While in Paris last month, my sister and Kristie and I took a day trip to Versailles, which started with...
Escargot! It was actually pretty good. We had it cooked with garlic and pesto, and that's exactly what it tasted like.
After lunch at the cafe right across from the train station, we walked down the tree-lined sidewalk to Versailles.
This place was...wow. Totally opulent and gorgeous and a little too crowded to be 100% enjoyable, but I'm so glad we went through the palace.
As we were getting ready to leave, I managed to convince Phoebe and Kristie to go on a hokey-looking little train tour around the grounds. I had really wanted to see Marie Antoinette's hamlet, but we were running out of time.
I like the train tour system at Versailles because you can get off at any "stop" on the grounds, and catch another train back later. We decided to spend our remaining time at Versailles near water (it was so hot that day), so we got off at the Grand Canal. First stop? Ice cream.
Then...you know it...we rented one of those rowboats.
This was SO MUCH FUN! Rowing a boat on the Grand Canal with Versailles in the background, are you kidding me? It was a dream. Thanks to our summers spent in rowboats at Cape Cod (and my time on the crew team in high school) Phoebe and I were pretty able-bodied sailors.
It wasn't planned, but this diversion ended up being one of -- if not my very -- favorite afternoons of our whole trip. (And we did get to see Marie Antoinette's hamlet, too.)
Once we got back to the palace, we wandered around a little bit more...
My sister and I came up with funny captions for some of the statues, like this one. "Mom, put your boob back in your shirt and help me deal with this iguana!"
We went back to the apartment, had dinner, and watched Marie Antoinette (the Kirsten Dunst version) on Kristie's iPad.
