Paris, France

Wednesday would be our last day in Paris, and it threatened rain once again. Nevertheless, we were off to Versailles. This time I wore my down jacket under my rain coat, and a scarf, while Norm wore a fleece under his jacket. I brought sandwiches, nuts and dried fruit, water and an umbrella in my shopping bag. Our laundry was all caught up and stowed away, and we had a nice breakfast in the apartment. We caught the C train to Versailles with all the other tourists. We arrived at the opening time so beat the line but not the crowds as apparently everyone had the same idea to begin early. They gave us an audio set as a guide which was a good idea because I needed to know some background to appreciate the site. The palace had a certain bedraggled grandeur which Norm noted because he’d been before in the seventies when it was a wee bit fresher. Once the circuit of the palace was completed, audio set returned, we toured the immense grounds and garden. Part way through the garden, in the bosque, the sky opened and rain pelted down. I was glad I had my umbrella but wished Norm had one too. It worked out that he used the umbrella and I used my raincoat and hood. The rain was fierce but short lived. I noticed a class of school children huddled in the shrubbery eating their soggy lunches in the rain and felt for them. We sheltered a bit in front of a cafe. I was glad we had the foresight to eat our sandwiches before the storm came. After the rain stopped we saw the rest of the garden so I felt I got my euro’s worth. We also took the time to visit the trinket shops where I bought a couple of tea towels, a Paris scarf, and a pair of fans. We also had chocolate mousse and coffee. It was easy to navigate our way home despite some initial confusion about the train to Paris. Once home, and rested we went out to dinner at a popular Italian restaurant called Fuxia. We splurged and shared a salad, but each had an entree and wine. The food was elegant, a roasted eggplant salad with greens, pesto and cheese, then my dish was risotto with chicken but Norm had pasta with thin sliced ham. We packed all our gear before bed, and set three alarms for 4 AM. We were ready to wave au revoir to Paris on the early train out of Monparnasse. Norm called the taxi company to verify our reservation. I wrote a detailed email home to the family, and texted Liz in Sonoma while I made the sandwiches for tomorrow’s journey. We left the house clean, and pretty much finished off the food which our host had given us.