Let Them Eat Cake!

by Living Our Best Lives

Kilometres Walked : Monday 13.2 km, Tuesday 20 km.

Tuesday 4th July, 2023.

Yesterday was a wander day. Down to the Seine, across to see the progress on Notre Dame and through the Marais. So many pretty Parisian cafes with their colourful cafe chairs with the patrons sitting front and centre wanting to see and be seen. The last time we were in Paris the fire that occurred at Notre Dame had sadly only just happened the week prior so the whole area was cordoned off. The building is still closed to the public but you can walk around the streets beside it and see a little of the beautiful building. Unfortunately Le Marais didn’t seem as special as everyone makes it out to be. It was definitely dirtier than other areas of Paris and whilst there were some very cute cafes and shops it didn’t really appeal to us like Montmartre does. Different strokes for different folks!

Outside the Louis Vuitton Building
Cafe near Notre Dame.
Another cute cafe.
Hotel De Ville.
Love Parisian Architecture.
This was a favourite.
Cute cafes on every corner.

Now today, today was just ridiculous amounts of opulence like you have never seen. Welcome to Chateau De Versailles! There’s not much to say other than it is so over the top and so big that no wonder they chopped Louis XVI’s head off. It was room after room after room of velvet covered walls, gold leaf, marble, chandeliers, frescoes, mirrors and sweeping staircases. I mean please, who really wants to live like that? We would have been happy in the gatehouse!

Just the beginning of the Palace.
There is a lot of gold.
Cards anyone.
The beds are so high you need a step.
Tea anyone.
The bed looks a little small!
One of many velvet rooms in a row in different colours.
Very Pretty.
Just a little crowded.

Of course we couldn’t leave without eating cake! One doesn’t get to dine in a chateau to often albeit with paper cups and plates😂 But the cake I can assure you was simply divine and yes we finally tried a macaron😋

Let them eat cake!
And he’s eating it!

Next were the Gardens. Now we love a great garden but the grounds were so astronomically big that we didn’t make it around the entire place. It was one kilometre from the chateau to the Grand Canal and then another half a kilometre to The Estate of Trianon. This place is so ridiculously huge it’s almost a joke. We still managed to clock up 20kms yet we didn’t even see everything. In reality you need two to three days to properly explore the estate.

Topiaries as far as the eye can see.
This is just the start of the gardens.
Looking down to Grand Canal.
One of hundreds of statues.
Huge hedges.

Last but definitely not least, we took our weary legs up to the Estate of Trianon. Once there we just didn’t have it in us to explore the entire estate and quite frankly we were just over the amount of very rude tourists pushing and shoving their way around. We did The Petit Trianon and The Queen’s Hamlet which I have to say was much more our style. With pretty, less formal gardens, cute out buildings, meandering paths and plenty of herb and vegetable gardens.

He actually blended in with the other gardeners.
Almost Hansel and Gretel.
Yes we had to buy new trainers as we wore our other ones out!
These places were just super cute.
Love a good Arbor.
Not sure what these are but the colour was so vibrant.

After about 7 hours on the estate we took our tired legs back to Paris. I think a glass of wine is in order🍷.