What a shame. Honfluer is gorgeous. Quaint. Charming. Inviting. A place to hang for a few days and relax. Our B&B was super funky cool. Super comfortable. Four floors above the picturesque streets of Honfluer. A cross between a road house, galleon and a loft. Taken together, town and flat, a great place to spend a couple days. How unfortunate for us.
We needed to be in Versailles at 8:30 am in the morning to tour the palace. Versailles is 2 & 1/2 hour away. Before we slept last night we set our alarms for 5:00 am and agreed to be on the street with our bags by 6:15 am.
The contrast between Honfluer at 4:00 pm in the afternoon and 6:00 am in the morning is remarkable. Where once we feared to drive due to masses of people we now cruised quickly in deserted streets. We loaded up our cars and headed south. We met a little Friday morning rush hour traffic in the outskirts of Versailles, yet we still made it to the automobile parking lot at the Palace by 8:25 am. Although the palace opened at 9:00 am, a sizable line of a few hundred people had already formed. We locked the cars and joined in the line.
Jeff and Jackie did not find the palace interesting, whereas Andy, Tabitha, Sally and I found it spellbinding. It's place in history, the craftsmanship, painted ceilings, sculptures, architecture and the display of wealth and power are fascinating. Jeff, Jackie, Sally and I did a quick tour while Andy and Tabitha took their time. I listened to Rick Steves tour of Versailles as we walked through the rooms. We exited to the gardens and did a quick walk down to the Apollo Fountain and back. Whereas most recommend a full day to tour Versailles, we only spent three hours.
Jackie has been suffering from a sinus infection since she landed. We hoped we could check into our hotel early and get her to bed. We also had our bikes waiting for us at Anne's B&B that we had promised to pick at 1:00 pm. We left Versailles at 12:00 pm. I circled the hotel in our Renault while Sally, Jackie and Jeff inquired in the hotel. They had J & J's room ready, so they set up camp and housed our luggage. Sally and I GPS'ed ourselves to Anne's to pick up the bikes. Luckily, the Renault we rented was a wagon. By simply removing the pedals and turning the handlebars 90° I was able to get both bikes and the boxes In one load.
I parked the car up on the sidewalk outside the hotel and reassembled the bikes, then rolled them into the courtyard and locked them to the railing. The boxes and our saddlebags of gear we carried to our room.
We knew Jackie and Jeff would sleep the afternoon away. I had another task in front of me. I arranged to meet Andy at 2:45 pm to return our rental cars at the nearby Avis at the train station. I texted Andy at 2:30. He was just walking from Versailles to the parking lot. I pulled into a loading zone and waited for Andy to find his car and approach the exit gate of the lot. He texted he was just about to the gate, so I spun around and timed it perfectly. He pulled in right behind me and we began our journey to their hotel then to fill the cars with diesel before returning them to the agency.
At Avis we had an issue to resolve. Andy's Fiat picked up a rock ding in the windshield out in the Normandy area which progressed into a full running crack across the screen. We figured this was going to be expensive as we did not buy the optional insurance.
The agent was a young man in his late 20"s with a quick smile and good sense of humor. We joked and poked fun at inferior Italian cars while he figures out the financial damages. €199. Amazingly cheap! Andy's credit card covers such damage so it did not add to our bill.
Andy, Tabitha and I walked to our hotel, about half a mile. We chatted with Sally in the lobby for a few minutes before Andy and Tabitha continued their walk over to their POSH hotel on the border of the Versailles Palace grounds.
After Sally and I sorted our gear we walked out to look for food and do a little strolling. Next, we hopped on our bikes and rode across town to see Andy's digs. Super nice. Two balconies, one out the bathroom, one out the bedroom.
We returned across town and planned our escape by train to Paris the next day. We hoped to catch a train about 11:30 am. The walk to the train station was only about three block, so an 11:00 am rendezvous with Jackie and Jeff in the lobby seemed perfect. I also made plans to go through the palace again with Andy and Tabitha in the morning. They had used the palace audio tour today and wanted to hear the Rick Steves version after I described it to them. They also wanted more time to soak in the ostentatious surroundings, as did I. I worked on my blog before falling asleep.
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