Open Unattended Gate = Fair Game

It's been a while. Apologies. So here's an update! A few weekends ago I visited my friend Megan in Paris again and she took me to Versailles, which was oh, so magnificent -not to mention the social history involved-.

Marie's got nuthin.

We did not go inside the palace because the gardens are always open to the public. Megan had warned me I would not be ready for how big the gardens were and also warned that we would not be able to see the grounds in one day. Pshaw I say!... She was right.

This is only one side of the palace and not even a quarter of the garden.

It was huge. I'm glad I wore the comfiest shoes that day. To escape from all the people who visited on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, we took one road that disappeared into the woods and walked all the way until it stopped.... on the other side of the property by the horse stables. On the way we found this...

This is a side gate to a palace solely for Miss High and Mighty Marie. If you notice the smaller structure on the right you'll notice it has a small gate... and it's open. Since there was no one around, no cameras, and Megan was my look out: I took that open gate as fair game, which is a mantra I have adopted over here. I entered that tiny gate and walked down stone steps below the earth, I didn't go very far because at the bottom it was flooded and smelled bad. Not to mention I had a slight fear an evil sorceress capturing my soul and locking it away in a jar forever. But I digress! 

Our road.

It was also here, in the woods of Versailles, that I heard nature call and I went to answer it! On my way off of the 'path' to make myself more discreet, I walked right into a batch of fresh Stinging Nettle. I only know what it was because when I was younger I had done a similar thing and ran to the house crying. This time, poor Megan was concerned as she couldn't see me and she could hear me yelling profanities.  So, with red bumps all over the tops of my feet we trekked on. 

                                                         And then we rowed a boat.

All in all, it was a really cool day. We were exhausted by the end and slept for a full 12 hours that night. So you don't think we are pansies, here is an aerial view of the palace. The entrance is where it says Versailles, we walked along the edge of the lake(?)/pond(?)/water, along and walked in the diagonal direction that lead straight to where the yellow meets the green (go pack) in the perfect V shape. That was REALLY far. And of course we had to walk our way back. Our legs I tell you....

 Versailles is a beautiful reminder of nature in the middle of a big city that can smell pretty gross sometimes.