The Palace of Versailles - Cycling to The Palace

(Part one)
This is last weekend's story, just before En. Arip went back to Malaysia. He had joined me and a few of my classmates on a trip to Versailles. And the best thing was, we went there on bicycle & train! And so far, this must be the coolest thing I've done in Paris!

The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, was a royal château set on the grounds of Versailles, within the Île-de-France region of France. In French, it is known as the Château de Versailles.

Versailles is a suburb of Paris, some twenty kilometers southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.



The Fajr prayer time in Paris now is at 3.20AM... Since it's summer, the sky is completely bright by 5 AM. The sight of Eiffel Tower to me is simply fabulous, not blocked by any building due to its height. It can be seen clearly from virtually any angle. Took this pic at 6.30 AM, on my way to the meeting point to pick up my bicycle.



Our meeting point was behind this shop lot. As usual, all shops in Paris never fail to impress me with their brilliant display of merchandise in thier glass windows.



That was my bicycle! And I just luv the mural next to it, on a pillar. It's about the personal interpretation of the Eiffel Tower.



By 8 AM, everybody was ready and acquainted with their own respective bikes. We were so excited to be cycling to Versailles!



And there we go! Our first stop was the Javel station, which took us 15 minutes on the bike... and we had to carry our bikes into the train manually.



I was cycling and snapping picture!...



Cycling in Paris is easy, since we have bicycle lane on most roads here...



After cycling 15 minutes, we reached our first stop, the metro station. The most difficult part was carrying own our bicycle down to the railway flatform via the narrow staircase!



We were divided into groups, 4 bikes to a group, just to make easy up the access on the train.



This was how we parked and tied our bikes in the train so that they don't distrub or endanger other passengers. And some curious passengers actually spoke Japanese to me, as they thought I was a cyclist from Japan... hehehe LOL!



The view within the train, and out the train.



We were entertained by this musician on the train... And after a 30-minute journey, we reached Versailles! It has been a long journey and more distance to cover. We need to cycle again!



We continued cycling in Versailles...



... again and again, but I was really enjoying the ride and scenery!



We finally reached downtown of Versailles where the oldest market in France is located. We parked our bikes, and spent about one hour to explore the town and packed our food basket for a picnic lunch later.



The town is small, but the country's best cheese, ceramicware and wine are from here.



Local crafts can also be found here, and cheap, too!



We packed our lunch and freshen up a bit, since we have a few more hours to cycle... till afternoon!



What I like here the most is the signature, fresh orange juice - no water nor sugar added, just 100% pure oranges! And it tastes like heaven!, Too bad it was a bit pricey, about 8 Euro a cup (MYR40?) and you just can't enjoy as much as you would love to!



Click here to read the part two