Versailles

We are now back safe and sound at my uncle's house outside London. It's raining of course but it is so nice to come back here after such an exhausting week. When we walked in the door Alex said, "it feels like home." Very excited to see my mum and sisters this evening! But of course we couldn't leave Paris without a visit to the world's most famous chateaux;
We dragged ourselves out of bed early again on Friday so that we could meet Anna and catch the metro to Versailles. Having grown up in Paris I was shocked to hear that Anna had never been before but perhaps it is just the sort of thing tourists do. The line for tickets was about a mile long but moved quickly, especially when we discovered we could cut out quite a bit of waiting time by using the ticket machines. I decided that this would be a good time to break my fifty euro note...except that the stupid thing decided to give me all thirty-two euros of change in two euro coins which was quite embarrassing as they all wooshed out of the machine, but it did keep Alex and I laughing for about thirty minutes afterwards as I sounded like a walking piggy bank for the rest of the trip. The main interior of the palace was just as beautiful as I remembered despite the fact that it was packed. Then Anna had to leave us so Alex and I decided to go explore the gardens and try to find Marie Antoinette's little house. It was such a beautiful day that I was quite happy to just get lost in the garden but Alex was a little exasperated that I didn't remember the map in my bag until about twenty minutes into
our adventure. On our walk to the house (this time heading in the right direction) we took loads of creeper pictures of cute couples having picnics and adorable children running through the fields, they turned out really nice even though we had to be discrete while taking them. The queen's domain itself was enchanting; lots of wild flowers and a little stream with a working mill. But the whole thing felt more like Disneyland than a historical building. Although I still think Marie Antoinette was a complete air head I can't blame her for wanting to spend all her time out there.
The weather just made the day so perfect, but unfortunately also gve me a pretty spectacular sunburn, complete with a stripe across my shoulder from my purse. But it was so worth it!