"Has God forgotten all I have done for Him?" - Louis XIV

In back of Versailles, at the gardens!

Preparing his lunch sandwich!

@ the Grand Canal, Versailles palace in the background!

Well, we visited Versailles today, home (at one time) to Louis XIV (and later Louis the XV and Louis XVI), the first ultimate rock star. This guy put diamonds, night life, and seasonal fashion on the map during his 72-year reign (3x the average life span of the time). Yeah - INTENSE. And boy, did he like flash and decadence!

We left around 9 a.m. and cycled to the train and then to the market where we picked up items for lunch (and later for dinner [leftovers]): raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, ham, roast beef, cheese, bread, wine, quiche, and a tart. YUM!! Ned, our guide (from yesterday, too), knew all the local peeps, so he pointed us in the direction of the good stuff. And he was right. Afterwards, we had about 15 min., so we also took him up on his plug of the crepes across the street, by a guy named Kareem. Kareem began three years ago telling Ned, "Hey, tell your customers about my crepes!" Don't know if it worked or not, but apparently not as much as he had wanted, so while Ned was talking one day, Kareem came up behind him with a cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice (that he also sells) and a butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon crepe, all in hand and prepared for Ned. Apparently this was exactly what he had needed because everyone in the group promptly lined up at his stand after Ned finished with instructions and directions, and Kareem has been doing it ever since. They were DELICIOUS (he offered SO many kinds!), and the juice makes you want to forget Minute Maid for life. Seriously. We're buying a juicer, asap.

Left with our supplies and rode all on our own (Awesome!! Avoided ALL lines and people!!) through the grounds seeing Marie Antoinette's various homes she built on the property to get away from royal life, see lovers, etc. (She would "play poor" in order to get a sense of how the other half lived, as well as milkmaid, and servant, etc. -- a little wacky, if you ask me.) Besides her general eccentricities, they were cool houses, and we continued onto a little cafe where we ate our lunch at tables (usually on the grass in front of Versailles, but it was raining and the grass was still wet). Pulled out our spread and ate like kings, appropriately so since we were @ Versailles!

We continued to the actual Chateau part, and caught up with ALL the people. Oh. My. Gosh. It was SO crowded that it makes it not even fun. We forewent the audio set and just set our own pace, meandered, read, etc. as we went through the rooms. They are so decadent everything doesn't even seem real -- like, there's so MUCH gold that you almost in your mind think, "This can't all be real, right?" Sheesh. So, we got annoyed w/ the crowd ASAP, and sort of hurried through. Oh well. Out to the gardens to enjoy the flowers and fresh air (after the PACKED rooms).

Back to the bikes and we cycled back, took the train back, and are now enjoying the leftovers for dinner, as well as a couple items (grapes, a sandwich) that we picked up at a different market on the way back near the Metro.

Tomorrow night we have our Segway city tour to cap off our trip, starting around 6:30 p.m., and then a little celebratory dinner, perhaps. Hope it's nice weather, because we heard tooling around the city on the Segways is a BLAST, so we're really looking forward to it!! Checking into the Hilton tomorrow, as well, since we have some points built up and it's at the airport i.e. no buttcrack of dawn wake-up on Saturday to leave.

T-minus two days until we're home, and we're really looking forward to it!! Can't wait to unpack the suitcase, etc., and not leave town for a WHILE... :)