Wednesday, June 20th (Verseilles, France)

We woke up at 7am and were on the road immediately, only to be crushed by the most ridiculous traffic that any of us had ever seen. We had heard a lot about how most European cities, Paris in particular, were very public transportation friendly and now we realized why… it would take 10x longer to get anywhere by car. That coupled with the high fuel prices and ridiculous toll roads had turned France into a motorist’s nightmare (particularly when compared to the orderly and high-speed roads of Germany).

We started toward Normandy, which TomTom informed us was about 2 hours away, but after sitting in traffic for almost that amount of time, we had not made it past the Paris city limits. We changed it up and decided to visit Versaille instead.

The chateau was beautiful, the gardens in particular. We took a nice long walk through the impeccably manicured trees, many of which were cut like perfect rectangles and towered more than 100 feet into the air. The walk was truly a MOVING EXPERIENCE!

We returned to tour the house itself and then headed off to see Chateau Fontainebleau.

When we got to the next Chateau however it had just closed (actually, it was supposed to close in 45 minutes, but the guards would not let us in. After Jim tried to sneak in through several entrances (and was rebuffed each time) we finally gave up and settled for a brief walk through the gardens (where were not as moving as Versailles but which featured many trickling fountains and natural streams).

We headed home only to get stuck in traffic again, but not quite as bad as in the morning. This time we got home in time to enjoy the hot tub, but only to find that it was only luke warm (it turns out that they were cleaning it). This wasn’t so bad for Carla who was able to join us for the bubbles since the temperature wasn’t too high, but generally not that much fun overall. After all this, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner and took Carl and Ronnie’s recommendation from their visit just a few weeks earlier. Our meal at RELAIS GUERMANTE was one of the best we had in all of Europe (I know I keep saying this, but since the trip is nearing the end, I think I am confident of it this time). Champagne aperitifs, a surprisingly tasty cauliflower soup and various fish and meat dishes topped off with some creative deserts. The atmosphere was amazing and we had a grand old time!