Versailles... OH MY! :)

Today has, by far, been THE best day! Bike tour, once again, but this time we biked to a train station, rode the train to Versailles, and biked through Versailles. SO cool! I love bike trips. And the Versailles Palace grounds of Louis XIV, XV, & XVI is simply GORGEOUS! The Louis' were all egotistical turds, but still! Great choices on architecture, decor, and landscape for sure! It's one of those places I can't explain (and pictures won't even serve justice), you just have to go and experience this majestic land. ponds, hedges, trees, lakes, fountains. I think they said it is well over 200 acres. We definitely didn't cover it all.
This morning we had breakfast at 7:30 and be ready to go to the bike shop by 8. The milk was extremely sour for the cereal (I've never had milk so ripe), so I just had a roll and croissant with some English tea. We headed to the subway and when we got off at our stop there was a Farmer's Market going on right underneath the bridge (in Paris, each district is required to hold at least 1 market per week); I really wanted to stay and look, but we were already running late for our tour.
We arrived at the bike shop, got on our bikes, and were on our way. It's really crazy riding bikes in a group of 25 kids... and the tour guides always tell us to ride in the street and take up whole lanes. I think I counted almost dying about 4.63 times for myself. It's a dangerous activity, for sure, but very fun! This time, though, we had to get on the train with our bikes, which we thought would be impossible, but it was cake. Our guide, Matt from Texas, was quiet and unexpectedly crazy--small framed with curly, shaggy brown hair under a zebra-patterned cowboy hat and a unicorn backpack that his girlfriend designed for him apparently. When he was first introduced to us I thought, "Oh great, this time we got a nerdy kid"... don't judge a book, fellas. Anyway, the train smelt like the worst bad breath I've ever smelt (and metros ALWAYS smell like urine in certain spots), but at least it was warm inside. It's been in the 60s with wind chill and light rain--too cold for how most of us packed. Once we got off the train with our bikes, we were in the city of Versailles. It was adorable... a lot like Lincoln. Matt first took us to a Farmer's Market (YES!) where he let us roam and buy for our picnic lunch later for about an hour. It was SO neat. I was worried about purchasing and conversing with French people without help--especially because this was a town not a big city--but it was TOTALLY fine! To my advantage, many of the farmers and sellers spoke English (or at least enough to engage in a transaction with a Californian like myself). I bought 2 carrots, a basket of strawberries, a triangle of FRENCH Brie, FRENCH fries, a 1 Euro baguette, and fresh squeezed OJ! SO yummy! Oh wait, I didn't eat it for another 1.5 hours.
Here's why:
After the market we rode into the Versailles Palace. It was intriguing seeing where the King Louis' and Marie Antoinette lived and worked and played. After that, we continued on our bikes to the side of the lake... a beautiful T-shaped lake built by one of the Louis'. It was a great moment. That's where we enjoyed our market food. And poor Maddie... one of her plastic bags drifted into the lake and she couldn't get it out (and Maddie being environmentally concerned, felt horrible. She was tempted to even jump in the water after it (Peter told me to put that part). It was cute. She got a lot of crap about it, too. Killing the ducks that were there and such. :P It was funny, though... the dramatization of the predicament.
Okay, so we headed back to explore the Palace of Versailles. Eh... it was okay. A good majority of the rooms and furniture were replicated, making it less fantastic.
We rode bikes back to the train station, but there were some complications once we got there due to an attempted suicide on the track. We were very impressed with the tour guide, Matt. At the end he performed a cool bike trick--standing on the seat with no hands while it was going-- and he also remembered all 28 names of each person... even the Rockefeller twins! We were all impressed and made sure to tip him well. ;)
We got back to the hostel at 6:45, with only 15 minutes before we needed to meet for dinner. Once we met at a famous Cathedral (I'm tired of the over-decorated, gothic-style Cathedrals)... I explored it, but wasn't too impressed. It had cubism and abstract stained-glass, which contradicted the architecture. The stained glass was still pretty. The incense were over-powering though.
Okay, so for dinner at the ristorante I enjoyed a delicious feta salad, chocolate mousse, and flan. It was ALL good! I love French food a lot more than Italian.
After dinner we went back to the hostel for potty break and to get cameras and then we headed on the metro to a sky-scraper (I think taller than the Eiffel Tower) with Maben, the girls, and the boys (Dustin, KJ, and Nick--the family) ;) We were able to see the Eiffel Tower from the roof--it was beautiful and even sparkled at one point for a few minutes). Took lots of pictures, hung out, and then walked back to the hostel. Maben is hilarious with some of his jokes that he takes to far... us girls played off of some of them. And we sang that "To the window, to the wall..." song from The Proposal as we walked back to the hostel. I loved today.