Very odd that it didn't show up on the monitor, but that must've been what we did wrong the day before – we didn't wait for a train that we didn't know was coming. Oh well. We jumped on it, and sure enough it took us right out to Versailles (just how I remembered it from 4 years ago). When we got off the train, we headed straight off to the palace. Unfortunately when we got there, there was a huge line for tickets. We had to stand in line, in the cold windy courtyard, for 40ish minutes until we got inside to the ticket counter. There we bought tickets to see the palace, the garden, and Marie Antoinette's Hamlet (which was the one place at Versailles that Lauren hadn't seen before).
It was decent weather, partly cloudy, but it was very windy (I've never seen clouds move so fast) and we were worried that it would start raining later in the day, so we decided to do the gardens and the hamlet first. We walked down the main path to the end of the gardens, which was very far away – the gardens huge, even if you take the most direct route through them. From there we had to walk along the road to Marie Antoinette's hamlet – the little fake country village that she had created just so she could pretend she was in the country side. The walk to get there was again, very far, and our feet and legs were quite sore by the time we even got there (I think they got sore faster every day because of lack of recovery time).
When we got there we walked through her country house at the entrance, which was, as usual, ridiculously lavish (especially for what was supposed to be a simple country retreat house). Then we headed out into the landscaped gardens. It was a huge area with lots of paths that branched everywhere – including into little tunnels through the trees and such. We ran across a very neat area with a huge stone area above a large pond (which was frozen over – just like pretty much all standing water around Versailles) and some sort of simple building. There we sat down and just rested and admired the view for a while. Then we headed off towards the hamlet – but I intentionally took us over some little hills and through the trees because the pathways were so neat. This is the kind of area you just want to explore for a day (I can see the appeal for Marie Antoinette).
After another lengthy walk, we arrived at the hamlet, which was a really neat little village that was constructed around an small lake (no doubt artificial – like everything there). It even included a little light house. There were lots of coy, a couple ducks (that kept diving underwater), and even very loud swan. We headed over towards the little fake farm, where there were lots of animals. First was a cage containing chickens and rabbits – it was pretty funny to watch a rabbit chasing a chicken around (though another rabbit got pecked in the nose when he tried to smell an annoyed looking chicken). There were also turkeys, sheep, goats, cows, some very sad looking donkeys (I think donkeys just naturally look sad), and even a dog. We couldn't tell if the dog was trained though, because we didn't know the French command for “sit”.
We were very tired, so we headed back along the path to the entrance of the Hamlet, then back along the road to Versailles. By this point we were very hungry and our legs were pretty much just non functional, so we stopped and grabbed sandwiches and sat down for lunch in the gardens. It seems that the gardens are a perfect place for cats though, because no less than 4 cats (all very cute – especially the calico kitten) would emerge from the bushes and sniff around for dropped food. When we were done with lunch, we headed back to the palace to walk through there.
Inside it was very crowded. We walked through the palace and saw many of the rooms, including the king's room, the hall of mirrors, and others. The one thing that always struck me was how short their beds were – they must have been so short. We saw lots of neat things, but it was very crowded, and while I'm not a claustrophobic person, by the time we left I was just about ready to punch the next person who bumped into me (it was just that crowded the entire time).
It was 4 or so and we were really tired and ready to head home. First we stopped by a starbucks near the station so Lauren could get coffee and I could get water. On the train ride home, I was so tired I fell asleep (and it was only a 20ish minute ride). I also almost passed out on the metro ride back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel rather early (no later than 5), so we napped and rested for a couple hours before heading out for dinner.
For dinner we headed back to that same bar/cafe for some more onion soup. It was delicious as always, and afterward we split a burger and fries there, which was also very delicious (and not in a gross greasy way either). After dinner we headed back to the hotel, and passed out as usual.
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