Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Yesterday Esther & I joined Simon & Sally for a day trip to the ridiculous extravagance that is the palace of Versaille. About half an hour out of Paris by train, it was considerably colder than it had been in the days before & we all shivered our way from the train to the grand, golden palace gates. We spent a good 6 hours or so wandering the palace grounds, because a lot of attractions/museums/galleries etc. in Paris are closed on a Monday - nonetheless we still had plenty to keep us occupied! As I said, we were walking around the gardens for about 6 hours & we still only covered a tiny fraction of the grounds!!
In the middle of the day when the sun was high & it was slightly warmer, we stopped for a picnic in a beautiful, quiet field. We feasted on fresh, crusty bread, yummy French cheeses, jam (in lieu of quince paste :P), prosciutto, cherry tomatoes, fresh strawberries, & red wine. Twas quite the delightful picnic :) Then we continued on & took the road less travelled off the path through the forests of Versaille where Esther had an unfortunate run in with some stinging nettles while ducking off the path to go to the loo!
We finally emerged from the forest gallant adventurers, pretending we had been trapped in there for days, hunting moles for food a la Bear Grilles (bet he's never done an episode in the forests of Versaille!). It was a little distressing though because we realized we were still on the opposite side of the lake from where we had hoped to be (& thought we were!) and still had several kilometers walk ahead of us. So we stopped for icecream to restore of blood sugars (:P) & then carried on round the lake back to the palace, pausing occasionally to take terribly mature posed imitation photographs in front of the old statues :P
When Esther & I arrived back at our hostel we moved rooms (due to adding an extra night on to our booking) & found we'd unfortunately been put in a room with a couple of older, rather creepy Italian men. Now I happen to know some very lovely Italian men so I know for sure that it's not an Italian thing, but when a 40-something Italian dude is lying on his bed in his jocks, staring at you intently & saying things you can't understand to his friend about "Australian girls" with a sleezy grin on his face, it's not the easiest thing to get to sleep at night! One of them was also (if at all possible!) even louder than the wounded Wilderbeest…think warthog style grunting & flem rattling coughs every 30 seconds or so throughout the night…yeah…really glad we're in an all female dorm in Bruges!!!
Aside from that, we had a wonderful last evening in Paris, with dinner up at a little bistro in a bustling area of Monmatre. We both had crepes for desert - Esther had Nutella, & I had chestnut cream with icecream - & it was the perfect way to end a trip to Paris! :)
- comments
Loz omg creeeepy liv! loving all ur snaps xxx