The city of Versailles and the famous Palace of several King Louis' is an easy drive from our little timeshare. It is about an hour and a half down the A-13 -- one of the French freeways into Paris. So, off we went this morning and by 10 a.m. we had arrived. Getting tickets to tour the Palace was another thing. First of all, we did not get them through the Internet, which we could have done. Which meant we had to buy them at the door(s) when we got there which entails going to the information desk where we met a very nice man who was very friendly and helpful. Just when we thought we had all of the straight skinny, he directed us to another door where we would make our purchase. I mean, really, we were thirty seconds from running our credit card and now we had to walk clear across the courtyard to do the paperwork. Finally, we had our tickets to see the palaces and take a special guided tour of the private kings' quarters. We were finally able to rub elbows with the unwashed masses. The regular tour was OK. Versailles is over the top for sure, but the tour is a mob scene even on a not so busy day. It takes about 1 1/2 hours for the self-guided audio tour, which was about all I could stand. After the tour, we walked the grounds, seeing the beautiful gardens, and walked to some of the outer palace buildings, including the secluded English tudor-looking "village" where Marie Antoinette would go to get away from the hubbub of palace life.  

At 3:30 we joined a small group for a guided tour of the Kings' quarters . That tour took about 90 minutes, as well, but there were only seven of us and was led by a very cute young lady who was an art history expert. She was very easy to follow and even more interesting and knowledgeable. She really brought the palace to life. She made our day!

At the end of our tour it was time to hit the rush hour Paris traffic home. Dayna did a masterful job of getting us out of Dodge (Versailles is only about 20 miles from Paris) and back to the freeway and home. We were easily home before dark.  

Now, where to eat dinner? The shops are closed, so that leaves only the restaurants. There aren't too many restaurants around our village. It was time for another adventure! Off we went with only a vague idea of where we were going . . . but trusting in our GPS to get us home no matter how lost we got. We, quite literally, drove until we found a town that had a main drag with some activity. Around here, not every village has a life after about 7 p.m.! After about 30 minutes of driving, making random turns that looked promising, we found a village with life. We asked some people on a street corner where we should eat and found the recommended restaurant. It turned out to be a cute little gem with superb food. To make our experience even more memorable, we were, as Dayna noted, the only people who were from the New World. It was the perfect end to a nice day.