France - Once into the Palace of Versailles

Let's be honest: we are drawn home. Family and friends are waiting, we want to spend a few weeks in Switzerland. (We don't yet know that things will turn out differently and that we will make a detour to Germany!)

So we roll off the ferry and our first destination is a petrol station: Felix is thirsty for AdBlue (hopefully the "diesel-repair stuff"). We can't get to the first petrol station, we are simply too high at 2.90 metres. The second petrol station has no diesel, the third is completely closed. We find what we are looking for at the fourth petrol station: Gerd fills up with liquid, I clean the coastal spray rain salt off all the windows for the umpteenth time.

Later we learn that about 3/4 of all petrol stations in France are out of petrol and diesel because of a refinery strike, which is a very strange feeling - especially in these times. So we constantly refuel, after all France is big and we want to cross it completely once. 

We set off at breakneck speed, the first stage taking us all the way to Paris. Or almost. Because I so much want to fulfil a big wish. (Which I had not fulfilled years ago with the children - for the sake of the children! We went to another dreamland: Disneyland Paris).

Once into the Palace of Versailles

And that's very early tomorrow.

So in the morning we are at the castle gate on time for the flat tour. We have our 10 a.m. admission tickets dutifully on our smartphones, our backpacks are filled with picnic stuff (which later turns out to be a very smart idea!) and we stroll through the castle. 

The audio guide is very detailed, but unfortunately only the adult version is available in German. The children's version would only be available in French, which sounds wonderful but is incomprehensible to me. Well, so we listen to the German speaker. 

And we are quite quickly, quite strongly impressed by the living arrangements of past kings and their court of up to 1000 people. Glitter, gold, ornate sofa legs, carved walls, silk wallpaper and salons in which the bed is the central point. 

In between, we make brief comparisons with our rolling house and notice that there are tiny differences in size here and there. 

The hall of mirrors alone is bigger than anything we have ever lived in. Maybe even bigger than any property I once called my own. 

After a full 2 hours of wandering through the dining rooms, dressing rooms, bedrooms and ballrooms, and being pushed through the corridors by more and more other visitors the later it got, we are drawn out into the garden. 

And actually quite fitting that the sun is shining, the weather is mild and we are now walking with classical music (blaring from the hedges) by fountains and through mazes, arriving at the Grande Canale at the end. Always beautiful with a view of the castle.

After several hours in the castle and its garden, we make our way back to Felix. Finally, he is almost in front of the castle (which was great in terms of parking, but a disaster in terms of sleeping!) and is waiting for us. The good guy wants to show that he can also make distance. 

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Merci for "travelling with us

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