Jardins de Versailles (Gardens at Versailles)

A couple of weeks ago we had a leisurely afternoon bike ride at jardins de Versailles. It was a picture perfect day. We took our visitors Pat and Lisa Zimmerman along with our newest visitor Kirsten Taylor (from our neighborhood in SLC). Pat and Lisa are some of our best friends from long long ago. We lived in the same neighborhood and ward when we were newly married. It's been a long time (almost 19 years for us!) since those newlywed days and we still have the best time together. Lisa kept us all laughing with her accents (they all sound Chinese even though she tries for French, Spanish, etc.) and jokes.
Kirsten graduated from high school 2 days before her big trip to France. This is her 1st time in Europe and she managed to come all by herself. I think that's a major achievement for an 18 year old to navigate her way through the plane, train and taxi station. All of our kids have loved having Kirsten here. She's just an all around great person!

We rode our bikes all around the grand canal and every other path we could find. Lilly brought her own bike. It's so tiny, but she can ride without training wheels. It was about 5 miles of biking and Lilly did it all on her own. She probably rode 10 miles because she had to pedal two times for every one the rest of us did!


Pat & Lisa wanted to take a romantic boat ride on the grand canal. They made the fatal mistake of asking if any of the kids wanted to go. Yes! of course Lilly and Clara were dying to get on the boat!

My primary objective in visiting Versailles was to retrieve my cell phone. The last time I was at Versailles with Diane I lost my phone in the gardens of Marie Antoinette's chateau. An employee found it and had been holding onto it for 3 weeks. I made arrangements to pick it up & it was quite the production. The security guard took me up to an office and then another person led me through many long back halls...I felt like I might go missing & no one would know where to find me. Anyway I met Madame Aquaviva & she handed over my connection to all of my friends in France. Amazing how dependent I've become on a cell phone!

le vélo à Versailles (biking at Versailles)

Diane & I had one big play day at Versailles. The weather was perfect & we just enjoyed wandering through the gardens, eating lunch at an outside table, talking & faire le vélo à Versailles! We both have big beach cruisers in SLC and we love to ride our bikes. Lucky for us they have good bikes with "granny seats" at Versailles so we rode and rode and rode. At one point Diane said, "lets stop and rest and just watch the clouds". It was perfect. So peaceful and relaxing. I can't remember the last time I just sat and watched the clouds go by...you should try it! It's great therapy.

It's a good thing we had that therapy session because the ride home was hilarious. We lost one of our cells phones, but didn't know it. By the time I was on the freeway driving in rush hour we realized it was missing . We called the number and a French person answered. She said, "I found your phone in the gardens at Marie Antoinette's farm. Can you come now and retrieve it?" Oh brother. I couldn't turn around and the traffic was bad so we just kept driving. I think my phone is still there in a desk drawer just waiting for me to pick it up. What a mess, what a story, what a laugh!