10th July - Wednesday

The rooster crowed at 6.45, calling us out of our stupour. We were well on the way by 8.20, flying along the autostrade to Paris. Along the way we saw that the French had attempted to make our journey more colourful by putting different coloured bridges across the road. We amused ourselves by trying to guess what coloured bridge came next. I always won of course, though some would say otherwise.

The traffic was fairly good, but you could notice the difference as you got closer to Paris. A number of drivers were a little rude, but I guess its a dog eat dog world. Though the internet site for Priemere Classe motels/hotels said that we couldn't check in till 5pm that evening, we made record time and checked in about 12. We dropped off our baggage in to number 223 (and were relieved to find we had good internet) which was to be mum and dads room. We also finished off the last of the bread and cheese and stuff which made up our lunch.

Our plans for the afternoon was to visit the Chateau of Versailles - during lunch we looked up ticket prices for Versailles and the F.A.Q.s with it, just to be sure we didn't miss anything they put in the fine print. In the end we drove to the palace and decided to wing it. We parked in this really tight place, just down the road. Dad was quite chuffed with his parking, till we realised that the parking pole said you could only park there for 90minutes for 2.8 euro. Thankfully there was a tourist information office right by the road near us where we could ask. Dad and Mum went in while us younger three guarded the car from predators. They returned shortly with 3 maps, 2 places to park and also 2 tickets to get into Versailles, and apparently skip the lines.

The parking lot where we parked was a bit of a joke. The roof of the car nearly got scraped - obviously didn't get the memo about small cars only. To get around the corner we nearly had to do a bit of reversing to get the right angle, and only just made the tight corners. The first two levels were full so we hesitanty made our way down further into the den. There we found a spot that would do for us.

We had to walk for 5-10 minutes to get to the palace now, and along the way we bought a few apples to eat along the way. The lead up to Versailles was pretty spectacular, and the palace itself was very grandiose. There was a massive line to get in that we still had to wait in before getting into the palace. We found out later that they have full on customs to go through. They needed to check our bags (took our pringles away from us) and made sure we were the correct ages by checking passports or any other form of identification. The chick there realised I was 18 so technically I needed a ticket - however at the info office where mum and dad got their tickets they reckoned we didnt really need to so we didn't get one. They let us through, but said not to do it next time (like we are going to go back there again the next day?)

Anyway, we were quite stunned by the ornate decorations on the inside and outside of the palace. The attention to detail was phenomenal, unlike anything you'd see today. There was a whole wing of the palace dedicated to its history, like who developed what, and when this part was added on, and who stayed there. I could recognise quite a few names of people from my Revolutionary Europe course I just did at Uni this past semester, and it was really interesting for me to see Versailles and connect it to past events. I was hoping to hear more about the French Revolution of 1789, or even the 1848 Revolutions, but there wasn't such a focus on it. There was more about Napoleon though, who was also nice to learn more about.

Another wing was dedicated entirely to war paintings, depicting the major battles right from 1512 to Joan of Arc right up to Napoleon. Was really incredible to see them, and the way they depict the victors in each painting. One highlight was the Hall of Mirrors. It was enormous, containing mirrors that covered the wall on one side, and windows looking out over the gardens on the other. From the ceiling hung great big chandeliers. The room is remembered as the place where the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of the first world war.

We wandered mainly through the palace, though there was another set of buildings located about 3km away from the palace. They were the buildings which Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette used as their own places. The gardens surrounding these smaller 'chateaus' were immense. from the palace to the end of the grand canal (yes, a canal which boats were floating around on) was 3.5km, 1 hours walking. Each garden was carefully tended, and each had been given a separate name or person who it was dedicated to. Absolutely crazy. I doubt the royals would even have time to wander around all the gardens, and the upkeep wouldn't have been cheap either.

After we had our fill of hedges we made our way back to the car to head back to our hotel. We did some speedy shopping and had to go out for dinner as the rooms did not have a kitchen (Dad misses his coffees sorely, so we can tell what is going to happen when we get home... "put the water on please!"). We did our speciality of pizza, and were served by a lovely French lady who put her best foot forward to feed us :) It was delicious, and we were all bloated but satisfied afterwards as we headed back to our temporary home for bible reading, desert and sleep.