Paris with Mom, Dad, and Cat PART I

So Mom and I took a high-speed train from London that went under the English Channel to get to Paris. We arrived a short time later and the three of us went out to meet Anastasia for lunch!
For those of you who don't know, Anastasia's family have become our good friends over the years ever since her brother came to stay with us almost 8 years ago.

After lunch, we had a leisurely walk around town and met dad's boss and his wife for dinner at a family favorite, "Au Vieux Paris" which is one of the oldest medeival houses still standing in Paris. Over the years, mom and dad have taken Maureen, Megan and now me to this great restaurant.

The next day, Mom and I took the day on a very intimate all-day tour of Versailles. As a history lesson, Versailles was built by Louis XIV, drained France's national treasury and thus planted the seed for the revolution in 1789, in which the peasants stormed Versailles and captured Louis XIV and his better-known wife, Marie Antoinette.

We took a tour of the palace (the "Hall of Mirrors" is what it is perhaps best known for), the palace gardens, and two smaller private residences reserved for the kings and their families. Marie Antoinette spent a lot of time in one of them. The gardens surrounding Marie Antoinette's private getaway were spectacular. She also had a "Hamlet" built for herself in the quant style of peasant's homes where she could pretend she was a commoner and play with her kids. Think "Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs" and you'll be just about right.

Our tour guide was very knowledgable and friendly, and mom and I had a wonderful time amongst the lavishness of former French royalty.