Paris day 5, June 26

Today was a day of blunders, just trying to figure things out, but a fabulous day as well. Did I mention that we have not figured out how to use the stove, or the washing machine? We gave up on the stove but we really wanted to do laundry while we were here. Even the English directions were really bad. We finally figured it out ( you know, the one machine for both wash and dry- in the kitchen cabinets). The dry cycle was 3 hours! The clothes get really hot even when it is time to remove them and the feel kind of damp like they use steam to dry...kind of weird, then they come out wrinkly.

Today we went to Versailles. Gorgeous! Our first problem was leaving late. Then we had about a 30 min walk to the train station. The figuring out what train and where it was. But finally we made it. We had about 5 hours to visit. We took a tram out to Marie Antoinette's hamlet..but we didn't get off at the right stop so we got back on and ended up at the beginning. We bought round trip tickets so they were not going to let us go again. But, Monte convinced them in his best French! So off we went. It was a long walk and too difficult for the wheelchair, but also too difficult for Paige. Somehow, she made it!

We also visited Marie Antoinette's house, like a retreat from Versailles. Paige loved it. We had about 2 hours left to make it to Versailles, but we did it. We have been before but wanted to see it again. Turns out they had only one elevator that held barely 3 people. We saw what we could in that time, especially the "hall of mirrors". When we were done they took us back to the elevator to go down. Here is the cool part...each time they took us to the elevator we walked in other rooms away from where the tourists go. One lady named things for us while we walked/ wheeled  through rooms. Only problem was she spoke no English and we couldn't understand a word she said, but we saw incredible things behind the scenes, like a chaise that looked like it was pulled, AMAZING! Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of that.

We returned home, hoping we got on the right train since we couldn't figure it out, then had a fabulous dinner- our seating time was 9:30 and we got home at 11:30. For Monte....it was a miracle he was awake through it!

Goodbye Paris, we'll miss you!