Sun 5 Oct 2008
A Long Way to go for Crepes
Posted by Anna under Europe
[2] Comments
We made it to Versailles today. Finally. We left the hotel room at 10am. Took about 30 minutes just to get onto the shuttle from the hotel to the airport so that we could get the train towards Paris and Versailles. A bit of a trek through CDG to get to the train, then on our way with only one change (so we thought). Made it fine to the second train but then, about 2 stops from Versailles, the train stopped and they told us all to get off. We followed the displaced herd from the train outside to the bus. Appropriately, it started to rain.
In case you not aware, French people have no fear about pushing their way through a queue or a crowd. We figured we would wait until the 3rd bus so that we wouldn’t have to force our way on. Wrong. Realizing we were never going to get on a bus if we didn’t get gutsy and push our way on as well, we put outside our good manners and made it on board (Kevin told some Asian girl to move so that I could sit down: “She’s pregnant”). A short trip later and we ended up as some station that had the name Versailles in it, but was not where we expected to be. With a little help from a friendly train person, we found our way back onto yet another train for a couple more stops to Versailles. It dropped us somewhere further from the chateau than we could see on our map, and by this time, though we had a pain au chocolat at CDG, we were starving and grouchy. So, our first stop was to the crepe cafe recommended by Rick Steves. It was warm and cozy and very French. And DELICIOUS. Savory crepes for lunch and then we each had our own dessert crepe. So totally worth it.
Versailles…on the other hand…not so much. Despite arriving there at after 3pm, there were hoardes of people and you literally could not walk anywhere of your own accord. You just had to follow the course of the crowd. And it was still raining. And it was expensive. And there were these really stupid artworks in most of the rooms of the chateau. For example, a golden status of Michael Jackson and a monkey, in the middle of an opulent sitting room. WHAT?????
Check out the pics:
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| From Versailles |
Anyway, we headed back after a couple of hours. Our hotel has the best bed of our trip and it’s still rainy and cold outside, so we had a very nice (and expensive) dinner here at the hotel as our last meal in France. Then we walked upstairs and are now getting ready for bed.
The perfect ending to a perfect trip.