Versailles bike tour. Sorry this is not very finished blog. It's hard to navigate pictures around the text. My story is after the pictures. I'm off to Mass this AM at Notre Dame.
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| The Hall of mirrors |
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| Linda in Marie's garden estate |
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| Palace |
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| Palace gardens |
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| Marie's play village |
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| Meeting place , getting fitted with for our bikes |
Friday: We navigated by motocross the Champ Dr Mars field in front of the Eifell tower to the Fat tire Bike office. It was a lovely walk. We joined a group of 20 from mostly the U.S.. Our tour guide, I can't remember his name ( very cute, history major) Onto the Versilles train, about 30 minutes to Versilles. It was perfect day! Our bikes where big and clunky, about 50 lbs, but really functional on all the cobblestones and hard dirt roads. We now made our way to the market, wow. Huge market, managed a snack of banana, nutella crepe and bought our lunch. Helen and I picked a baguette sandwich fruit, coke, and managed to get back to the square, then off to the palace. We had a short ride but OMG are there ever a lot of tour buses, but our super kiwi guide had all his charges in line.
We first visited the pastures, fields and Marie Antoinettes country village. She was only 14 when she married Louis, and an awful life, really. She came to the village to play being a peasant. The excess was unbelievable. The King spent billions in today's money building the palace and grounds over 40 yrs. (Louis the 14..or the Sun King? Remember we had a history major) After our visit to the village....like 16 century Disneyland.We ride to the canals and had lunch. We only rode about 12 k but what a fun ride.
We finish off with a tour on our own (easily done with an audio guide) We probably wandered all together for 3 hrs in palace and grounds. The story of this family of royalty, a bit of American history ( remember the John Adams series, Corrie) and of course the French revolution, ( Tale of Two cities and Les Miserables tells it all... We heard the grisly details of Marie Antoinette and her son's death... awful)
Helen and I navigated home exhausted. I love Paris, especially at night. Tomorrow the Louvre!
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