Daily Details: July 17

Palace, anyone? Versailles, here I come! Although it was a VERY windy morning and we were all freezing buns, the magnificence of Versailles was in no way diminished as we waited for our tour guide. He game, a little Italian man, dressed in a black suit, coral shirt, and red tie. Even despite the garish color combo, I thought he looked quite professional still. Then, I saw it…the rat tail. What I had thought was a normal clean-cut haircut had a nasty braid down the back that was about 5 inches long. Ha ha! He was quite the character! The inside of Versailles was absolutely lavish with most everything being covered in gold. Our tour guide gave us fantastic information, and I felt like I walked away from the palace knowing MUCH more than I have ever known about all the Louis that lived there.

Once in the gardens, I was in absolute shock at how huge they are! What I didn’t expect to see was how the perfectly manicured gardens fade into natural forests on both sides. It was a nice juxtaposition between the tamed and untamed. The huge canals that form a cross in the land reminded me a bit of Venice, and as we walked deeper into the gardens, our tour guide told us this area is actually called the little Venice. You could even rent canoes to go boating on the canals. The only thing I was dismayed about was that the fountains weren’t running—apparently they only run them on Saturdays. All the same, they were impressive to see. As we walked through the gardens, we came upon some living quarters. Our tour guide told us the gardeners live there. The job of being a gardener at Versailles is passed down from father to son and they actually LIVE in the palace grounds. How cool!
My favorite part of the day, and one of my VERY favorite parts of the whole trip came as we descended out of the forest and into the Queen’s Hamlet. This is a little village that Louis XVI had built for Marie Antoinette. Having come from Austria, she found palace life to be very difficult. Louis loved her so much that he built the Hamlet for her to go to during the day so she could feel like she was more at home. What a sweet guy! She would take her children out there all day and they would come home to sleep at night. The Hamlet came straight from a fairytale—of that I am certain! It was THE most magical place I’ve just about ever been to! Each building had a purpose—a quaint little mill, a milk store, a tower for fishing, a mini vineyard, etc…Everything is on this wonderful miniature scale, there’s a pond with water lilies floating on it, and “natural” countryside abounds. I can hardly give a description that does this place justice, so you’ll just have to gander at the pictures. Suffice it to say, I felt like I was a little girl playing princesses again with my two best friends, Ali and Tashi. It was a great feeling to feel a little piece of the wonderment of childhood again.

Although there was still MUCH to see in Paris, our group decided that we would cut down on the number of things we would be doing so we could truly enjoy the things we DID see. That was a great decision, and led us to a café called the Eiffel Tower Café. Once again, the men inside were VERY welcoming and friendly. Although steak and fries is a common meal for the French to get at brasseries, I decided to get the roasted chicken and fries. Boy, am I glad I did! The roast chicken was quite possibly the best I’ve ever had, the fries were amazing, and once again the salad (yes, you heard me right!) tickled my taste buds. For dessert, we shared another crème brulee…yum! Our check came with some little hard candies. Does life get much better than that?!

Our next trek took us to the Arc de Triomphe. What a BEAUTIFUL thing to see in person! It was awesome to stand by it and see how 5 different roads in Paris lead into it. To get to the arc, you have to go underground, as the arc stands by itself on sort of an island. We climbed 200-something stairs to get to the top—all tight, spiral stairs. Once at the top, you are able to look at a big screen where they are filming the people below. That is when you grasp just how high up you are. Outside of the arc was AWESOME!!! The views were very comparable to the ones on the 2nd terrace of the Eiffel Tower. It was SUPER overcast when we got to the top and after taking a few photos, we once again found ourselves in a downpour. Surprised? I wasn’t--we seem to be the rainmakers of Europe! Ha ha! We took a few more pictures and then headed down. We hadn’t been able to walk down the Champs Elysees yet, and we knew we needed to do it, so we braved the weather and started strolling. The shops on the street are very high-end, as you can imagine, but it was neat to say I took a rainy stroll down the most famous street in Paris. It was one great, rainy day in Paris!