“Now don’t you worry
Your daddy’s comin’ home
He’s gonna chase those blues away”

Today is our last full day in Versailles… in France… in Europe. Sad to be ending the “Great Adventure” but happy to be going home. Three weeks and seven hotels are enough for QC and me. (For those who do not know, QC is a title Fran acquired from being the quality control department for my kitchen bakery and food blog.)

The Trianon Palace was conceived as a hotel in 1907 and completed in 1910. The architect wanted to build, and achieved, a metal frame hotel with masonry facade. On May 7, 1919, at this hotel, Georges Clemenceau dictated the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed a few days later at the Palace of Versailles. In 2009, the Waldorf Astoria Versailles – Trianon Palace became part of the prestigious Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts brand, part of the Hilton group. This was our second Astoria property this adventure.

During our European adventure we had several excellent breakfasts (all included in our room rates, which is a nice perk.) At least we thought they were excellent until today. (I feel like I said that before.)

I spent a full hour sitting by these glass windows waiting for the sun to rise. It’s up just past 8:00 am but it’s a cold cloudy day and not expected to reach 50F today, however, the winds will be light, perfect for a brisk walk into town, brisk being the operative word.

I walked to the Versailles town market after breakfast. Throughout our adventure we wanted a lunch, dinner, or snack, of a baguette, cheese and wine. Beaujolais Nouveau was released a week ago and we always like to share a bottle, but never had the opportunity to do so at the source.

The outcome of my walk was to bring home a nice snack for lunch before we are off to afternoon tea. After our bite of bread, wine and cheese, (left photo below) we went for a walk towards the Versailles gardens which are very close to our hotel. The Gordon Ramsey at Trianon restaurant was just finishing the chocolate sculpture on the right. I took a picture of their macaron recipe from the book directly below this sculpture.

On our walk we passed the pathway where joggers were visible from our breakfast table. The number of trees that were planted in absolutely straight rows by Louis VIX was staggering.

We went to afternoon High Tea at 15:30 today. The staff welcomed us with their usual friendly professionalism. The menu was explained to us (it was our first every High Tea,) and we decided to split one. We were glad we did. The sandwiches were small and delicate, as were the sweets that followed. They were surprisingly filling.

Once the pillar of sweets was placed on out table our waitress called the pastry chef over to explain what she created. It was a riot listening to both of the women try to explain the intricacies of flavors and textures when neither could really speak English. The waitress was more fluent, but not so much with technical pastry phrases.

I know our High Tea doesn’t look like much to eat but we decided to wait a bit before our light dinner of the rest of the wine, bread and cheese.

We have a 6:30 pickup tomorrow morning to head to Charles de Gaulle. We were told, even though it isn’t Thanksgiving weekend, they expect the airports to be extra crowded tomorrow. We DO NOT want to miss this flight!

Homeward bound
I’m glad we are
Homeward bound!