The metro trains run every 2-3 minutes, so basically, no wait time.
Outside of Gare Saint Lazare is an amazing clock “sculpture”.....what time IS it, Steve?
Inside the station is pretty entertaining too!
We love these modern, fast trains that seem to connect everywhere you want to go. At times a little tricky as far as buying tickets, but we’re getting the hang of it.
Lots of room on this RER train from Paris to Versailles this morning.
Once we arrive our guide leads us to the daily market place to consider what we will pick out for our picnic lunch. She stops at various stands pointing out cheeses, fruits, tapanades, crackers and of course wine. Oh dear, good news, bad news....it is illegal to bring wine on the grounds at Versailles. Ah, but she knows how to hide it.
We buy strawberries....forgetting the exchange he rate...yikes! $8.00 U.S.! But yummy.
We buy a little wine....
We don’t buy the chicken...with neck, head, beak and feet....
Nina directs us to the bakery around the corner for bread...with a warning to be back in 15 minutes.
How to choose?
Once back at the bike barn we load our picnics into the bike bags. Nina disappears our wine into her bags. Why is it so much fun to be naughty?
Our group consists of 6 couples of various ages, mostly Americans. We go for the ponchos the tour company provides as, yes, it is actually raining....but we hope not for long.
The bike trails around the Palace of Versailles are wide, even surfaced and flat. Great peddling!
Nina is a wonderful historian and story teller. At each stop we make she fills us with information about the French Royalty that made the palace and grounds their home.
Our bikes have sturdy tires and very comfy fat seats! No gears needed here and plenty to look at as we peddle along. Besides, I’m thinking about that picnic lunch coming up.
The water we gaze at is part of The Grand Canal, which Louis IV had built to create the feel of Venice. He imported gondolas and boatmen to take couples out on the mile long waterway, along with barges and an orchestra playing O Sole Mio.
Yes, that is the Palace of Versailles in back of us.
Ahhh, it is finally lunch time. The rain has stopped, and we spread out on a grassy field by the Grand Canal.
We decide we have gathered the perfect lunch!
Wonderful hard cheese, red pepper and olive tapanades, whole grain crackers, a baguette, strawberries, a cookie topped with chocolate chips..and...
...a great wine.... made even better by ....well....
Back on the bikes again, we head off for another part of the grounds.
First, the original part of the palace, the hunting lodge. Everyone needs the experience of a rustic accommodation when you go on a royal hunting trip, 68 miles from Paris.
The King’s bedroom. Well, King LouisXIV, and his mistress shared this bed, while his wife, the Queen, stayed up in the Chateaux.
The hunting lodge garden. One needs a garden to enjoy a good hunt.
Walls of marble...
Muaic stands guilted with gold in the music room....for after the hunt?
And.....golden door knobs....
Not sure whose room this was... it it looks “girly” to me!
Then we check out Marie Antoinette’s hamlet and farm. She had this built during the rein of her husband, Louis XVI. She wanted to experience the life of a common person and have access to a farm.
The farmhouse and chicken yard, where the royal children could collect eggs...after each egg was carefully washed by the “farm hands!”
Every inland hamlet needs a lake and a lighthouse...so be it.
The Temple of Love, with a statue of Cupid in the center.
There are many more stories by guide Nina, some of them told while we sit on the grass and listen, looking at the very place she is talking about, imagining the people who lived here and wandered the ground we sit upon. Oh, what a teaching moment, to be talking story as your class absorbs the very place you are explaining. It’s the glue that results in lifetime learning and connections.
As the bike tour ends, we are left at the gate to the Palace of Versailles, with a skip the line ticket and a train ticket for the trip back to Paris. It’s a perfect time to visit the palace as it’s ow 4:30 and the crowds have drifted off.
The palace gardens, created by Louis XIV, were an extension of his need to create a powerful statement about his control over his surroundings and all of France. He presided over these gardens into his old age. Everything needed to be perfect, including the cookie cutter like trees.
Another reminder of The Sun King, Louis XIV....the good and the reference to sunlight...everywhere.
The Royal fountains, the “green carpet” and the grand canal stretch out from the back of the palace.
I’m still walking, but starting to drag my toes a little. We have just finished 8 miles of bike riding and the day will end with a score of 10 miles of walking on my fit bit! And we still have not been inside the palace, or Chateaux!
So inside it is...with a Rick Steve’s audio tour loaded on our phones. Here is an incredible ceiling....somewhere!
And now, ladies and gentlemen, we take you to The Hall of Mirrors! Mirrors were a great luxury at the time this was built. The hall is 250 ft. In length. There are 17 arched mirrors, opposite of 17 matched arched windows, looking out on a view of the magnificent Gardens! Oh, and then there are the 24 builder candelabra, 8 busts of Roman emperors, 8 classical statues...ummm, and an entire ceiling of decorative paintings depicting the military accomplishments of Louis.
I am more than glad to get back to the train station and zoom on back to Paris. We munch on a few picnic leftovers, and once back in our hotel district make a stop in Rue Cler at a cafe for dinner.
Look who we find out to dinner with her French family. Steve could identify the bark from 10 tables away!
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