Day Nineteen- Palace of Versailles!

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Actually left the apartment at a reasonable time this morning- 8:50am! We saw a nice looking cafe on our first day and since it’s our last day in this area we decided to go there for breakfast. It’s a cute little cafe called Zouzou, and it was quite nice but my GOODNESS food in Europe is expensive. It was €5,5 ($8.60) for a chai latte, and €8 ($12.60) for two poached eggs and some bread.

After breakfast we headed off to a random station and hopped on a subway to Versailles!! (Also, the subways here are double decker...I hate Brisbane). We got to Versailles and headed with about 100 hundred other tourists to the Palace. On first appearance, the Palace didn’t actually look too amazing. Half of it was covered in a fake mesh image of the Hall of Mirrors, which made us think there was scaffolding underneath that they were covering up. But as we got closer and could see more intricate details, we realised it was more amazing than we imagined it would be.

We’d pre-booked tickets, but apparently so did everyone else, so we waited in line for an hour and a half in the sun (luckily we’d brought sunscreen with us). It didn’t feel like it took too long though, as the American conversations around us kept us surprised, confused, and amused. We finally made it in, went through security, grabbed an audio guide, and began our day at Versailles!

It was BEAUTIFUL. And listening to the history behind each of the rooms was incredible as well. We saw the King’s apartment, Victoire and Adelaide’s apartment, dining rooms, party rooms, sitting rooms, music rooms, prayer rooms, and all the other different kinds of rooms you can imagine a super and unnecessarily rich family would have. Honestly, it’s no wonder the peasants got fed up with them. I’m even annoyed at them, and they didn’t even oppress me.

Although I’m annoyed at how careless they were of the poor, they did have a royal status and were probably no more rich than the British Royal Family is today. I just can’t get over how much money it would have cost to build the Palace, curate the gardens and then STILL be rich. Amazing.

Anyway, it was a beautiful palace and has a rich, gripping history that I’m very interested in. After seeing all the rooms we ran into another Ladurée, where I did end up buying another chocolate. I had to!! It’s Ladurée, duh.

We then headed to the gardens, excited to explore it for an hour or so, but were told that our passes didn’t include access to the gardens (I’m 99.99% sure it did, but I can’t argue confidently in French yet). We could have bought tickets in, but we were both tired, hungry, and overheating, and both on a budget that we thought we’d already extended for the gardens. So unfortunately we took a few pictures from the outside and left the Palace of Versailles.

We headed down to the little village area for lunch, but we couldn’t find anything within our price range. Plus, it was all Italian, and I think I’d rather eat French food while in France. So we decided to find something back in Paris, but as soon as we got back Trudi said she needed a nap ASAP, so we headed back to the apartment. While Trudi slept (I was super tired as well but I’m worried about messing up my sleep pattern too much) I looked up some places for linner (lunch/dinner, as by this time it was 5pm so too late for one but too early for the other). Trudi woke up at 5:30pm and we headed right around the corner to Café Montorgueil.

I. Love. This. Place. The only really “French” foods it had were over €50, so we had to settle for some burgers, but they were Frenchified. I also ordered a Bellini, which I’d never heard of before, but it was recommended to me by Trudi’s uncle back in Peebles (when he saw me continuously refilling my prosecco at the party). It’s so good!!! I can’t believe I’d never had it before, when it is basically me if I were a cocktail. I also would like to dedicate this cocktail to my aunts Penny and Kendra, who wanted no souvenirs but instead for me to have a drink for them (although it would have been cheaper for me to get you both a souvenir, ya welcome).

Anyway, we left the café and went to find some ice cream, as we realised we haven’t had any in France yet. But there was no where close by and we didn’t have internet to search for any, so we headed into a supermarket to get some. We also picked up some snacks, as tomorrow we’ll be heading to Bordeaux for the weekend! That being said, we have an early train, so I’ll head to bed now.

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Comments

[Am I bovered]

The dedication
You crack me up Luce! No wonder you are my favourite niece! Thanks for the nod to Kenj and I. Im pretty happy that it was a Bellini that you used for our drink! So fancy