Monuments and Museums: Day 5

Terrific day today - not too hot and not such a long haul...We are staying fairly close to Versailles, so we were able to take a short bus ride - barely 10 minutes - to the Château de Versailles.  As an imposing structure, it certainly doesn't disappoint - the scale and ornament of the place is overwhelming.

 We made it there by 845, ahead of the 9AM opening time, but there were already quite a few people around.  Our museum pass paid off again, and we ended up waiting maybe 10 minutes before we were able to go in.  This was a real coup, as we had heard some horror stories of huge waits.

Although we got in quickly, it was pretty clear from the start that this was not the kind of site you could  take at your own relaxed pace - there is basically a rising flood of people moving through the château, and if you don't move with the flow, you'll drown.

Speaking of drowning, I mentioned before that there is somewhat of a shortage of public toilets in France.  Versailles is confronting this problem head-on with a dedicated initiative...

That's terrific news.  The only shortcoming is that the only evidence of improvement so far is the sign...

The palace is really beautiful, even though the crowds come close to spoiling it. 

What we saw of the gardens looked amazing as well, but we're leaving that for a separate visit.

After almost four hours at the palace, we decided to head into the town of Versailles and check out the shops and market.  We discovered that the town is very nice, with a lot of interesting-looking shops (most of which were closed, as it was Sunday).  We'll go back at some point and explore more.

We only caught the last bit of it, but the market was terrific.  We bought some very nice produce and will go back again to get some more deliciousness.  We found out afterwards that this is considered a very expensive market, so I didn't feel quite so bad about my small cucumbers and handful of cherry tomatoes for €9-.  

We're seeing small examples of the different relationship the French have with pets. We saw another one at the market.

After the market, we had a nice lunch at one of the cafés that surround the marketplace.  On he way back to the bus, we were mysteriously sucked into a salon de thé and forced to buy an enormous, insanely delicious macaron au chocolat.  It was 3€50 (the cost of 3 baguettes, a totally drinkable bottle of wine, or a huge piece of cheese), but worth it.

We got home mid-afternoon, treated ourselves to a nap, followed by a light dinner and then a wander to the nearby "étangs" (which means ponds or mosquito breeding grounds in English). 

Absolutely no complaints...