Castles, Water Lilies, and an Abbey in the Sky - Oh My!

Thursday morning we woke up early to get to the Versailles palace when it opened. This was King Louis the XIV's palace when he was king. They called him the "Sun King", so there were a lot of references to Apollo, the "Sun God", and Greek mythology throughout the house. The palace is where the Hall of Mirrors is... the Treaty of Versailles, which ended WWI, was signed right here. This room was really extravagant for its time - mirrors were very rare, and to have this many large mirrors showed that the owner had quite a bit of money. We especially enjoyed the gardens and the fountains inside them - they were spectacular!



The Outside of the Palace - we were some of the first people in, so we beat the rush





Mom and Dad in the Hall of Mirrors - very impressive!



The Gardens with their many fountains - beautiful!

After the palace, we drove to Giverney, which was where Monet lived the last forty years of his life. We toured his house, his gardens, and the famous ponds where he painted his water lily series. It was a quick stop, and then we made our way out to the coast for our last stop.

Monet's house - painted inside and out in his favorite colors - pastels


Beautiful Water Lilies


The famous waterlily ponds - can't you just imagine Monet painting here?

Our last stop of the day was to Mt. Saint Michel, which is a beautiful abbey built on a mountain. It's been there in some form or another since the year 800. Pilgrims came here because it was considered a holy place... at one point, the arch angel Michel told someone that if he built an abbey, pilgrims would come, sort of like the movie "Field of Dreams". The only problem was that the mountain was surrounded by water, so the pilgrims had to come at just the right time when the tide was out - otherwise, they'd be getting a little wet... We hiked up to the top and toured the abbey, which was honestly not as impressive as the sight from the road. We were totally wiped out after this and called it a night!


Dad and I with Mt. Saint Michel


Views from the top as the sun went down


Mt. Saint Michel as the sun went down