In the afternoon we went to Versailles. We made the 14km in about 20 minutes as the road crosses small villages with narrowed roads and speed limited to 30km/h. The slow ride gives you just the needed time to enjoy the picturesque views of the french countryside. As I expected the parking in front of the castle to be crowded and “from online comments” rather expensive, I decided to park at the R. Pointcarre parking next (370 places, forfait: 3 euro / 4 hours, 5 euro / day) to Versailles Chantiers RER station. This station, while a bit further from the castle (~1000m) as the usual Versailles Rive Gauche (~250m) has the extra benefit of giving you the chance to walk through the streets away from the 4Tourists shops area and find some regular priced food stores/supermarkets.
About Versailles, not much to say as the pictures will speek beyond my limited engineering abilities: the night visits (Nocturnes) start from today and on several saturdays through the summer, visitors after 18.30 with a special 15Euro ticket can enjoy a visit of the castle as the sun sets on “La Galerie des Glaces” and at night the water and light performance in the gardens. A “to be seen” on my list for the weekends to come.
Dr. Adrian Mihalcioiu 08/2021