We had a lovely surprise on our first morning in Paris realising that we had a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower from our hotel window! Unfortunately the cloud seems to have obscured it in this photo of Tom at our window.
You can see it a little better in this photo, peeking over the top of those buildings.
We decided to escape the city of Paris (which was looking a bit gloomy) for a little while and take a trip on the train out to Versailles for the day. This turned out to be a fantastic idea, since the weather was beautiful in Versailles!
On the walk to the Palace of Versailles from the station, we came across some street markets.
Tom admired the very flamboyant jeans on sale...
I admired the super-extendable dining tables!
It was pretty clear when we were reaching the vicinity of the palace, if tree-lined avenues are any indication.
We paid our entry, and entered the absolutely gigantic palace. I may have gone a little crazy taking photos, since we had been getting used to not being allowed to take photos inside old places, like in Italy.
The hall of mirrors...
Tom made another not-so-subtle Louis reference...
Tom discovered the joy of sliding along marble floors...
And here he is demonstrating the lack of grip on his shoes, enabling the aforementioned sliding (which was last a huge source of amusement in the snow in Switzerland)
They really know how to make spectacular floors in Europe.
On the topic of spectacular, the gardens of Versailles are certainly worth seeing.
Take a closer look at the handles on this urn. Aren't they cute?
We really wanted to see more of the very extensive grounds, but were beginning to feel our previous big night of walking in Paris after making it all the way through the giant palace. Then Tom had a stroke of genius and hijacked one of the little golf buggy things that they hire out to the tourists willing to part with 30 euros an hour. Well actually, he stopped a couple who had already hired one and asked if we could pay them 5 euros to sit on the back.
It was fantastic. We got to see so much more of the grounds than we would have managed on our own, and our feet were extremely grateful.
We even managed to make it all the way over to the area where Marie Antoinette had a little village built for her personal use.
There was even an extremely well stocked pond!
The little buildings in Marie Antoinette's village are absolutely adorable. I wanted to pack each one up and take them home.
So that our new friends could return their buggy before their hour's rent was finished, we hopped back in and started the journey back again.
We even got to see how the tree trimming operation occurs. Very precise, checking the levels.
These were some strange out-of-place modern structural artworks near the castle. I didn't understand why they were there, but they made for a striking image.
We made it out of the palace grounds just on closing time, and it was back to the station for us, to start enjoying Paris again!
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