Versaille yesterday

Yesterday we went to Versaille.. wow has it changed since we were last there.  Bruce remembered how hard it was to find food, so we brought a picnic lunch, only to have it confiscated and given a bag check number for it (yes, we got it back). Knowing what I know now, I just would have handed them a bit of bread and kept most of the food in my bag.. they didn't double check.

 Now there is a ton of restaurants, paths, lots of places to wander.  We headed straight into the garden, down the t-shaped lake path. Lot of Parisiens were running, biking.  They now rent golf carts for $35/half day and bikes for $11 to $27.  We probably should have tried the bikes.  

The kids loved the stroll and spent the first bit gathering sticks "for their fire".. Finn found a slug on a branch whom he named "sluggy", and we he wrote his journal entry for the day, all it said was "I saw slug".  Zoe found a stick at some point that became her best friend.. we stopped for dinner later and she thought she lost it.. it was a very temper tantrum moment that was averted when I found "sticky" in my bag.

My favorite part of Versaille is the Queen's Hamlet.. it is beautiful.. quaint remake of what an ideal village would look like.  It had ducks, geese, a swan, carp in the water who just nibbled under the bridge; a mill, winding staircases, gardens, and gardens full of carrots, artichokes;  they had 3 cows, sheep, its turned into a small working farm with active care takers.  We returned to the tradition of following a path and "getting lost".. i.e. we knew where we needed to go, had a detail map, but got a fence which was locked, saw a place to cross, but it was a giant moat.. somehow ended up in the research center.  Bruce and I did a similar thing about 15 years ago when we visited.  We finally came out a gate marked with a sign that probably said "don't go thru here"

It was an amazing amount of walking and we hit the palace for the last 15 minutes it was open.  I told Finn about the secret passages that you can see in the walls of the palace and then he asked to go back to the Queen's palace so we could look for more secret passages. Wish I had used that earlier ;)

We finished the day with a lovely plate of cheese and meat and bread, and Zoe ate a hamburger.. I have to remember to ask them to cook the burgers more.  Finn is basically existing on cheese and bread.