May 29, 2022

After a late night out maneuvering the streets of Paris, I’m sure you all know that we would have loved to sleep in to catch up on some much needed sleep. Unfortunately, our excitement for this city and the plans we made did not let that happen. 

After waking up with the sun, we grabbed a quick breakfast before rushing out the door to catch a bus, then a metro, then another metro until we arrived at the meeting point for our group tour to the beautiful Versailles! Once everyone was there, we boarded a train that took us right to the palace. We wandered through the palace and gawked at the extravagance and beauty of everything inside along with the glimpses of the garden we caught through the windows. 

Our guide shared that Louis XIV, who built the palace, was always very proud of his large legs which is why they are featured in all of his portraits and sculptures. There is one such sculpture at the entrance of the palace in which Louis XIV is riding his horse. If you look quickly, it just looks like a sculpture of a man on a horse, but once the guide pointed out his love for his legs, it is very easy to notice the fact that Louis XIV’s legs are sculpted to be even larger than the legs of the horse! 

After the palace, we walked across the street to pick up bikes that we would use for the rest of the tour. Once we were all ready, we biked over to a local market where we purchased all the necessary supplies for a picnic in the garden. We started at the boulonnerie where we picked up a baguette and a chocolate croissant, then we headed to a fruit stand for strawberries and raspberries. Next, we’re headed into the indoor booths for the fromagerie where we bought some Brie and Camembert. Last but certainly not least, we made sure to pick up a demi bottle of wine which made the perfect final addition to our picnic. We headed back to our guide who nudged us in the direction of a stand selling fresh squeezed orange juice. We wandered over to give it a look and ended up ordering a cup of orange juice to drink before we left. It was delicious! 

Once everyone had all of their food, we got back on our bikes and headed to the gardens. We had a wonderful ride around the gardens with a bit of history sprinkled in. Eventually, we stopped for our picnic and enjoyed the feast we had picked up at the market. Surprisingly, only a few of the strawberries were crushed on the ride over which consisted solely of cobblestone and/or dirt roads. Even so, all of the food was amazing. 

After we finished eating and learning some more history from the palace, we finishing our loop around the ponds and arrived at le grand triton. We stopped for a break to learn about Louis XV and his 300 mistresses and admire the pink marble building before heading over to le petit triton. This was Marie Antoinette’s place where she could spend time when she was tired of being the center of attention in the palace. It was gorgeous, but perhaps not as gorgeous as her gardens which we also wandered through. 

That was our last stop before we biked back through the town to return the bikes at the guide shop and heading for our train. At that point we were exhausted and decided to just grab some quick crepes and sandwiches at the stand we found yesterday. We spent a little time on the green at les Invalides before heading back to the hostel. It was a much needed earlier night in where we relaxed, showered early, and met one of our roommates who will be here for the rest of our stay in Paris. We are about to get some much needed sleep and enjoy a slightly later morning tomorrow.