Chateau Versailles

21 March

Today was the day that we made the trip out to Versailles. The morning was its usual uneventful self: I sat on the bed next to dad eating large quantities of fruit for breakfast while not understanding what was being said on French TV, followed by our obligatory Skype back home.

Mid morning we headed to the RER station at the Invalides station. RER probably stands for something, but all I know is that it's a double decker train (kinda like the ones in Sydney except less dirty and without the cool flipping seats) and it travels at the speed of a brisk walk, giving us time to take in the landscape of Paris' outskirts (spoiler alert: it's mainly apartment buildings).

We arrived at the Gare de Versailles Rive-Gauche (the train station) after half an hour and had a walk around. The plan was to rent some bikes and cycle our way through the Versaille Palace Gardens so we headed off on a 10 minute walk to find the rental place. We found it at a different train station to the one we got down at, only to discover that it had been closed for an hour and wouldn't be open again for another four, so we headed back towards the Palace.

My grasp of important historical moments is tenuous at best, possibly because I only took it once as a subject in year 9 during which my teacher was on paternity leave for half the year, meaning our class got landed with a doddery old (read: the best) reliever who spent those two terms letting us watch Band of Brothers except for this one time when we watched a professional snooker tournament. This being the case, I asked my dad for a quick rundown of the Treaty of Versailles. Turns out I did already kind of know about it and also realized that if it hadn't been made and subsequently broken, Band of Brothers would never have been created for me to watch in 3rd form history.

The Palace is an impressive bit of work, all golden gates and intricate stonework. It was really cool just to stand in the courtyard and look at it for a while. My dad opted out of going inside because he had seen it during his last visit to Paris (also because he would've had to pay and I, in all my glorious less-than-18 years of age, didn't. Seriously, if you're still under 18 and you wouldn't mind starving and living on the street, being a tourist in Paris won't cost you a cent) but I hopped in line. The queue was making good progress until I got to the very front, at which point the doors were closed on us for the good part of an hour. I wasn't too sure how long it took for them to reopen because I was busy watching this baby in front me munch on her mum's apple and then make a funny face after each bite. Sooooooooooooo cute.

Anyway, that funny baby proved to be a lot more entertaining than the interior of the palace, which was decidedly average. I didn't read anything inside and blasted through it in about 15 minutes but I now know (after googling it just then) that it was inhabited by a succession of King Louis's. There was on display some cool furniture and chandeliers but really, it's kind of like the equivalent of visiting Bill Gates' house in 1000 years to have a look at his couch and TV cabinet.

The Palace Gardens, on the other hand, were fantastic. It stretches on for ages and is really neat and symmetrical, interspersed with fountains and statues and screaming groups of children. I went for a nice stroll in search of my dad and met him by the lake, on which you can rent a boat and go for a row. I had my lunch on the lakeside while admiring the swans that live on the estate. One even came within reach of us, but I've been quite wary of aquatic bird life ever since this one time I tried to pat a duck on the head and it bit my finger.

We wandered around the gardens for a bit longer before deciding to make tracks, though I could've happily spent the whole day there. Exiting the Palace grounds, we had another walk around the area but there isn't much else tourist-worthy in Versailles so we jumped on the train back home.

Dad made a pasta dish for dinner, I scalded my hand several times while doing the dishes and so ended our 6th day in Paris.

Marcus XVII