Wednesday, 10 November – Scenic Paris and Versailles

We had a long bus tour today. We managed to get up early to have breakfast (Viking muesli) and catch the bus. We had a whirlwind tour of Paris, repeating several places we had gone last week. Then we had a stop in the Latin Quarter to have coffee and bathroom, and then lunch near the Place de la Concorde at Flottes. After lunch, we caught a different bus over to Versailles. The palace of Louis XIV, XV and XVI.

Since Armistice Day (aka Veterans Day) is tomorrow and people will take the day off, including lock keepers, our boat had to leave early, while we were on the tour. So after an exhausting day, we had a scenic drive through evening rush hour to go further down the Seine to meet our boat.

I will try to post pictures later, but I am going to bed after a wonderful dinner of Goat Cheese Soufflé, Chateaubriand, and Lava Cake. Pictures to follow. Got an interesting shot of the obelisk at Place de la Concorde and the Eiffel Tower shrouded in smog in the distance.

The Palace was amazing. It was built by Louis XIV, “the Sun King”, and inhabited by his heirs. The current King of Spain is a descendant. Versailles was originally the hunting palace and was on a hill. No point could be higher than the top of the palace. As a result, they brought in Italian engineers to build aqueducts to get water to the gardens. We walked for a while in the gardens and then met the guide for a trip through the palace itself.