Today, we had another nice breakfast at our hotel, and then hit the metro towards Versailles. We chatted with our desk clerk first, and she gave us some good information about how to get to the airport tomorrow; the RoissyBus sounds pretty good. It's almost the same price as the metro/train combo, but deposits you closer to the airport terminal. We bought RER C tickets at Gare d'Austerlitz, and sat on the platform for about 20 minutes, then we were off. We got seats upstairs, and it took about 45 minutes to arrive. We had to hit the McDo for the loo, but then it was straight to the chateau.

We looked at the lines to get inside, and decided to explore les jardins first. We didn't realize we have to pay extra for the gardens on Tuesdays, so that cost us an extra 28 Euro, but we got to enjoy lovely classical music for the price. It was quite cold when we arrived, and we thought there was a fountain show every ten minutes, so we sat and waited for a few, but we were at the wrong fountain. Gabe made friends with a snail and a finch, then rescued the snail from some naughty children. We found a map, and then set off to explore.

We only saw about a quarter of the grounds, and we spent the entire day there. It's such a magical place! There are thousands of paths to follow through the woods and lots of little buildings and gazebos and pavilions to explore. We grabbed some sandwiches on our way through the Queen's Forest and walked towards the hamlet where Marie Antoinette liked to play with the regular Joes. We loved all the animals in her little farm there! We were not scared of the biggest white rooster, though he thought he was intimidating. We played with the goats and fed them a little bit of leaves and dried grass, but then our most outgoing goat buddy started fighting with the newcomers for our treats. We saw the biggest, fattest spotted pigs!

The little grotto area that we found was really peaceful and nice, and had a swan swimming about. Then we needed a bit of refreshment, so we came out of the Queen's Forest and got some café crème (Not the best we've had, but much needed!) and a little chocolate tart. We didn't even touch the King's side of the forest, but we decided we only had enough energy to do the chateau itself, so we continued the long trek back up there. We did stop for some freshly pressed orange juice from the Orangerie.

Back near the chateau, Hedge spotted Joe Manganiello, who plays Alcide on True Blood, and is in Magic Mike, which is on a media blitz right now. Perhaps he is here for a movie opening? He is HUGE in person, and dwarfed Hedgehog. He was with a lovely blonde, who is also quite tall, and they had huge Starbucks with them. We didn't bother them to talk to them, but we totally team photobombed them. Hedge says it even said, "Joe" on his Starbucks; he got really close.

Unfortunately, our plan to avoid the longest lines by seeing the gardens first did not come to fruition, and there were still hordes of people waiting to get in. We debated skipping it, but decided we had traveled thousands of miles, and we may as well see it! The line serpentine several times up and down the courtyard, but it moved fairly quickly. Inside, though, it was so crowded that we couldn't really see much. There were signs everywhere saying that tour groups should not stop, but they did in every single room, so we just sort of moseyed on through, then marched back towards town.

We stopped in a shop to buy some water and got some t-shirts. Then we waited in line for train tickets back to Paris, and boarded the top deck again. Gabe fell asleep, and the rest of us probably could have, too. We had two changes, then arrived back at Les Gobelins. We decided to go back, again, to Pizza Cesar. This time Gabe and Toria got a pizza, I got the pasta trio, and Dad stuck with the lasagna Bolognese, since he couldn't read the French menu, and I didn't translate for everyone fast enough, but he loves it. We tried to go back to our friend at the creperie, but they had closed, so we went to the market down the street. Toria got miniature lemon tarts, and Gabe got some sort of layered cookies - sort of like little Nutty Bars but with dark chocolate and without the peanut butter.

We're mostly packed, and the alarms are set. We have had an amazing adventure, but we are all ready to get home! We're really missing our little doggies and our kitchen, and our bath tub. I am not missing my Cold War class. We have a long day of traveling ahead of us, starting early in the morning. It takes about an hour to get to the airport, then all of the security lines there, and waiting. We have a 2 hour layover in London, then it's homeward bound! We arrive at 6:45 pm, and hopefully we can sleep; our bodies will probably be confused, but glad we're not on our feet all day. We plan to totally veg the next day!