Today is a day for Versailles! We slept until 9:00 again, ate a quick breakfast of baguette with Nutella and apples, then walked down to the RER station near the Eiffel Tower. We just missed the train so we waited another 30 minutes for the next one. It was a nice hour long ride out of Paris. We decided to get some lunch before entering the palace grounds so we went searching for a creperie and found Creperie Belle Ile on a small side street. Mat order a ham and cheese crepe topped with apple and melted white cheese and a side salad. I ordered a two crepe meal, one strawberry jam and one currant jam, with Chantilly cream.
After lunch, we headed over to the palace. It was 2:00pm and, with our Paris Museum Pass, we got into the museum within 10 minutes! It was very crowded inside, although it was amazing to see such opulence. It took us only 1.5 hours to move through and we headed to the gardens. Since it was a Friday they had some fountains flowing and baroque music was piped into speakers throughout the garden. Entry costs more on these Musical Garden days but it was nice to see some of the fountains flowing. I was disappointed in the lack of flowers in this traditional French style garden, but the landscaped groves were incredible! We also saw the Le Grand and Petit Trianon in Marie Antoinette's Estate.
Versailles is a very popular tourist destination with large crowds. We agreed the best way to see Versailles would be to come around noon, spend a couple hours in the gardens (bring a shade umbrella if it's hot!) and then tour Marie-Antoinettes Estate until 3:30pm, giving yourself two hours of viewing the palace before it closes.
We caught the 7:50pm train back to Paris, walked back towards our flat, and reached the Arc de Triomphe just before sunset so we climbed the narrow spiral staircase to the top to watch the colors fade over the city. Back to the flat to cook dinner and go to bed!
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