Forget Paris- Day 2- Versailles!

So after the aforementioned "unfortunate incident"- we ended up getting to Versailles kind of late in the day and the line to actually tour the palace was tremendously long. There is no way our poor kids could handle it, and Matthew simply would not allow me in another line in France, so we just decided to tour the grounds. I use the term "just tour the grounds" loosely. Let me try to describe Versailles for you...
Excessive, Beautiful, Massive, Over-the-top, Too much, Gorgeous, Breath-taking, Ridiculously Large and, well- you get the point.
Here I am with Isaac and Daffodil in front of the golden gates! And on to the incredible grounds. Truly Overwhelming.

Isaac in front of one of the many pools...

The Fam! Note Daphne's face. This is the best picture we got at Versailles because her already creative posing turned into what could only be described as a little blonde girl flashing gang signs. She was completely done with having her picture taken!

The back of the palace (or part of the palace I should say) It really is no wonder that they beheaded King Louis- The amount of France's money used on this ostentaious display is staggering.

Daphne emerged from her royal chariot (also know as our ginormous stroller) in order for one more quick photo op infront of these bushes. The kids thought they looked like aliens:

So, remember that scene from Alice in Wonderland, where the queen is chasing Alice through this maze of green bushes. Versailles felt like an over-sized version of that. You could absolutely get lost in these aisles, everywhere you turned there were more of them!

More cool bushes- trophies. Not cool enough for Daphne this time.

Here are a few of our favorite fountains:

Being in Europe has been very educational for all of us. We have had lots of watered -down history lessons for the children (and for us, too!) But seeing all of these places presents many opportunities for sculptures such as this that leave you sort of speechless when your 5 year old says, "Mom, What are they doing?" After the first few weeks, she stopped saying, "That girl is being UNmodest!" But you can imagine why NEKID became their favorite word this week. "Your socks are neckid", "my teeth are neckid" and so on and so on. It gets pretty interesting.

This was our favorite fountain section!

They also had these really spectacular mounds of flowers... Matt and I decided we are going to put one of these right in the middle of our lawn. And then we'll spray paint our door gold!

More breath-taking views!

So as we left Versailles, we were bombarded once more by some very distinguished businessmen trying to sell us souveneirs, etc... For those of you who know my husband, you know that he loves any chance to save some money and haggle. These "salesmen" were asking ridiculous prices for little Eiffel Tower statues and for these really cool flying bird toys. On both occasions, Matt just kept trying to push the price as low as he could, eventually walking away from the guys. And in both cases, the guys came running back, acquiescing to Matt's low bid. You can imagine the smiles on the kids' faces as they watched their Dad get them souveniers. It was so cool to see the awe in their faces as he haggled with those guys. I almost wish I had busted out the video camera.

So after our unfortunate incident and touring the amazing gardens, we decided to head back "home" to Stuttgart. We were pleased with the idea of getting back to our home away from home, but not thrilled about going back through all the ridiculous French toll roads. We paid like $40 just in Tolls one way! We thought that was pretty outrageous. While we love many of the things France has given us, Fries, quiches, kisses, it wasn't our favorite destination. But very, very memorable!