Day 09 - 09-12-06

Have a blue sky today - after the last few days of grey, overcast, cloudy days it was quite amazing to see. Pity the sun is nowhere near as warm.

Heading off to Versaille today via the Metro - the trip takes about an hour via the Metro and RAR. The public transport in Paris, at least by rail, is quite good. That is once you work out how to navigate the spagetti-strand map that's there.

Many of the trains have buskers wandering on & off them. This can be quite quaint - but a saxophone can be BLOODY LOUD in a confined space. Not to mention the overabundance of damn piano accordions.

We got to Versaille - had to queue up for tickets, the queue up for entry. Essentially you've got to queue up for everything. Once you get in there to wander around, you realise quite how overwhelming the whole place is. Opulence is definitely the by-word for the whole building. The Grand Canal - at the rear of the building looks amazing. Doubly so when you realise it takes an hour to walk from the main palace to the top of the canal itself.

Had lunch at a Brettonian crepperie - again quite tasty. Had a red Brettonian beer - at 5.5% it was a nice drop. Amusing thing was the bagpipe music playing playing in the background.

Early evening we went down to look at Galeries Lafayette - it's what David Jones wants to be when it grows up. I've said this a lot of times but it is another over-the-top experience. Every designer you can think of who's any good on the French scene has their own little department in the building - a real department store. One of the major features of the main shopping centre is the gigantic glass dome that is in the centre of the building and lets you look up at the various layers - again quite a sight.

I don't know what was going on outside when we finished - put the general public wandering (or in this case standing still) on the footpaths was quite incredible. Thousands of people not budging - how the French don't have a world-class rugby pack with trying to get through these masses I don't know. Most annoying thing - the retards wielding gigantic prams as battering rams who then got upset when people go knocked over by these things and almost crushed their kids was really getting to me. If you've got kids - there are just some places you shouldn't take them - and crazy crowds like these are just one of them.

Had dinner at another localish restaurant - Le Dürer - and I think they were trying to kill us. Five courses for ?29 almost broke me. Had this delicious potted duck with garlic potatoes - the smell of the garlic arrived before the meal did - great stuff. Had a lovely citron sorbet - which I love the trend of dousing with chilled vodka - great finish to a meal - if you can fit it in.