Our First Visitors

On Valentine's Day, Lyle's son Patrick and his girlfriend Tanya, arrived in Paris. They hooked up with us the following day and are spending the week, minus a few days in London. After heading for the nearest Starbucks, we walked around the neighborhood until Lyle came home from work. We made plans to visit Versailles the next day.

On Saturday, it was sunny but crisp (temps in the 30s) and we took a short train ride to visit this huge palace on the outskirts of Paris. This is where Louis XIV turned his father's hunting lodge into Europe's largest palace in the 1660s. You can't even imagine how huge it is! To walk from the palace to the edge of the canal that he built for boating would take over an hour. After waiting in two long lines (there has got to be a better way to do this and I am going to try and figure it out!) we toured on our own. Then we had an English-speaking guide take us through the private apartments. The furnishings and walls are full of marble, ornately-carved woods, gilded walls and silver. No wonder there was a revolution by the French and his grandson, Louis XVI and wife Marie Anotoinette were evicted in 1789. The palace was turned into a museum 45 years later. We saw where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Hall of Mirrors (see the photo below) ending World War I.

We didn't spend too much time outside as the wind was cold and the gardens were in their winter state. Not to mention I spent a good hour in a W.C., battling a bug from something I ate the night before. It cut our visit somewhat short, but we all agreed we had seen enough! Lyle and I will surely come again on a warmer day, when the gardens are showing off their beauty.