This morning we set out to visit the le château de Versailles or more commonly known in North America as the palace of Versailles.  By 10 am, the line (que) amounted to 1000's standing in line for the 2.5 hour wait.  We spoke to an attendant at the gate and he suggested we by $30E worth of additional tickets to allow us entrance into the Grand Tiranon Palace and Chateau Gardens. This que was only 1.5 hours long and he suggested by the time we viewed Tiranon & the Gardens, return to the line at palace of Versailles at 4:30 pm and there should be virtually no one waiting in line.  Well we didn't bite on that suggestion and chose to visit some other sites in Versailles and return at 4 pm to check the status.  Well he was somewhat right, the line was may 1000 people and the wait approximately 1/2 hour.  Leslie was desperate to see the palace, me...NOT SO MUCH!  We snaked our way to the front entry when the cattle crush began, people pushing and shoving to make their way through the door.  At that very moment, I knew :I had made a mistake and worried how soon it would take before I SNAPPED!  Well it took approximately 3 minutes!  The crush moved to every shitty & somewhat tacky exhibit, pushing and shoving all the way.  Within 5 minutes my blood pressure was boiling by having my feet stepped on and being pushed by over zealous idiots and I told Leslie I wanted to make my escape from this mayham.  As always, Leslie's calming ability was able to settle me down and we hastily made our way through the crowds and out the door.  You have probably read my opinion in previous blogs about how I hate tourist traps and this one definitely ranked among the highest on my list.  The most impressive photo op was the ASS CRACK shot at one of the exhibits.  Notice he even had the gumption, or should I say BUMTION, to break inside the barriers!

The cliche "The Best Things In Life Are Free" is very appropriate in this case.  The chateau grounds were enormous and though they were no where close to the Chateau's or Palaces in the Loire Valley, they were impressive none the less.  Far fewer crowds there and lots of elbow room to enjoy the moment and capture some spectacular photos.  I feel sorry for our good friends who spent over $400.00 to tour the palace and grounds.  In my opinion, that would have been the biggest RIP OFF in history!  I sincerely hope the had a much more positive experience.

I think the attached photos and video clips will speak for themselves.

The flight with Air Transat to Paris was great!  We arrived at approximately 8:30 am after a 9 hour flight.  The time passed quickly by watching movies.  The airline served us dinner & a continental breakfast that was rather spartan but adequate.  Unfortunately we were seated in the row directly behind first class and their level of service looked pretty amazing.  There appeared to be 18 seats in the first class zone of the flight we were on and I am curious to know what the upgrade to first class would be for the trip home.  Two return tickets from Calgary to Paris in economy were $2200 Cdn flying the "Bologna Plan",.. which was fine.  We managed to get seats at the bulkhead which gave us a lot more room for Leslie's 5 ft frame!!!

Upon arrive, we picked up our luggage and contacted Auto Europe for our brand new Peugeot rental.  They picked us up right outside the arrival door within minutes...GREAT SERVICE!  The little car was loaded and we managed to get all our luggage in the trunk, which was a real surprise.  We then drove to a Trappes, France, a community just outside of Versailles.  We booked into the trusted Ibis Trappes Saint Quentin en Yvelines.  Ibis is a large hotel chain throughout Europe and are very spartan but clean and the room layout is tiny but always consistwnt with free wifi, a comfortable bed and a great choice when your stuck for a room at the last minute.  The rates are very competitive and the hotels are always booked to capacity.


We decided to nap for a few hours before we head out to pickup some groceries and snacks for the next few days.  We travel with a small insulated cooler with enough room for some cheese, juice, yogart, etc.  Some of the better grocery stores in France are LeClerc, Aldi, Lidl,Carrefour, to name a few.  Aldi & Lidl are discount food retailers that are often far cheaper than the others but their selection is quite limited.  After picking up dinner and a few other items, we hit the sack for a busy day of touring Versailles tomorrow.  We may extend our 2 day booking to 3 given we did not get much accomplished our first day.  This type of flexibility is the beauty of not booking in advance however the downside is not being able to find a room during the peak summer months, something we have luckily not experience to date.


Stay tuned...

The much anticipate day has finally arrived and here we are, sitting at Calgary International Airport awaiting our Air Transat light to Paris, the first leg of our 4 month European Adventure.  We made a pit stop at Duty Free and stocked up on our booze supply.  We cannot believe the time has finally arrived and it almost feels a little surreal!  Our friends Chris and Jim had to cut their European Adventure short due to a water leak at their home shortly after they arrived in Europe.  Their photos from the Aisle of Capri looked amazing.  The 9 hour flight will bring us into Paris at 8:30 am where we pickup our rental vehicle from Auto Europe and make the short drive to Versaille for a couple of days.  From there, we are basically winging it until we meet up with our German friends at Lake Konstanz for a few days.