Today we went to Versailles to see the palace. It was magnificent. Melissa has been there many times but no one else in the family had seen it before. It is truly on a scale beyond anything Chris imagined (no wonder the peasants revolted). It feels like worlds within worlds, and it must have taken an army to build and maintain it to this day.

The children were fantastic today. We got them up early (9am counts as early on this trip), fed them and walked to Charles de Gaulle – Étoile Metro, took the train to Bir Hakeim Metro, and then took the RER to the Versailles Chateau station. Much faster than we expected, and the childrens’ tickets cost less than 2 Euros each. From the train station we walked to the entrance, went through security twice and then toured the first and second floors. Afterward we headed to the gardens and ended up walking for about eight miles total. We stopped at a garden cafe for lunch, took photos and explored many parts of the palace grounds including Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet. Among the favorite things to see for the children: the farm animals at Le Hameau, including sheep, goats and a cow who walked up to sniff us; the gift shop because it had swords. One curious thing about getting back: Chris and Melissa agreed that by the time we reached Le Hameau we were far from home with no easy return trip if one or more children became exhausted and refused to walk anymore. We are still able to carry Ted or Gwen short distances, but they are now too big for us to carry them for 1-2 miles (which was the distance back to the train station). Chris thought about calling an Uber but we had no idea where they would be able to pick us up. We were getting pretty concerned about this but at the moment we left Petit Trianon we found one of Les Petits Trains waiting with seats available. Chris and Melissa really wanted to walk back, but out of concern for the kids we bought tickets and settled in. Each of them ate a couple handfuls of granola and Ted fell asleep quickly afterward. About 20 or 30 minutes later we were back at the Chateau, rested and ready to head home. Melissa and Ted went to the gift shop to pick out his special treat from Gabby, then we walked to the train station and were home by about 6:30pm. The kids were starving – they were asking for food the whole way home and at one point on the Metro Ted just kept his mouth open like a baby bird in the hope that Melissa would put some food in it (which she did, and the grandmotherly woman sitting next to him thought this was hilarious).