le château de versailles

On Tuesday we went to the Palace of Versailles and I'm not even sure how to sum it all up.  The estate is divided up into the main Palace of Versailles, the gardens, Grand Canal, two smaller palaces called Trianon's and Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet.  It is immense.

So much so, that just walking from the Palace of Versailles to the Western edge of the Grand Canal is 3.5 km.  That's 60 minutes on foot.  The Grand Canal itself is 1,700 meters long and they used to sail small ships on it in the 1600's.

We figured since it is the off-season and a Tuesday morning we would practically have the Palace all to ourselves.

Clearly this was not the case.

This is the lineup to enter the Palace on a Tuesday morning.  Hundreds of people.  After waiting for ten minutes and not budging an inch, we decided to go through the gardens first and head towards the Trianon's and Marie-Antoinette's Estate.

The Grand Canal stretches out behind us into the distance.  During our day of wandering the gardens, we probably only saw about ten percent of the nearly 900 hectare grounds.

Here is Jake in the portico at the Grand Trianon.  This palace is made entirely from marble and it looks out into this cute landscaped garden.  Inside it is all chandeliers and everything is draped in bold, very royal looking fabrics.   

One of our favorite stops was Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet.  It was like stepping back in time, or right into a scene from Snow White.  Little dwellings with thatched roofs, stick gates, rolling grassy hills and farm animals.  Really lovely.  Can you see little bits of green on the rooftops?  They are all little bulbs about to bloom. 

Here we are in part of the Queen's English Garden, in front of the Temple of Love

On our way out of the Estates we decided to give the Palace of Versailles one more try.  Luckily, this time around the crowds had died down and we were able to go straight in.  The detailing was unbelievable - everything gilded in gold, fresco's on ceilings, crystal chandeliers everywhere and such ornate crown molding. 

Here is what the Hallway of Mirrors looks like all lit up and without all of us tourists.

While at the Palace, we noticed a couple walking with Starbucks cups and were happily surprised to learn that there was in fact a Starbucks only a few blocks away.  Hooray!  As you can imagine, Billy and I were thrilled with this discovery.  We enjoyed Starbucks on our drive back to Amiens and it was the perfect ending to our day-trip.

And to top it all off, Jake took three steps all on his own once we arrived home.  It was quite a big day.