Clearly he was a fan of gold. As you might be able to make out in some of the photos, they laid it on pretty thick. It's very shiny.
For the first time this trip we set the alarm, got up early, and made our way in a slight drizzle to St Michel Notre Dame station to get the train out to Versailles. On the way we stopped and breakfasted at one of the thousand cafes that line the Parisien streets.
I'm making an effort to smile more.
After scrambled eggs and cafe creme, we made our way to the subway as the rain began to take its work a little more seriously.
The Paris Metro is mainly underground and so not many photo opportunities. Once we left the confines of the city, the train popped its head up and we had some great suburban views. It's different out there than it is in the inner city - free standing houses that still look old and quaint, but are not usually covered in gold.
We didn't take any train photos, but here is a photo of a train from the internet. It's probably not the same one we caught, but it's the best I could do.
The trip itself was uneventful, and soon we were waiting at the tour company's office for our guide to gather us together. We ha a bit of time to kill so I went for a little walk to check out the enormous building over the road, which turned out to be the town hall.
Just your average local municipal office - I watched for a little while as various Versailliens (I'm not sure about that word) made their way in to buy their dog licences, pay their rates and parking fines, etc. Soon our guide Isobel assembled about 16 of us information starved touristes and lead us on our short trek to the palace.
Fortunately, the rain was continuing, and as you can see from these photos, cloudy overhead.
Were it a sunny day, the photos would be impossible to see as the reflection of all the gold would blind us. Here's a photo from the internet showing how it looks when it's overcast but not raining.
Annie had cleverly bought us tickets on a "skip the queue" tour which is a good idea in principle, but it seems that everyone else bought one of those too, which resulted in a long queue for the skip the queue entrance. As we removed our belts and mobile phones to pass through the metal detectors, an elderly American fellow remarked wistfully to no-one in particular, "Those terrorists have changed everything..." True, but it would be a good effort to hijack a palace.
Isobel then distributed the radios that would enable us to hear her tell us all that we needed to know. We headed inside, where we found about one hundred thousand other keen fans of late eighteenth century excess, swarming about, taking photos and bumping me.
You should see this place! It's outrageous. Every room (and there's more than a few) is covered from floor to ceiling with every conceivable gaudy ornamentation - and more thana few awe-inspiring works of art. The ceilings are all murals celebrating the magnificence of the various Louis that lived there (but mainly Quatorze) , with the occasional nod to the gods (mainly Roman). Every wall is adorned with enormous paintings, silk wallpaper, gold (naturally) and statues - almost all depicting Louis XIV in one heroic scene or another, trampling some more poor foreigners under the feet of his mighty horse. This place is the ultimate Trophy Room.
Here's a "where's Wally?" style shot of Annie in the Hercules drawing room. Mary Magdalene is washing some bloke's feet in the background.
We battled our way through the Venus room, the Diana room, the Mars room, the Mercury and Apollo rooms before arriving at the celebrated Hall of Mirrors.
On the way, we saw this bed and some very tasteful chairs.
Here's Annie about to enter the hall of mirrors.
Eventually the tour was over (there were more rooms but I'm skipping over them) and we bid Isobel and here many facts farewell. We were booked for lunch, but had an hour and a bit to kill, so we decided to ignore the rain and head out into the world famous Jardin de Versailles. The gardens themselves were not at their best as it's not yet planting season. All of the garden beds were bereft of flowers, but the landscape itself was incredible. And wet.
Annie in front of the backyard swimming pool.
Damien in front of the Fountain of Frogs and Turtles (with the grand canal in the background).
Here are the frogs and turtles without me blocking them.
I'm not sure if you can tell from the photos but the rain was not stopping. We headed back towards the Chateau when we saw some golf buggies for hire. What better way for a very wet man with a bad ankle to show his lovely wife around the Jardins?
Here's the view
Annie was loving it!
But soon it was over and we found ourselves sitting down in a very nice restaurant, Ore, where they showed me the way one pours a beer in France.
A bit of work to do there, but it was just the ticket after a tough morning.
Annie went for the smoked salmon
While I settled for the coddled egg. Just an upmarket version of boiled eggs and toast soldiers really.
Then Annie had some pasta - it's more interesting than that, but I can't remember what it was, and she's asleep now, so you'll have to settle.
I was being calorie conscious so I went for a small fillet steak served with Foie Gras and a potato creation that was 95% butter. A couple of reds to wash it down. Not too shabby.
We wobbled out into the rain and made our way home via the metro. Absolutely nothing interesting happened during that time, except for this.
A dog that didn't want to get his feet wet.
Tomorrow's our last full day in Paris and nothing planned. Let's see what it holds in the next chapter.
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