Traveling with Ray Owens

New Cruising Rule:  from now on morning will occur at midmorning or later.  Getting up at 6:30 is not cool. Although the shower felt pretty good.  Back on the intermittent fasting lifestyle.  No breakfast for me although I still maintain that the first meal I eat is indeed me breaking the fast since last evening.  Penny, my lovely bride, ordered me coffee with her room service breakfast.

I did manage to make it to the Royal Theater to meet with my excursion group #41.  We were guided to the bus area and group 41 (consisting of 12 Americans and 2 people from the UK) met our guide named Sophia.  We then set off for Versailles, the seat of the French governments during the reigns of Louis 13, 14 ,15, and 16.  These folks reigned here from 1601 to 1793. 

This was my second time to visit the palace.  It has not changed much. The exception may be the number of people visiting.

After the visit to the palace, we had free time for about 2 hours.  I opted to not walk out into the garden, which are magnificent.  I opted to stroll through the town of Versailles.  It was quite pleasant other than the fact that the banks in the town take the term Banker’s Hours very seriously.   The were closed between the hours 11:00 and 2:30.

I did find a nice Chinese restaurant. These are a worldwide phenomenon. I ordered chicken noodle soup which on first spoonful appeared to be chicken and lettuce soup.  I did a little more search and I found plenty of noodles that were hiding by being almost transparent.  My main course was sticky rice and caramel chicken.   I know what everyone else said, “yuke!”  But it was quite good.  It was kind of like sweet and sour chicken. There were no Kraft caramels used.

Our guide was a wealth of information about the Normandy region we drove through to get to the Palace of Versailles.  We also got a grand lesson in the history of kings who want to be emperors of France.  We heard about (note I did not say learned about) all the rebellions that have occurred in France.

Back to the palace.  The palace was largely destroyed in WWII.  It was subsequently rebuilt, rewoven (tapestries and bed curtains), and repainted.  Fortunately, the paintings were largely removed to safe areas.

The grand hall of mirrors is the most recognized in the then Palace and now Museum.  There are 14 huge floor-to-ceiling mirrors that are on the east side of the room, and they face west and the 14 matching windows that look out on the magnificent gardens.  The gardens took 50 years to design and grow. The hall was commissioned by Louis XIV and built from 1678 to 1684.  At that time in history Mirror technology was new and had been cornered by the People in Venance, Italy.  If you wanted a mirror you had to get it from them or look in a calm pool of water.  So, Louis XIV sent spies to steal the technology and they did and they perfected it even more and voila you have mirrors in which a person can see all of themselves, not just their face.

Also associated with Versailles was the young wife of Louis XVI, Marie Antonette.  When they married he was Louis Auguste Dauphin of France and she was Douphine of France.  On 10 May 1774 Louis ascended to the throne and soon after she became queen.

The famous story of Marie Antonette saying that the people who were rioting because they could not buy bread: “Let them eat cake!” our guide put a kinder spin on the incidence.  Marie had been brought up with such wealth and luxury that she asked the question upon hearing the clamoring rebelling people: “is it not possible for them to eat cake?”  a much kinder rendering of the story.  But alas neither would have worked.  She was executed by Guillotine after the rebellion succeeded and the people arrested and executed them both.

A good day (mine not Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette).