The Palace and Gardens of Versailles

Saturday August 28th, Paris

Yesterday morning we had a final stroll along the boardwalk in Arcachon, bought some pastries at a bakery and had breakfast on our balcony. We took the train to Bordeaux and then the TGV high speed train to Paris Montparnasse. We got to the Montparnasse station at 4 pm. It only took us about 10 minutes to walk to our hotel, the Daguerre Montparnasse. It's a typical small 3 star Paris hotel in an old building on Rue Daguerre.

After we got settled we went shopping for breakfast and lunch items. Rue Daguerre becomes a pedestrian mall a couple of blocks from our hotel. It's a little side street and seems to be the neighbourhood street for small groceries, delis, restaurants and bars. Very handy. After we got organized we went back out for dinner to a little restaurant across the street recommended by the hotel desk person. We both had duck and scalloped potatoes. Excellent! There is a lot more duck available here than at home. Usually it's not really expensive and is very good.

This morning we packed a picnic lunch and took a regional train from Gare Montparnasse to Versaille. We walked about 10 minutes from the Versailles Chantiers station to the Chateau de Versailles. This is the palace and gardens built by the kings of France for themselves to live in total luxury and awe the other royalty of Europe. It was started in 1661 and had up to 45,000 workmen at a time draining swamps, digging lakes and building the palace. The kings ruled France from here for over 100 years, until the revolutionary mob showed up and dragged Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette out and eventually beheaded them. When told that the peasants of Paris had no bread, sweet Marie should never have said, "Let them eat cake", while she was living in the ultimate palace of the time. Apparently they didn't like that.

We didn't stand in line for the interior palace tour but we did spend most of the day touring the extensive gardens. It's hard to believe how extensive these gardens really are. You can barely see from the palace to the far end of the grand canal, which is really a man-made lake with stone banks and lawns around it. There are statues, fountains and side gardens everywhere. The idea was to create a series of pleasant spaces that would be like outdoor drawing rooms where the king and members of court could walk around, sit and enjoy the good life. They have a "Musical Fountains Show" on weekends all summer. Recorded classical music is played from loudspeakers hidden in the bushes and the fountains are turned on. Some of the renovated ones sort of dance to the music. The older ones just flow normally but they're doing that through some of the original piping from the 17th century that still works.

We had our picnic lunch on the lawn by the grand canal and then walked up to the Grand Trianon, a pink marble building at one corner of the gardens where Louis the XV kept his mistress, Mme du Barry. Later, Marie Antoinette stayed there frequently to avoid court life. We all like a little peace and quiet.

When we'd seen enough, we caught another train back to Montparnasse. It's only 16 km so it doesn't take long. That's it for trains. Our 2 month Eurail pass expires at midnight tonight. It's been well used. We'll miss all our nice train rides.

Tonight we'll go out for dinner somewhere down the Rue Daguerre and spend a last day in Paris tomorrow.