Versailles, Marie Antoinette and Palace gardens. . .

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Paris day 4

I was excited to catch up again with Candra from New Zealand who I had met through my Ireland tour. She happened to be passing trough Paris on her first day as I was leaving on my last day. We decided to take a tour out to the Palace and gardens of Versailles. Unfortunately when I got to St Michael's fountain the guides told me Versailles was closed due to the first of May public holiday in France. :-( I also couldn't find Candra so I was gutted. Luckily she walked back to the square 5 mins later and we found an info centre who told us if we caught the train out the gardens would still be open, and as it was the cheaper option we ran with it.

We met a family from texas in the way who were also trying to navigate the French travel signs and we had a chat till we got off 40 mins out of town. The entrance to the gardens was the main palace and it was so enormous and amazing. I was overawed. I have been a big fan of the history of Marie Antoinette so I was very excited to see the palace and gardens where she lived. As the guide had said the main palace was closed but the gardens were the highlight anyway. The first garden near the palace was meticulously kept, I was so excited to get to the flowers I managed to walk straight into a deep water puddle. Wet feet and shoes were not as romantic as the photo I was aiming for. Haha

The fountains were not on today but we could see they would be amazing spectacle when they were. The view from the palace down to the boating lake was amazing, we had perfect weather for a day walking the parklands so we headed straight down to the lake (which is shaped like a big plus sign) for some chill out time. Lying in the long soft grass by the water, staring up at a clear blue sky, being kept at a comfortable temperature by a non fierce sun and a gentle breeze was a moment taken from heaven. We watched kids play ball games and sin french songs, couples chatting, families boating on the lake and cyclists drive by on the ouer paths. I can't remember the last time I was this content. I felt so blessed to be able to be in Versailles having this experience. It was incredible.

We eventually left our little spot of delight to wander the looong way around the whole lake to the other side. About half way we realised how far it really was and started discussing how nice it would be to bike around this garden. Haha The gardens are 800 hectares so it was quite a decent walk to go all the way around the lake. Marie Antoinette's house was shut and although I thought I could manage to climb the gate Candra reminded me that getting in trouble with the authorities probably wasn't a good idea when neither of us could speak French and there were about 50 people wandering in the vacinity. So we found more gardens, more statues, more flountains and even some paddocks with sheep and horses before deciding we were too tired and needed to get back to Paris. We met Candra's friend Lou and her mum for a chat and exchanged travel stories and then we went off for a nice meal (by this time it was around 10pm, but everyone eats late in Europe and althogh it takes getting used to, it is very convenient to be able to order high quality food this late and not be forced into takeaway places). I had duck and vegetables, it was sublime. We couldn't decide on deserts so I got the chocolate cake (more like a pudding with oodles of chocolate sauce in the middle) and Candra had the crepes with chocolate sauce. We split our desserts so we could each get a taste and it was so delicious! It was the ultimate end to Parisian decadence.

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