Marcy and I had a very early roll call this morning in order to make our connection to Versailles. We had booked a tour and were supposed to meet our guide at a special spot on Place de la Concorde--and we walked out of the subway (which has NUMEROUS ways out) EXACTLY where we needed to be. After the fiasco we had trying to get to the CityRama office for our tour of the Louvre, this was especially sweet. And I don't know if I've mentioned this previously, but we have been traipsing around in the dark since it doesn't get light until close to 9:00 a.m. and begins to get dark at 4:00 p.m.

There were only 10 people altogether on our tour and we had an English gal named Steph for our guide. She was quite the character--spoke numerous languages, including French, German & a dialect of Chinese...just to name a few! Her accent was British, though she was raised in Germany. So bizarre!!

We got a mini tour of Paris on our way to Versailles and the whole trip only took about 30 minutes. Once again, Marcy and I reconfirmed that we have zero desire to ever drive in Paris!!

We stopped at a cafe just outside the gates of the palace and had a croissant and coffee (for me, hot chocolate for Marcy). Prices are very high--a tiny cup of coffee is about $5 and no free refills, of course.

Our tour guide couldn't take us thru the actual palace, this had to be done by a French woman. She took us to behind-the-scenes rooms and pointed out particular items in each place. The whole tour was awesome.

We were then turned loose to explore on our own or we could go out into the gardens, which are "put away" for the winter, but still impressive! We chose to go out (another gorgeous day) and oohed and aahed over the sights. After a lunch of delicious sautéed veggies and spaghetti, we toured one of the outlying houses...smaller but still grand. We didn't have time to view everything before it was time to meet back with our tour bus for the drive back to Paris. We both really wanted to visit the Hobbit village but getting on the bus was high on the priority list, so we saved this for "next time." :))

Once we got off the subway back at Jeanne's, we were both so tired that we could barely move. We packed our suitcases, then went out with Jeanne for a quick bite of French onion soup. I was in bed by 8:00, Marcy not far behind.

Early alarm tomorrow -- 5:00 am! Bon Soir!!