Hey, we visited a grown woman's playground.

For the sake of not having a super long post, I'm dividing Thursday, July 7, into two posts. First, the Palace of Versailles.

Though I had already visited the Palace of Versailles during my last excursion to France three years ago, I was still astounded by the palace's beauty. And it wasn't just the palace. It was the endless miles of gardens and the beautiful little restaurant where we ate and the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon. It was funny that we visited the palace, then the Grand Trianon, then the Petit Trianon, because with each that we visited we kept saying, "If we hadn't seen the other one first, this would seem huge." Serving as separate homes for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, I couldn't figure out how only a single person could live in each of these residences.

The first of my two favorite stops of the day was the boat ride along one of the ponds in the gardens. The sun was beating down pretty hard and it took a little teamwork to actually row the boat, but it was fun.

Julia and I on the row boat.

The second of my favorite stops was the Hamlet. This was, if you haven't guessed, the grown woman's playground. Marie Antoinette had this little fake Austrian village built in her backyard so she could play like she was a merry maid. She was around 40 years old. While the Hamlet was a cute place for us to visit in the afternoon, it probably made some of the poor a little mad to find this fake poor village hiding behind Versailles built just for the queen. It was a little bizarre.

More on July 7 to be continued.

Until next time and au revoir. M