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Another early start - we arranged to all meet in the breakfast room at 7.00am to be ready for our 7.45am pick-up from the tour company taking us the Monet's Gardens in the morning and Verailles in the afternoon. The day was a little cooler with some cloud and we did have some rain on the way to Monet's Garden but still in general quite pleasant.
We were collected by a lovely Guide called Serge, who kept us entertained with his well developed sense of humour while looking after us. He actually drove around the Arc de Triomphe which I can assure everyone is no mean feat!! But we survived!! Monet's Gardens are 80km west of Paris and it was lovely to have a small taste of the French countryside, which is very green, lush and pretty.
Monet's Gardens are just so beautiful, with every colour of the rainbow shown with the many different flowers planted in abundance. The water garden area was also beautiful, unfortunately August is the time for the water lilies to flower but we were lucky enough to see all the flowering cherry trees. Monet's house was also very interesting with many of his painting displayed, also giving us the history of his life and both of his wives. His first wife had died of cancer at only 33 after having had 2 children, his 2nd wife already had 6 children when they married, he had a large house and gardens to accommodate his large family. Apart from his paintings his other main love was his garden which even today has been maintained in all its colourful glory.
Serge has instructed us to meet back at the mini bus by 11.30am and if we behaved he could drive us through the countryside and small villages instead of taking the faster route on the motorway. We were all good! Again the countryside was beautiful with patchwork fields of deep greens, yellows and even browns from the freshly ploughed fields. The villages were lovely, so quaint, narrow cobbled streets and stone cottages, most very old with lots of history.
We joined the motorway for a short while as we neared Versailles which is almost like an extension of a Paris suburb being only 20 km from central Paris. Serge gave us all the information on where to have our lunch and to see the Palace of Versailles and meet our return coach back to Paris before bidding us farewell.
Fed and watered we all headed for the Palace, what a grand place this is, lots of gold, huge rooms, galleries and ornate furnishings and hundreds of paintings. What an opulent period of history this was, if you were rich of course!!
We just had an hour left, to see a little of the gardens, which again are on a grand scale, lots of lawns, pathways with clipped hedges and avenues of trees leading to small private gardens. Huge manmade lakes dominated with water fountains and many grand sculptures, like the palace the gardens are also on a grand scale.
Our coach returned us to central Paris just after 6.00pm, then another mini bus returned us to our hotel, this driver also drove us around the Arc de Triomphe. There are 12 roads that all meet with the Arc de Triomphe being like a central island, there are no lane markings and no insurance for your vehicle while on the intersection, this driver just drove through at about 30km an hour and the traffic amazingly just seemed get out of his way!!
We ended up having dinner again at the "Chez Clements" across the road before collapsing into bed exhausted after our exciting day.
Chat again soon.
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Gill Its great reading about your travels. Mal & I visited the Palace of Versailles and were amazed at the size and how ornate it was. The palace stables are bigger than Buckingham Palace! And even had the gold leaf for the horses to admire.