But first, we allowed ourselves a lie-in to catch up on some much-needed sleep. My morning began with a trip to the supermarket to pick up breakfast supplies. We managed to finish breakfast just around it seems some of the boys were up a bit late last night and headed to the train station where, of course, we missed our intended train and after much hassle at the ticket machines France seems bound and determined to reject our card at every turn we took a short but sleepy ride to Versailles.
Newly built in , this organ is a reconstruction of the original French classical organ built for the chapel in by Robert Clicquot, the grandfather of the builder of the instrument in Poitiers β a new organ built into the original 18th century case! The organ occupies an unusual position over the altar, facing the king, who would sit in the back of the chapel.
It has four manuals, a small pedalboard, 58 ranks, and 37 stops. In the absence of said tourists inside the chapel itself, a few of us took the opportunity to soak in the sun streaming through the windows and bask in the swirling harmonies. Afterwards, we decided to check out the gardens and were met with a maze of hedges, shrubs, ponds, and fountains to navigate. We set off towards the north winding our way through gravel paths, the towering shrubs reminiscent of the hedge maze from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Along our wanderings we encountered a maintenance path less traveled, a cathedral of trees, and a few secret gardens, but as is our luck, we were just too late to rent a rowboat on the expansive Grand Canal. Still, we stopped to dip our feet in the canal and enjoy the view, where we took our second collective nap of the day. Gianmarco and Noel acquainted themselves with the wildlife while they fed the fish pieces of a Clif bar.
We finally roused ourselves from the lawn and ambled back to the train station where we took our third collective nap on the uneventful train back to Paris. Upon our return, we glimpsed the sunset over the Seine and contemplated the pros and cons of jumping onto one of the dinner cruise boats from a bridge, but decided in favor of hitting up our favorite supermarket this time before it closed.
