Versailles

We are glad about getting notice to leave the old apartment due to the sewer problem because this place in Versailles is marvelous.

The breakfast here is outstanding. The chef made an omelet that was so light and fluffy and simple and delicious. Don't know how they do it, but it's amazing. Great croissants too!

We headed out into the town of Versailles to check it out.

Found a place for lunch and had some salads. Perfect.

We walked around aimlessly, stopping in shops that caught our attention and taking pictures of things that interested us.

Mitzi found a store that sells her Maileg mouse collectibles.  She buys the French Maid to clean her highrise ;)

We also passed a bakery where they were making some yummy stuff. The yellow jackets like it too.

She found a clothing store with some darling items.

Fashion is a French thing. This ladies boots, wow haha.

We passed to guys with a lot of camera equipment. One was looking intently at my Leica as we passed so I honored his interest by taking his picture.

We randomly ended up at the Palais of Versailles. At least where the tour buses go. There were a lot of them. We didn't go in since we have a bike tour on Thursday and will see it them.

We walked around some more as we headed back to the hotel.

Mitzi found this fabric shop, and she's never seen such a wide selection of trim! She bought some fabric and thread.

Funny because at a different sewing shop earlier she was holding a spool of thread looking to see what it was made of. The guy working there said in broken english, 'no touch.' That was confusing, so she put it back. He seemed confused and we were confused.

My guess is that he wanted to help us, wanted to be of service, but the way he said it had a very different meaning to us.

As we headed out the door he clearly felt bad and called out 'sorry!' So that was interesting.

When we got back to the hotel the sun was starting to move into the golden hour. The light here is amazing.

Mitzi got out her sewing machine to begin working on the new baby's quilt.

We had a nice relaxing evening working on projects and dining on Croque Monsieur in our room.

Day 2

The stairs in our hotel, looking up.

We walked back into Versailles and both felt hungry so we had lunch at Franco Belge.

Mitzi saw this french guy holding a puppy and found it very French.

The stores here have beautiful presentations. They go to a lot of work and make aesthetics important.

When we got back to our hotel this lady was walking down the main corridor in this purple dress. Dress and appearance are very important to the French it seems. They dress so nicely compared to Americans who are kind of slovenly compared to them :)

Our room was getting cleaned so we headed down to the main floor and waited. Mitzi was working on her blog post from her tour to the Isle of Skye.

We noticed this one building had stones for the façade. We hadn't seen that here before. Then we observed some interesting things about the building right next to it. Out of the 15 windows, only 6 were real. The other 9 are fake. And in one of them is a statue of a mother and baby.

Mitzi read that in the 1800's the government charged taxes based on the number of windows. Our theory is these windows were covered up and painted to cut down on their taxes?

We went to Fromages & Papilles, a fondue restaurant, for dinner. Fromage is cheese, Papille is pallete. It's a highly rated place and it didn't not dissappoint. Best fondue we've ever had.

We asked for their desert which is one thing, Pavlova. Mitzi had them in Australia. The man serving us asked how many we wanted. We said one and that we'd share.

He came out with a huge smile and two in his hands. We all had a good laugh. And we each ate our entire pavlova!

The sun had set on our walk back to the hotel. It's a beautiful place.

This car was parked in valet at the hotel. Pretty cool! Will be sending this to Josh who loves fancy cars.

Day 3

Today was our bike tour of Versailles. We walked to the local Burger King to meet the tour group who came on the train from Paris.

While we waited I experiemented with some street photography and light.

Our tour started by purchasing supplies for a picnic we'd have later on.

We got a hot chocolate at a café so we could use their restroom before heading out on our bikes.

One of our first stops was at the canal with the Palace of Versailles in the background.

Arnoud our tour guide did a great job of telling us the stories of French Kings and Queens and the revolution.

We had a picnic at the far end of the canal.

French bread, cheese, strawberries. Amazing.

French bread and cheese!

Mitzi loved loved loved the English Village.

Our last stop was going through the palace.

We we to a crepe restaurant for dinner. It was dark so these pictures walking there didn't turn out too well. But good enough. These folks were all dressed up heading somewhere. Quite the outfits!

The meal was another wonderful french meal. We love french food.

I had to ask Concierge a question and Mitzi was laughing at something as she waited.

Day 4

Our last day in Versailles. This has been a wonderful space. Restful, enjoyable, relaxing, interesting, peaceful. We are sad to be leaving tomorrow.

Some pictures of the beautiful Waldorf Astoria where we've been staying. What a place.

I needed to by an external hard drive to backup all these pictures. We got a ride to a nearby mall. The mall was so nice, and lots of people were there shopping.

Shopping malls in the U.S. are dying. Nobody is there, they are run-down and depressing. This reminded us of what malls used to be.

And the food court didn't have a single fast food restaurant. They were all nice sit down places and it looked like many adult friends met there to have lunch together.

Mitzi's sheep quilt is coming along nicely!

Here are pictures of our hotel room. We've loved it. The best hotel experience we've ever had.

We went to Chez Lazare for dinner. They grill over a wood fire. The snails – delicious. The scallops – delicious. The lamb chops – delicious.

Mitzi's sea bass was the whole fish. Interesting!

For desert Mitzi got an eclair soaked in thick chocolate with coconut ice cream inside and whipped cream on the outside. I got a crème brûlée. It was the lightest and most delicate I've ever had. A+.

We'll have breakfast at the hotel tomorrow morning, then we pack up, get our rental car, and start our road trip down to southern France.

Unless we change our minds and stay another week in Versailles :)