19 February 2007

What I Learned This Weekend (Versailles Edition)

  • Versailles* is HUGE. HUGE. It is a Grand Chateau (the Court), a smaller palace (for the family away from the court), a house for Marie Antoinette (away from her family - a girl needs her space) and a hamlet (small village of about 6 buildings) + a grand canal, a petite canal, 2 large fountains, 2 smaller fountains. and several hundred acres of grounds and gardens.
  • You can rent bikes to peddle around the grounds at Versaille. I did. It took me 35 minutes at a leisurely pace to peddle all the way around the canal.
  • You do not need to purchase a ticket to spend 5 hours at Versaille. I saved the Grand Apartments for my next trip (I will go back!)
  • Marie Antoinette was completely out of touch with reality (yes, I know this is what we all think of her anyway but it takes seeing the complete village she had built so she could 'pretend' to be a milkmaid/commoner to make this a reality)
  • No matter how hard I try to mimic the French words exactly as I hear them, I still have an English accent.
  • Nutella crepes are always a good idea.
  • I can live on croissants, wine and cafe au lait alone.

*photos in Flickr

1 comment:

Matt said...

Seems like one of those places that would be pretty surreal. But I think I would feel that way throughout most of Europe.