Versailles and dinner in Paris

At last, we boarded the coach for a trip directly to the Palace of Versailles, the home of French kings from Louis XIV to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It’s an over six-hour trip, so we made a few stops along the way. Sleep and songs and games and snacks helped pass the time until we drove up to the gold-adorned gates of the palace.

The palace is one of the most visited tourist attractions in France, so there were a lot of people – many fewer than pre-COVID times, but still a lot. It becomes quite impossible to keep a group of 19+ people together as we visit.

Ultimately, I park myself in the hall of mirrors and photograph each of our groups as they pass by me.

We gathered ourselves in the courtyard outside the king’s bedroom before departing.

Our ultimate Paris destination was the Auberge de Jeunesse Kellerman in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. We got ourselves settled into our room assignments. Then it was off to dinner.

The 13th (neighborhood) includes “Chinatown,” which is probably better described as “Southeast Asia town.” There are immigrants from Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand as well as China. For dinner, we divided ourselves into three groups: one for Viet Nam cuisine; one for general Asian cuisine; and one for French bistro cuisine.

Since I had been eating Viet Nam cuisine from the market in Brest for the entire trip, I took the bistro group. We ate pasta bolognaise, an omelette, a burger à Savoie and a croque-monsieur. The others will have to fill you in.

At the chapel

A modest little chapel

There are big windows at Versailles!

In the hall of mirrors

The treaty that ended WWI was signed here.



I have no idea this animal's name.

But it's with Jasper.

More hall of mirrors.



In the 1600s, it was someone's
job to light and extinguish
each candle on each candelabra.

Guess where?

Air conditioning is a recent
addition to Versailles. These
girls found it!

Pigeon and Brooklyn reemerge.



And Émilie is back!

In the court of the kings.

And always, Jasper.

In the Bistro.

 

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