It’s late here in Paris, and I’m exhausted.

The Bike Tour of Versailles started at 8am, and I got home close to 8pm. I got a little sun today on the grounds of the Sun King, and if they could, my feet would scream at me. Why? Well, according to my “app,” I took over 19,000 steps today, rode 5 miles on a bike, and somehow climbed 19 flights of stairs. So, yeah.

We first visited Le Petite Trianon, the Queen’s get-away. The gardens were amazing. The entire place is beyond opulent. You get desensitized to it – it’s difficult to take in that people lived/worked/slaved here.

We picnicked under the trees on the immaculate grounds by the lakes. We had 30 minutes in the outdoor market to shop for what we wanted, which seems like a lot of time – but it wasn’t. One shop for wine, one shop for cheese, fresh strawberries and raspberries, baguettes… It was fun.

Versailles is amazing. I can only imagine what it looked like when it was completely furnished. Remember, in 1789, this place was looted. All the silver was melted down, and all items auctioned off to you know, give FOOD – to the starving people. Ah, the Feudal System.

I filled my bottle with the many available spigots on the grounds – drinking the King’s water. Lol! Delicious. All of Paris has good water, actually.

The Versailles grounds are now a public park, but a lot of the areas are museums, and they have apparently paid lots of money tracing and trying to reacquire some of the furnishings that were auctioned off in 1789 — and ended up in the hands of some wealthy Americans and others.

More tomorrow.

Bonne nuit à tous!