After our wine tasting and spitting, we were back in the van headed for Versailles. In my books, no one can visit France without a stop at Louis XIV lavish estate. As was becoming our tried and true method, we had no place arranged to stay yet, but figured we'd figure it out when we got there!
What a place! The town was completely overrun with tourists and parking was nearly impossible. We had read that to go later would give us a cheaper entry fee to the main buildings and we knew that July was quite a peak time for tourists, BUT we didn't know that many buildings were under renovations. And even at 5 p.m. the entry line was hours long. Disappointing surely, but not worth it as far as we could see. So we just wandered the grounds.
Entertained ourselves. 
Peered in windows. Speculated about those who once lived in the extravagance.Someone had put a flyer under our wipers for a hotel that seemed like an amazing deal and we went as far as to drive out to it. It was outside of Versailles and well, not exactly what we had hoped for. So we pulled out Rick Steves' book again and made some calls from a payphone. Fortunately there was another quad room available for us in what was apparently the livery and stables of the king once upon a time. Now it is Le Cheval Rouge Hotel. Driving back into Versailles took some doing with one-way streets and traffic, but we made it and settled into our new little room.
Consulting our new favourite and dependable book, we selected a couple of dinner options. In the end, we chose a wonderful crepe place, Brittany-themed which meant it served ciders in very cool mugs. The tables were actually right on the walkway/street. A most excellent final meal in France.
1 comment:
Great work.
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