We woke up with the alarm this morning and got ready to head out to Versailles. Trying to find breakfast before 10am is so difficult in Europe! Not something I enjoyed about the trip and we more than often ate at home so we didn't venture out starving. This morning we finally found a place and shared an omlette and a sweet crepe. Brad and Nerida met us not that long after and we had a coffee before going to the train station.
The train took a little while but it was nice to sit and catch up on jotting down what we'd been doing the last few days. I knew the blogging thing would take me ages to catch up on so I wanted to make sure we had a bit of a list ready to go in the phone when it did come time to type this up.
Once we were out at Versaille we chose to focus on the gardens rather than the palace. Not sure we made the right decision ... but ultimately we knew we couldn't do both and the palace had massive lines already. We hopped in the line for a golf buggy and off we raced ... at the pace of a snail.
The gardens are massive ... very geometrical and very green. There were not as many flowers as I was expecting and the white gravel was back ... the French love their white gravel!
We found a beautiful garden hiding in amongst the paths but you couldn't sit or walk on the grass .... very different to Australia and Britain where it's encouraged!
After the train ride home we came up to see some impressive break dancing buskers! We all went home for a nap which was really nice. Jo and Ash had been to visit Monet's garden which sounded and looked incredible. They were buzzing from their day and sat around with a cup of tea and filled us in.
Todd and I ventured off on our own for the evening, really keen to see Le Marais district.
We walked across the river and then past the Centre Pompidou which Mum and Dad had recommended we go see. Le Marais was buzzing and there were so many people out and enjoying the evening. We stopped at a library bar ... an old shop with wooden floorboards and books floor to ceiling. There was a small, curved bar at the front which had a few people perched up against it. We found and spot and ordered a drink. Hilariously the waitress said, ok!, and then walked out the door. She didn't come back for a little while and when she did she had our drinks! We worked out later than it was the little sister bar of a bigger restaurant up the road. My first gin fizz and it was delicious!
From there we walked to a falafel place that had been really well recommended. When we walked up we quickly worked out there was a huge line and a friendly man hustling us all into line and taking orders. As we got closer it just got better. The rate they were making these felafel was crazy! Todd took some video and we had a laugh with the man making them. Pitta pocked, purple cabbage, onion, cucumber, eggplant, spicy sauce and balls of delicious felafel. We sat on a stoop and shovelled it in surrounded by loads of other people doing the same.
We walked to another bar afterwards and ordered a final drink ...
A really flamboyant man was sitting next to us and obviously knew the owner of the bar well. He was dancing and singing along while reading the newspaper and drinking shots.
A fun night!
