DATE: Thursday 3 August, 1995
PLACE: Paris
WEATHER: Hot
REMARKS: An early start to the expedition to Versailles.
We walk across the river (well, a bridge actually - the Pont
Royal) to the Musee d'Orsay. Here we enter the Metro and an
English-speaking ticket clerk helps out. As in London, the
trains appear clean and somewhat sterile, but quiet, frequent
and quick.
We get to the station (end of the line) to a sign warning
of pick-pockets -great!! Uffizi again?
We eventually track down a bank for cash and then queue
in the hot sun on uneven cobbles (how on earth did the horses
cope with their unevenness?) for over an hour.
 The
Chateau is grand, even grandiose, and again, heavily, ornately
decorated. Casserta clearly was a copy, but outstanding in
its own right I'm also struck by the obsession with the ancients,
and the clear wish of the French royals and Napoleons to cast
themselves in a classical mould and thereby legitimize themselves.
There is also a clear pattern of self-aggrandizement I find
disconcerting and off-putting. I think I'm becoming overdone.
The mirrors in the Hall of ...needed cleaning!
We brunch in the shade outside the grounds (having given
the gardens a miss because of the heat).
We successfully negotiate the return train trip - although
Desiree's watch falls off somewhere en-route - Oh well, something
else left behind!
We're all fading so we return to the relative' cool' of
the Hotel to rest. Dinner again at the Hippo - confusion over
the kids' requirements but we cope with the language barrier,
at a price!
Half packed we retire.
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