Day 78: Versailles

Decided to spend our last day on the Continent at one of its most famous sights, and the main place that I'd missed on my last trip to Paris in 2005 - Versailles. The weather wasn't looking hugely promising, but given that it had rained basically all day yesterday, it couldn't get much worse so we decided to risk it.

Up and out fairly early, with our usual breakfast of croissants from the (excellent nearby bakery). Had a funny moment where the lady was serving two customers at once, and she addressed the other customer in English while speaking French to me! Thankfully the other customer could speak English and we all had a good laugh. I know the French have a reputation for being snobby, unhelpful and unwilling to speak English, but I haven't found that at all on this trip. Most people just switch to English when they can see me struggling, and English ability is far more widespread here than in Spain.

Our journey to Versailles consisted of about 15 metro stops across the city to Bir-Hakeim, where we changed to an above-ground RER-C train bound for Versailles. All up the journey took about an hour, so not too bad. Walked the last 10 minutes from the station to the chateau.

Glad that I didn't pre-buy tickets, as the queue for picking up pre-purchased tickets was the same length as the purchasing tickets queue, and regardless both of them paled into insignificance next to the entry queue, which wound around the main courtyard three times.

Took about 40 minutes, during which Shandos took her leave as she wasn't coming inside the chateau with me. She'd been before, and wanted to have a closer look at the gardens which was free entry, so off she went.

Eventually I got inside and wandered around following the tour, doing bits of filming along the way as Versailles is a UNESCO World Heritage site as well. Very fascinating and a lot of fun, though the endless crowds get a bit exhausting. Highlights were definitely the hall of mirrors and the hall of battles, where there's a series of enormous oil paintings depicting French national heroes from Charlemagne, through Joan of Arc up to Napoleon.

After about 90 minutes I was finished inside and met up again with Shandos where we started looking around the gardens. Annoyingly, large parts of the gardens were closed off because they do fountain shows on some days, and only open those sections during the shows! Tickets for those cost extra, of course, which is quite annoying. So we were a bit disappointed with that.

Had some lunch at one of the cafes there, just simple baguettes and soft drinks but surprisingly not too over-priced! We then spent a couple of hours wandering around the gardens which are absolutely enormous and in fairly good condition. It was nice here as well because despite the inclement weather (it kept raining in squalls on and off), there were far fewer people around. Briefly considered hiring a boat and rowing up and down the grand canal, but ultimately chose not to.

Walked back to the station where we commenced the long journey home - 45 minutes on the train followed by nearly 30 minutes on the metro during rush hour. Rested up for a bit before another local dinner at a place chosen essentially at random. We were still a bit early so the place was fairly empty aside from a group of elderly American tourists.

And so we trudged back up the stairs to our apartment for our last night in Paris, in France and on the continent, likely for quite some time! This place has been quite nice, though five tall flights of stairs with no lift is a bit of a killer. Overall we've enjoyed Paris, thankfully we got a couple of good weather days before the rain set in! Would've been nice to be a bit warmer though!

Packed and showered in the evening as it's a super early start and a long day of travel tomorrow!Read more