Alex and I woke up, got coffee, croissants, and lunch at the supermarket and boarded a train for Versailles, one time home to French Royalty. When we got there, I said I was a student studying in London, and got in for free and Alex did the same with her EU citizen card. There was a free audio guide for the Chateau and Alex and I spent the first part of the day walking through the Chateau listening to the audio guide.
After the guide, Alex and I walked out into the gardens behind the Chateau and had a picnic in the grass. Neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before and ended up napping in the gardens for several hours. We woke and walked the gardens some more, exploring two more palaces along the way.
By the time we left Versailles it was around 6 and we were both starving. We took the train back to Paris to the Lyon train station so I could buy a ticket to Switzerland. I wanted to book a late train so Alex and I could see the catacombs the next day, but the only train available was at 8am. I bought the ticket and we boarded the metro again for Alex’s apartment. On the way back, we bought groceries for a picnic along the river bank. On the way back from the supermarket, we walked past a giant picnic in front of the Notre Dame. Alex explained that every year Parisians dress in all white and picnic in front of the Notre Dame in one giant party. Groups of people bring their own food and white tablecloth and set up long rows of tables perhaps 100 people long on each side.
While Alex prepared our own picnic, I took the metro to Lolita’s place to pick up my bag which I’d left the night I stayed at her place. When I returned to Alex’s apartment, she and I picnicked along the riverbank and watched Notre Dame by twilight. I was having so much fun in Paris, a part of me regretted buying that train ticket to Switzerland, but I knew there were more adventures to be had in Switzerland and the rest of Europe.
