Being a sheep is again the only option available to us when the train stops unexpectedly on the way to Versailles. An announcement blares through the train, the Frenchies get off, and the rest of us sit there looking at each other. Eventually some kind man who knew a little French, bustles the rest of us dummies off the train. We become two bodies in a sea of people making their way to the next platform where a train awaits. Mass confusion takes over the crowd at this stage. Is this the train to Versailles? One of its stations has Versailles in the name. I tell Willy that it's the wrong train, we head up the platform and wait for the next one. Thank goodness I am right.
We eventually end up at the right stop. As soon as we get out of the station we get bustled across the road to buy tickets, where of course we stand in a line. Hanger has set in by this stage, we missed breakfast and we aren't coping. Luckily for us there's a sandwich bar next to the ticket agent. We buy two sandwiches, a cappuccino, and a double espresso to go. Two minutes later we are eating our yummy rolls while waiting in the line for Versailles, and boy is there ever a line. I would hate to see this place on the weekend or in the middle of Summer. It's about twelve when we finally get through the gate, what a mission.
This place is HUGE.
I love Versailles. Definitely one of my favourite tourist attractions, and absolutely the best palace that we have been to. The rooms in the castle are intense with their lavish decoration, however most of the furniture is not original as it was lost during the revolution. One of my favourite parts was the little farm that belonged to Marie-Antoinette - it's an English village complete with full sized cottages with thatched roofs, a lake, and lots of different kinds of animals. I played with the goats briefly, but there were also donkeys, pigs, a dog and various birds. The one group of creatures that I didn't enjoy were discovered as we walked across the little stone bridge - all I could hear was a sort of bubbling noise. There were people dropping bread into the water near us, so we poked our heads over to have a look. The lake under the bridge was a sea of large fish, all clamouring for food. I have never seen anything like it. They were so big, there were so many of them, and they were all half out of the water in the pursuit of food. It was so loud and totally bizarre to see. There was one other creature that we saw at the farmlet but we don't know what it was - Willy pointed out the weird creature who was busy eating all of the berries. It sort of looked like a possum, but it wasn't, and definitely wasn't scared of people. I didn't make friends with that one.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the gardens, and ate ice cream sitting by the "grand canal". It was a lovely warm day, and chilling out for a while was lovely. Eventually we had had our fill and we wandered back to the train - it was much more straight forward getting home!
The All Blacks were playing that night, so we got changed (it gets so cold here at night!) and went to find a bar that was playing it. We stumbled upon a place that was just around the corner from our hotel, we sat down and quickly discovered that it was owned by an Australian guy. The Aussie and his English bar man were hilarious, the music was good, and the food was ok. Slightly embarrassing game what with all of the ball dropping, and Dan Carter cost me a shot with his dodgy kicking! We had far too many beersies, I played darts with some Parisians, and it was just the most fantastic night. One of the best of this trip for sure.
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