking back at my notes, I see that it was July when I noted that the average weather in Bordeaux would be highs of 77, lows of 55 at night, Dinan would be 70/54, and Paris should be 72/52. I checked weather forecasts 3 days before we left just to make sure I packed appropriately and temps were forecasted to be similar to what I had seen in July. Well, let me tell you, the weather man lies! We have had much colder temps, and lot of rain in each city, with the heaviest rain arriving on the day we had pre-purchased tickets to Versailles! (Never have I packed so inappropriately for a trip!) Originally I had thought we would take the Metro and RER train to Versailles town and then walk 15 minutes to the chateau. The weather changed our plans and we took a 30 minute Uber ride, arriving just in time for our 9:00 entry tickets. Our tickets included the palace, the gardens, and the Trianons.
It's too hard to travel through a museum as a pack of 6, so each couple went at their own pace through the palace, and we met up before heading to the gardens. The palace is lovely and so opulent. Here are a few snaps from inside the palace.
This is the beautiful chapel where Louis and his court attended Mass every day.
So much gold!
I felt like an art history smarty pants when I saw this painting at Versailles. I know another identical one hangs in the Louvre. It depicts Napoleon crowning Josephine in Notre Dame (not the normal spot for coronations). First he crowned himself, then turned and crowned his bride. What is notable is that the artist painted a copy of the painting and that is the one that is hanging in Versailles. (The original one is in the Louvre). Jacque-Louis David is the artist.
We had just watched "Hamilton" before heading on this trip, so I couldn't resist taking a photo of Gary in front of a painting of "The Battle of Yorktown", which played heavily in the musical Hamilton (the song The World Turned Upside Down)
The (very crowded) Hall of Mirrors
Even with the crowds, the Hall of Mirrors impresses! I have watched enough movies set in Versailles that I can easily picture it filled with royalty and courtesans, not tourists!
And just a touch more gold!
OK...now on to explore the rest of the Versailles grounds! I am always amazed by the precisely manicured hedges and plantings of a formal garden, and Versailles did not disappoint.
Lenore, Gary, Ron and I all bought knit beanies (different colors) in Dinan; wool with fleece lining. Gary was cold at Versailles so I let him "borrow" my hat.
Even in grey weather the flowers were pretty.
We opted not to explore the farther away gardens in the rain. Versailles is set on 2,000 acres so there is much more than just the palace to see. There was a little train that drove to some of the farther away parts of the estate, so we hopped on that. It was about lunch so we hopped off at the first stop which was at the Grand Canal area with huge ponds for boating. There was a lovely restaurant called La Flottille. I wish I had taken some photos of it but somehow I didn't. The room we sat in was just so lovely, like sitting in a greenhouse, with the outside foliage just starting to show Fall colors. The food was great (way better than what I was expecting)..all the ladies started with champagne (I mean, we were at Versailles...how could we not start with some bubbles?!). The onion soup was probably the best I have ever had. Gary even got some that they had not already placed the bread on!
For dessert I had île flottante/floating island and this one was superb! The bowl had a puddle of creme anglaise (tasted like melted Haagaen Dazs vanilla ice cream) with a large ball of the lightest meringue on top. And if you can imagine the top of a creme brûlée sitting on top...you got the idea! Crunchy on top, light and fluffy in the middle, and sweet and creamy on the bottom - the perfect combination!
Fully sustained, we hopped on the next little train that passed by and headed to the Trianons. This is a section of Versailles where both King Louis and Marie Antoinette had separate private areas in which to get away from the 24/7 fishbowl life in the palace (I mean their bedrooms had galleries where people could watch them go to bed or wake up.) Louis had the Grand and Petite Trianons where he could entertain on a more private scale. Due to time and weather we skipped those (they just looked like smaller versions of the big palace, opting instead to focus on Marie Antoinette's little "hamlet". This was a whole model village built around an artificial lake, complete with thatch roof cottages, a little farm, and stone bridge. The queen could host small parties of guests here. She used this area to remind herself of her beautiful and pastoral homeland, Austria. It was lovely, even in the rain, and it was well worth the beautiful walk through the rain to get here!
Walking back to the little train...time to head back to Paris after a very full day! We exited the grounds of Versailles with tons of other people. We had no exit plan...I was hoping to find 2 taxis for us (but there were about 100 people thinking the same thing!). Right across the street there were a bunch of taxis lined up...I spied a taxi van and ran for it. I asked if he could drive 6 of us to 74 rue du Sebastopol...the driver hesitated and asked if I had called for a cab. Fearfully I said "no", sure he would say he was waiting for someone who had called. After a few seconds of hesitation he opened the doors for us to get in (sorry/not sorry to the family who had called for a van and then found NONE waiting for them!). We zipped home to our lovely apartment, just in time to dry off, have a glass of wine, and head off to a restaurant that our nephew David had suggested. We heard it had great fire-grilled beef...we were hungry and couldn't wait!
Ron said David and Courtney had eaten here and highly recommended this restaurant! As soon as I heard the name I remembered that it was in the Marais right down the street from an apartment that Lenore, Michele, Elyse and I had rented in 2019...the restaurant is named Robert et Louise. It was so small and cute, with little lace curtains in the windows, it intreagued me every day when we walked past it in 2019. It always looked so homey and inviting. The 6 of us headed off and walked there...about 15-20 minutes from our apartment. I realized that we were running late so I took off walking at hyper-speed, I'm afraid, as I didn't want to miss our reservation. They had held our table and took us downstairs (more skinny spiral stairs of course!) to our table, walking us past the wood fire grill...it looked awesome and smelled even better! The sweet woman at the table next to us too our picture...sadly that is the only photo we have from this restaurant.
We had a variety of dishes...Ron and Gary had the same steak (rib eye) that was very tough and they would not recommend. I had duck that was tasty...and sadly I can't remember what everyone else had. Oh, I think Babette had 3 tasty lamb chops! Service was good, but food seemed "less than". The wine was excellent though, and I always like a restaurant where the other patrons are French, and not all tourists. My apple crumble for dessert was good...I don't remember for sure, but I bet Lenore had something involving chocolate!! After a more leisurely walk home we fell into bed - it had been a long (but good) day!
*we walked 19,984 steps this day!
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