Fortunately, we'd had a hot tip - do the blue bike tour. It's the best way to see Versailles. And that was certainly the case. Though our start was rocky with a tree having fallen on the railroad track our train was meant to travel on, our guide, Guillaume (Gigi), navigated us from the train to a bus that took us into Versailles and from there to the market to acquire our lunch.
Once outfitted with lunch and bikes, Gigi led the fourteen of us (from Toronto, Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston and Boulder) through town and into the gardens. Just 25-years old, Gigi was genuinely nice and funny, and he educated us on French ways and French history, particularly as it concerned Louis XIV, Louis XV (the well-loved), Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, all of whom were key players in the affairs (literally) at Versailles. And when Houston had a flat tire, Gigi expertly changed it.
We biked from fountain to lake and from guest house to Marie Antoinette's hamlet and the Petting Zoo of Versailles where we stopped for four-euro, speedily-squeezed orange juice, my favorite. The whole day was spent outdoors biking, and we were all exhausted when it was done, but we'd had a blast.
My least favorite thing was being crammed into the Palace pressed up against tens of thousands of other tourists shuffling from room to room. The only thing awesome about that place was the seven-euro viewfinder that Berit bought with Versailles photos in it. Oh, and this t-shirt:
Ok, and the hall of mirrors was pretty cool, too - 17 huge windows opposite which were 17 huge mirrors. Louis XIV had sent his man to Italy, where they'd discerned the science for mirror-making, to bring it back and have these mirrors created for the palace which, at the time, was a place through which passed nobels and diplomats from around the world.
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