le 25 Septembre
BONNE FETE!!!
What can I say? Today was a feast for the senses.
This morning Reyn gave me my birthday presents: a sapphire and diamond and white gold 'demi-parure' of earrings, necklace and pendant. I'm over the moon!
It's actually Saturday now and I'm playing catch up because yesterday (Friday) was so jam-packed. We got on the RER train to Versailles in decent time. A busking accordion player began playing right near us so Reyn asked if he knew 'Happy Birthday', which he did, and he proceeded to play it for me. That is not something that happens everyday!
Versailles the town appeared quite quickly out of the suburbs of Paris, the train being fast and not crowded at all. The Chateau itself came into view after a short walk. From the front it looked kind of oddly placed and kind of scrunched but after getting closer I realized why: the place is GARGANTUAN!
We passed through security and were able to enter without too much waiting - our museum passes covered admission so we bypassed the ticket buyers' line, which was very long. The tour through the chateau was interesting. We chose to follow the tour in Rick Steve's book rather than get an audioguide. The chateau gardens, like everything else in Paris are monumental in scale. Strolling the garden came as a relief after the crush of people inside. We stopped for lunch at one of the numerous little tucked away snack stands where we had pizza that came with an egg cracked in the middle of it (?) (!), Orangina, and where we encountered some very cute pousseyquatts.
After lunch we continued down through the gardens to the Apollo basin where we sat and finished our ice cream cones and considered our next move. We decided to rent bikes to explore the Petit Trianon and the Domaine de Marie Antoinette. It was a very wise decision as it would have taken forever to walk that far and it was also a lot of fun. I felt very French, being on a bike with a little basket and bell, pedaling through the magnificent countryside on a stunning sunny day. After walking through the Petit Trianon, we biked to the Hamlet, which was rather like Aunt Sally's Farm. We rode back to the central station to drop off the bikes and start the long trek back (uphill naturally) to the chateau and the train station.
After impersonating a sardine quite convincingly on the train ride back, I arrived back at the hotel to find a huge bouquet of flowers and a note from the office wishing me a happy birthday. They are absolutely gorgeous and I'm bummed that I have such a short time to enjoy them.
Philip had made us a reservation for the 8:30 show at the Crazy Horse Saloon so we needed to freshen up and have a bite before heading back out. We left in what seemed like plenty of time but had absolutely no luck in getting a taxi. We ended up walking up to the Crillon Hotel before finally finding a car free. We arrived with only moments to spare and then there was some confusion about the reservations and tickets. We were shown to our seats, which were fantastic- right near the front and almost dead centre - and the waiter just had time to pop the cork on our bottle of champagne (compris) before the show began. The spectacle that ensued was by turns cheesy, funny, entertaining, edgy, naughty, and amusing. In the second half there was an act comprised of two tap dancers - twins - and male. It seemed a bit out of place but they were really good.
After the show we decided we would walk home (another one of my bright ideas) because it was a beautiful night and also because I had drank about half a bottle of champagne.
We took some pictures of the Eiffel Tower and walked and gawked at the displays in the store windows along Avenue Montaigne - Christian Dior, Chanel (which seems to be on every corner around this city, kind of like Timmy's at home), Ungaro, Prada...My feet were aching by the time we neared the hotel and I was thrilled when Reyn volunteered to go further up the road to get some McDonald's to have in the room. Collapsed into bed, exhausted.
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