Arrondissement de Boulogne-Billancourt

We had a shock to the system this morning and had to set an alarm for 6am, heaven forbid! But were where we needed to be 30 mins ahead of time ready for our Blue Bike tour in Versailles. It was a 40 min train trip there, but nice to not have to think or organise anything for this. We just followed our guide, Vanessa. There were 11 of us with her, all from Canada or the US apart from us, and really nice people. Peter was 83 and was like a spring chicken.

When we got to Versailles we went for a bit of a walk to find the market where we were to buy our food for the day. It was interesting being taken through and we tried some cheese at a couple of places. But the idea of buying our food for the day there went out of my mind when I saw the nectarines were 28.7 euro per kg. So that is around $50 nzd per kg. We have been loving the nectarines here but that was a stretch way too far. The raspberries were 8 euro. So we went to a bakery and then used google to find a supermarket where we got nectarines for 4 euro per kg which was much more reasonable.

Then we went for more of a walk to find our bikes. I was pretty surprised at how far we had to walk for the bikes. But finally we were on them and biking through the streets before entering the park. Bikes were a lot more stable that in Amsterdam with thicker tyres. The park is open to everyone, and we saw lots of dogs being walked there. Vanessa gave us a few history talks along the way, and her favourite king was the sun king which was Louis the 14th. And we know a bit more now about kings at that time, the revolution, Napoleon etc. We biked along the paths until we got to the end of the canal looking 2kms back to the Palace. That was where we sat on our ponchos on the grass to eat our lunch. We had a baguette, cheese, tomatoes and nectarines.

The park will be the venue for the 2024 Olympic Equestrian events. Work is well underway to prepare the grounds and parts are being closed off to do this. It will all be restored after the Olympics are finished.

We stopped there for half an hour, and then went to the Grand Trianon which was the summer palace of Louis the 14th. The gardens there were pretty special. We had alone time there for a while, then back to the bikes and onto the Petite Trianon which was built for Louis the 15th and the Queen’s Hamlet which was built in 1783 at the request of Marie Antoinette. The hamlet is supposed to be a bit like Disneyland and certainly was rather cute. There were also a number of grape vines hanging above a walkway, and yes we tried some grapes from the queen's garden.

Then we rode back to drop our bikes off and headed for the Palace and were in there around 4pm. This was a huge museum and there was no way that we could even try to see everything, so we didn’t. We did a couple of floors and then headed out to the garden. We were both feeling extremely knackered by this time and didn’t have the energy to walk down further. We did see the golf carts available for hire and considered it, but we needed to get back and pack for tomorrow.

So after the long walk back to the train station, and 2 train rides back to our hotel it was 8pm. So a pretty big day. We popped into our supermarket next door and got some bananas and of course more nectarines for our dinner and breakfast, and then it was packing time.

Our trip tomorrow included a train from Paris to Milan. Trains have beeen cancelled for the next few months due to rockfall. So it was slightly stressful having to try and book a flight on easyjet. But, we managed that, paid to take our bags on the plane as well as checking in blue bag which we hadn't confessed to having! We needed to check on a bag so I could put my collapsible victorinox knife in. The cost was about the same price as the train and we are hopeful of getting a refund. This has meant that we have to sort out liquids again and check what we have accumulated so far. The cabin bags can be 12 kgs so we should be ok.

26,211 steps plus biking, no wonder we are knackered. But the temperature today was just perfect at 24 degrees.Les mer