Day 7 - Saturday

To see our photos from today, click here.

We slept in again until 9:30am! Breakfast was a leftover baguette in the room, with peanut butter that Jana brought from home, as well as a nice strong cup of coffee for me. Another beautiful day, so we decided to make the trek to the Palace (Chateau) of Versailles, built in the 1600's and home to several French Kings (Louis XIV - Louis XVI). We were hesitant about going...the people we met from Boston did not seem too impressed, but we decided to go anyway and are so glad we did. It was a 30 minute ride on the RER (the system of trains outside of Paris), which gave us another view of the Paris area. What followed was a ten minute walk accompanied by what seemed like thousands of others headed to the same destination. At the entrance we could see two long lines, one for people waiting for tickets (which we found out later was two hours long) and one for people who had tickets (which I did have - the girls were free). Thanks to Chelsea’s power walking, we passed 76 people on the way to the line. The wait ended up being only 15 minutes. Words can’t really describe the inside of the palace...magnificent, awe-inspiring, extravagant. We did feel like cattle being herded, though, as we passed from room to room.

Outside, the garden and rest of the grounds were huge, so (since we had been so frugal for most of the trip), I splurged and rented an electric cart so we could explore. The cart had a map for us to follow, as well as audio that described areas as we went by. We were told when we made a wrong turn and given directions to get back on track! (too bad we didn’t have a system like this when we got lost - twice - near the Eiffel Tower!) We had a picnic lunch on the banks of the grand canal - girls had pizza (yes, cheese and tomatoes for Chelsea, but in pizza form, it tastes better). Finished our exploration of the Versailles grounds and headed back to the hotel for a mid-afternoon rest of a couple of hours.

We had read about the “Paris Plage” (plage means beach) and decided to check it out. For several weeks during the summer, some of the roads along the Seine River are closed, and a “beach” is created. Tons of sand are crated in, potted palm trees, and beach chairs and umbrellas brought in. Every chair was taken at 7pm when we walked by, some people still in their bathing suits, and children making castles in the sand. Can’t compare to Fair Haven, though!

Dinner was a stop at “La Perla” Mexican Restaurant in the Marais area. It was soooooooo good!!! Headed toward home at 9pm, made a quick stop at “Lenotre Patisserie” near our hotel, and back to the hotel for some German MTV.