The Story of a Rather Wet Day at Versailles... It got better!... Sort of...

Today was Versailles day! Amongst the many 'crowd beating options' in our guidebook was the option to go late morning and start in the garden and not enter the château until the afternoon. So this was out grand plan. But given it takes an hour to get there we didn't want to be leaving too too late. So we breakfasted, packed up to check out, and we were at the station to catch the train to Versaille by a respectable 10.30am, we thought. Well the next train was blimmin' cancelled, that was problem number one.

Not long after we had figured out that the French word flashing next to our train number on the electronic board meant "cancelled"

View from the train on the way out to Versaille, when the next train eventually arrived.

...Problem number two was that this effectively doubled the amount of people that all arrived at Versailles all at once. Doubling the length of the queue to get through security (even with a museum pass, you still have to line up in the same line as everyone else to have your bags checked, which effectively negates the benefit of having the pass, in this instance...) 

...Problem number three was that Greg needed the bathroom stat when we got off the train so that meant we would have been at the back of said queue (not blaming, just saying). 

...Problem number four was that it was raining. Quite a lot. Starting out in the gardens just didn't appeal.

Our first glimpse of the golden gates of Versailles. 

What to do? Well, our solution was to think 'blow this' and go and have lunch in Versaille town. 

What a wonderful lunch it was! We found this lovely restaurant with a set menu and and when I went and asked the man in french for a table for two and indicated inside, he ignored my terrible pronounciation and very politely spoke to us... in English. Then he led us upstairs to a window seat on the first floor. As what we knew would be our last proper meal out in France, we did the whole shebang, wine, coffee etc. 

The couple next to us brought in their dog which was a bit random but generally ok. However when the man ordered liver the smell of it made me want to chuck....

By the time we were done it was almost 1pm and we still weren't even at Versaille yet! 

The drizzle continued as we headed over there and thinking about the walk in the gardens I started scouring the place for an umbrella to buy. “Why are there never street sellers with things that you actually need, like umbrellas?” I complained to Greg as we walked towards the golden gates as the rain fell heavier and heavier. “There they are.” replied Greg, casually. Sure enough, there was a line of men all holding umbrellas for sale. Two for ten euro? Sold!

It was a good thing too, because even with our museum pass we had to stand in the looong queue in the rain to get through security. The line moved quick enough but we were still stuck out there in miserableness for a good fifteen minutes. We knew that we were going to have to do the Chateau first, crowds or no, because it was just too darned wet to contemplate the gardens!

So at last we were in. We toured the Chateau amongst throngs of people. As a positive and a negative, most of the crowds were made up of school children. It made the place very noisy, and children are less aware of others around them than adults (although there are definitely still plenty of unaware adults) so trying to get around or through them when they were moving en masse was challenging. That was the negative side. The positive side is that it is really easy to see over their heads!!

Greg pointed out that we were lucky to be visiting Versailles in the rain, as we got to see how the decorative pipes directing the roof run-off looked when they were in action... 

The interior of Versailles was stunning, to the point of madness, to be expected. Every inch of everything was elaborately and expensively decorated.

The hall of mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed was great to see. 

Very crowded! That kind of steamy, humid air of many people who have been standing in the rain for half an hour now all squashing up like sardines in a rather elaborately decorated tin.

With a mirror, we can both be in the photo!

  

Through the window, looking at one part of the gardens.

It was a bit eery to be in the Queen's bedchamber, looking at the little door where Marie Antoinette went through to try and escape the revolutionaries. 

  

This is where the royal family would eat, and the favoured court people would sit around and watch.

   

  

Feeling confused, when the main tour was over, we wandered outside for a bit...

...the sun was out!

When we found ourselves, surprisingly, at the end of the main tour, we decided to view some of the other, less popular apartments. While they were less lavish they were still interesting and it was nice being able to see everything easily and breathe freely!

 

A rather cool globe.

New Zealand!

  

View towards the golden gates, from the inside.

Outside, it had stopped raining at last and the sun was trying to come out. We wandered the bepuddled, somewhat muddy gardens and made our way to the other buildings. 

The Versailles Estate is really massive! Over half an hour later we arrived at the smaller palace, where the French royalty could go to get a proper escape from court etc. In hindsight we should have skipped this (as it was more of the same from the Château) and gone straight to Marie Antoinette's estate, but we just had no idea how long everything would take and how far it was... (well Greg did, but I rather stubbornly ignored the time....). 

The garden of the smaller palace.

Once we had wandered there we headed over to Marie Antoinette's area and we had enough time to get an idea of what the garden was like and look at some of the places where she used to play, put on little performances, and have tea parties with her friends, before I had to admit defeat and let Greg drag me back to the station.  

Petit Trianon

French Pavilion

Inside her little theatre.

Part of the garden area where all these little buildings could be found. It was an extremely peaceful and lovely space - and escape indeed!

Another little building where she would entertain her friends.

What we missed out on, that we both would have loved to see, was the 'Hamlet', where Marie Antoinette had tried to recreate the peasant farmhouse lifestyle she remembered from her youth (without all the hard work of course). But never mind! Thems the breaks when you don't have much time and the weather and trains don't go to plan!

We saw this enormous fountain on the way out. Apparently if you come at the right time - normally at night in the summer - (and pay more) there is a huge fountain/light display.

The reason we were in such a rush is that we had to get back to Paris, back to our accommodation to get our bags, then back to yet another different station to take the night train to Munich. I wasn't sure how long before the train we needed to be there so we were trying to allow an hour. Anyway we made it, after dragging our bags several blocks in the only rays of actual sunshine we saw in our whole time in Paris.

I grabbed us some rolls & pastries for dinner (again the man thought I only wanted to one pastry, but I managed to correct him this time!) while Greg watched the bags.

The train arrived and we found our 'seats' which was actually our own very cute private cabin. Bunk beds, and our own compact toilet, sink, and shower. It was really fun!We enjoyed sitting in our own private room watching the sun set as we were both able to relax and be travelling to our next destination!

Greg initially wanted the top bunk but then realised the sway of the train that much higher up made him queasy, so he had to come down where there was less motion and he could still see out of the window!!

A German girl mistakenly knocked on our door and I opened it to see who it was. After she went away, embarrassed, I turned around and realised that Greg was sitting there dressed like this. Must have freaked her out a little bit - especially with the headlamp on!

I wasn't exactly a pretty picture myself...

My eyes were still giving me grief but I was kind of coping and hoping whatever it was would get better!

It was a different experience sleeping on a train but the bed was comfy enough! 

Somewhere in the night we crossed from France into Germany...