Dave and Teneille's Excellent Adventure

BELLE

Sunday was a bit of an early start because we had our first big day trip outside Paris and we had to meet a coach near the Louvre for an 8am departure. We stopped at a boulangerie on the way and loaded up on pain au chocolat before finding the tour office for our trip to Giverny and Versailles.

It was good not to have to worry about transport but if we had our time over I think we would have booked Versailles as one whole day. We feel we didn't have enough time at the palace and only scratched the surface of the gardens. It was a horrible day in terms of weather though - wet and windy - so the palace of Versailles and its gardens in sunshine sounds far nicer.

Nasturtiums for days at Monet's house.

But before that we were off to Giverny about 1.5 hours out of Paris. Giverny is a sleepy little village popular with visitors because it was where Claude Monet spent the last half of his life. We saw his house and the two gardens he built, including the Japanese garden with the iconic lily pond and bridge. I'd like to say we enjoyed the scenery on the way to Giverny but Teneille and I both passed out on the coach.

Teneille standing on THE bridge looking over the lily pond.

From Giverny we ducked over to a small village called Fourges where we had a lunch at an old water mill dating back to the early 1800s. This village is why I named today's blog after the song from Beauty and the Beast where Belle sings of her provincial life. That and the water mill really looked like her house from he movie. The food was amazing and the surrounding countryside beautiful. As we were leaving we saw some cows in a paddock. Teneille lamented the fact cows never let you touch them and they only come close enough to tease. Then one with a heart shape patch on its head wandered over and let the tour guide touch it. That was it. Teneille was off the coach so fast there was a Teneille-shaped cloud sitting next to me where Teneille had been. We left Fourges late because of Teneille. I spent two years planning this trip and booking things that she's dreamed of doing and I bet the highlight of the trip will be that she got to cuddle a cow.

Where we had lunch.

The highlight of Teneille's french journey.

It was about an hour's drive from Fourges to Versailles and we fell asleep again.

Like so...

Versailles was ok but we didn't really enjoy it I think for a number of reasons. The weather was horrible and that affected the gardens experience. And the crowds were insane. We haven't had many issues with crowds... I mean Notre Dame was busy but this was on another level. I had just started blocking people outright by the end of the day and staring them down until they wilted under the cold, dead look in my eyes. There were a couple of factors causing the crowds I believe. 1. It was a Sunday. Most of our stuff has been during the week when it would be less busy I imagine. 2. We'd accidentally booked our first day out of Paris on the third annual No Car Day. This is an initiative from Paris town hall which bans cars in central Paris from 11am-6pm. The block every entry to the city and sanction people who drive without just cause. So, if you can't drive into Paris where do you go? Versailles, of course. We were slightly annoyed we also missed our one chance to wander the streets of Paris without getting mowed down.

The palace of Versailles.

Touching gold...

We moved through the rooms of the palace but didn't get to see the queen's apartments which were closed for restoration works. The gardens stretched on forever but we really didn't see much before it was time to leave. We feared the trip back to Paris would be bumper-to-bumper with everyone waiting to get back into the city once the gates reopened but it wasn't too bad. We went on the giant roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe but there were hardly any cars on it.

The gardens were amazing and too huge for our brains to

The Arc just before the gates to the city were reopened.

We stopped by a boulangerie on the way home to grab some food and hit the hay. Monday is a free day and we haven't decided what we're doing yet. We've been on the go for a whole week so might actually take it easy.

The hall of mirrors in Versaille palace.

A ceiling doing ceiling things.