Taking me back to Tom's high school history class

KHigh on my list of sites to see was Versailles. The hall of mirrors is one of the few things I remember from high school history. That and Campo Formio. Can't remember what they were about, but I remember learning about them. As we took the train out to versaille the rain was coming down hard. From the train to the palace it just seemed to rain harder. It didn't look to be a good day to be exploring the gardens. 

 

We first took the audio tour through the apartments. My audio guide didn't work very well, which proved to be very frustrating for the first half of the tour and I may have missed out a bit on the tour due to my frustration. Oops. It's a pretty crazy place - room upon opulent room. 

          

Versaille has been home to kings and to the republics, with every occupant adding their own touch. And I got to find out why the Hall of Mirrors had played a roll in my high school education - the Treay of Versailles, ending WWI officially had been signed in the hall. 

As we proceeded through the tour, we noticed it had stopped raining.

I'm not going to lie and say it was some wonderful sunny summer day, it is October. But it was a wonderful fall day, the wind in the trees, the sun popping in and out from the clouds and the leaves on some trees just changing colour. 

We wandered through the gardens on our way to the Grande Trianon - the royal weekend home. It's gaudy. Pink marble everywhere. And I had to laugh at these two women who were viewing the palaces at about the same pace as us and their constant selfies. It was driving my dad crazy and I have to say, it was a full on show of narcicism. Maybe channeling their inner Marie-Antionette. 

From there we toured some of the other little buildings including the Petit Trianon, on our way to "the Hamlet", a little Normand village that M-A had built as she longed for the peasant life. It is a very strange place. The Hamlet also had a working farm and mill. Strange lady. 

We wandered back to the chateau. By this time the sun was starting to appear which was very welcome. 

We made our way to the train and by the time we were back in Montemartre, we were both exhausted. A good day.