How I spent my time in Paris, mk 2

Pooey (amonst others) has always regarded Versailles as the ultimate European Palace. Hell, after it was built other European Royal Houses went and remodelled their own palaces after it. I can't believe it took me three tries to knock this tourist spot off my list. Luckily Alix came along so he did all the talking to people about what kind of tickets we needed and where to go.

And it sure is pretty.

The Hall of Mirrors

Pooey happy in the Hall of Mirrors

That's a real purdy view

So is this one

And this one!

Grand Trianon

Some of the garden at Petit Trianon

Unforch, Petit Trianon was closed so we couldn't seen Marie-Antoinette's favourite part of the estate. Overall, while I don't think I was as disappointed as Pooey (although she admitted she might be a bit palace-d out), I'm not kicking myself for waiting so long to go there. I think Pooey expected that given the size of the place, more of it would be open. As you can see, we were lucky enough that our cloudy morning transformed into a sparkling afternoon while we walked around the grounds from the main palace to Grand Trianon to Petit Trianon and back again. The map said walking to each part would take about twenty minutes each and we all thought *Well, we're young and healthy - let's do it!* But the walking doesn't take in photography stopping or lost getting time. In the end, walking around the huge grounds totally wore us out and we three fell asleep on the RER back to town before we continued the Great Shoe Hunt at Galeries Lafayette Montparnasse where we didn't find those shoes either (*sigh*). And then to add insult to injury, we fell asleep when we got back to the hotel room and lost an entire night's revelling potential!

I also helped Pooey realise her dream of climbing Notre Dame de Paris. Since I had already done this, I didn't take photos. That same day, there was a celebration of French baking going on in the Notre Dame parvis so the entire square have this WONDERFUL baking scent. It was the best! And since we were in the neighbourhood, Pooey and I went to Bertillon on Ile St. Louis to have some of what is considered the best ice cream in Paris. The tricky thing is that there are stores that claim to be selling Bertillon but which aren't Bertillon so we had to keep walking until we found the right one. I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of the queue at the real store (which was long), and for not taking a photo of me with my cone featuring peach and nougat and honey flavours. This was semi-rectified when I went back another day for more and got green apple and cinnamon.

Nums!

Then I had to send Pooey back to London and I was alone again. But more adventures were had!