Hello everyone!
Ever been to Versailles?
I headed out to the chateau to explore the gardens on bike, to walk through the castle on a semi-private visit, and stayed around for the fireworks show.
Check it out!
The episode was brought to you by Fat Tire Tours. Book the same trip I did right here (https://www.fattiretours.com/paris/tours/sunset-versailles-bike-tour) , but be sure to add the code word earful at the checkout for a ten percent discount.f
The music in the background is (rather fittingly) called Invitation to the Castle Ball by Doug Maxwell.
hello everyone it’s a Thursday in Paris and that means you’ve got an episode of the AIL Tower that’s brought to you by Fat Tire tours now this whole episode was recorded except for this introduction here this whole episode was recorded at versil and I figured I did this very same thing with Jivani and it was a bit of a gamble doing the whole episode out in the field in the cheese shops buying croissant and all that kind of stuff but I figured the response was really good I’d try it again but this time I’d give it a little bit more of a clean intro just so that you guys know what to expect this is an episode of me my wife Lena going out to the Palace of versailes very specifically we were doing this with fat tire tours and uh just so you know what to look for if you want to do the exact same trip it’s the sunset versai bike tour with fireworks it will be linked in the show notes if you want to find it exactly it’s likely to sell out these are all the Practical information first it’s likely to sell out and the reason for that is they only do the fireworks every Saturday throughout the summer so they’re very popular I’m encouraging you to go check it out because it’s really fun but remember if you want to get 10% off this tour which sells for €129 uh you have to put in the code word earful at the checkout e a r f l now first a little bit of facts about vers but but this episode it’s going to be me and Lena sort of showing what we see spliced in with a few chats with the tour guide tomma a wonderful guy really nice french guy speaks excellent English by the way and he really knew his stuff so I think you’ll figure it out as we go along but I figured uh maybe there’s a chance you’ve never heard of the Palace of versa so I give you the 30 second introduction the Palace of Versa in French they call it the Chateau de verai it’s one of the most popular day trips out of the city of Paris a really really popular tourist attraction a lot of people usually there and it used to be the Principal Royal residence of France from 1682 until the start of the French Revolution in 1789 and it’s about 20 km or 12 Mi Southwest of the center of Paris is that enough facts for you good let’s jump into it you’re going to start hearing from me and Lena out on the field out on the scene and I hope that you feel like you’re around in Versa with us enjoy here for Tower listeners you’re in for something a bit different once again today I am in verai right now with lovely Lena by my side bonjour and we happen to be walking right through uh the heart of a food market yes to paint a little picture on my left I see uh chicken ra turkeys raw are they turkeys oh chickens definitely one there’s a black chicken there’s uh quailes I see crabs I see uh all kinds of seafood you guys can probably imagine it and we’re in the center of vers what I should say is we’re about to do a tour kind of an interesting tour a sunset tour tour of Versa there’s going to be fireworks there’s going to be fountains and we were invited by Fat Tire tours that’s f a TI e tours check them out online you can even check out the tour that we’re doing and if you are an eful Tower listener if you’ve listened this far already you can get 10% off all of their uh all of their bik just bumped into a lady sorry did you yeah you can get 10% off all the bike tours if you use the code earful E A RF L now now we’re talking about Versa whoa now we’re out on the streets let’s go back into that covered market across the way we’re walking and talking it’s a bit of a walk show the idea for today is that uh everyone’s just gone and got food from the markets we’ve got some bread already we got some bread yes some beautiful bagette that I’m actually eating right now which is bad for the picnic well I thought that yeah that’s the thing we’re going to do a picnic along the Grand Canal and the idea uh listen is going to take you along all the way interviewing people sort of telling the story I can’t really predict what we’re going to do I’m excited by the way that noise is a meat cleaver chopping a cow up uh as we walk past the second graphic cheese sh anyway um we’re going to get into the The Fat Tire tour in a second they’re the sponsor of the show check them out but before we even get to the grounds of Versa Lena I asked you once again to come armed with a fact about Versa or the palace or something yeah uh have you managed I am ready okay do you want first or second um I can start all right let’s hear it okay so my we stopped we’ve stopped walking by a fruit shop yeah so we actually I seen some beautiful cherries over there I might have to pick up okay well let’s do the facts and then we can grab some cherries yeah good idea so my fact is as follows did you know that Mar antonet a famous Mar antonet owned over 500 pairs of shoes and recently just a couple of years ago one pair of her shoes got sold at a Paris auction and they estimated the price around 6 to 12,000 I think it’s sold for about 65,000 who and yeah that’s like a down payment on a on an apartment yeah imagine what happened with the other 499 of her shoes I know and they also sold some of her jewelry recently and the reason you bring it up is she lived in Versa exact which ties in nicely to my fact all right if you like looking through Windows yeah right and you wanted to for some reason you creep if you wanted for some reason to look through every window in the Palace of versailes yeah do you know how how long that would take no it would take 6 weeks a month and a half how what what how do what do you base that on well a window experience yeah there’s the butcher again a window experience is uh obviously 30 seconds per window to really appreciate really yeah 30 seconds okay and there’s 2,000 windows in Versa wow so uh there you go guys you can use that fact if you want that’s crazy do you hear that Mom 2,000 so my parents you talking to your mom yes I am actually my parents recently got um they renovating a house and she is renovating all the windows by herself and she counted 47 windows so she thought that was a lot this is more 47 Windows that’s uh that’s half an hour of uh window looking anyway guys we’re going to buy some cherries buy some cheese and buy some bread and then we’ll check back with you from the castle I think [Music] perfect [Music] forek Lena’s about to buy the cherries do you know how to say cherries in French CH okay okay what did you say is that word for pet €17 for Cherries that’s expensive [Music] the smaller the cherries the cheaper they are the sweeter The Taste okay I don’t know what do you want mer just tasting the cherries here these are good they’re really good take [Music] a Okay so Tom yeah Tom French name French name yeah but you spell it with the H right with the H H Thomas I guess Thomas right um so we’re on the way to Versa and I figured you know a lot better than me this town and the palace yeah uh maybe you could explain a little bit like a an overview about what we’re going to see what is this a palace a castle so yeah first of all that’s that’s yeah that’s a good thing most most people think Versa is just a palace it’s actually a town it’s actually a town yeah it’s a town cuz you know any any Palace any Castle they need a town to be to sustain the life of the castle right so when you go to Versa you’re actually going to a town uh Versa biggest mistake that people make they think ver is the biggest Palace in the world uh it’s not the biggest Palace in the world no it’s the biggest Royal grounds in the world so it’s a palace with Gardens and surrounding the gardens 2,000 acres of grounds with a grand canal with some parts that look like forest and two little palaces on the uh side of the main one called the trons uh when you go to Versa as soon as you arrive you exit the train station have look at the map and you’ll could see how big the place is cuz those grounds those rural grounds take for half of the city okay wow half of the city of ver half of the city of ver ver is a small City it’s about 80,000 people living there but the grounds are the main thing huge and what about uh you’re a Frenchman yeah does trio mean something it’s um it’s the name of a village TR yeah the historians to debate on the origin of the the words but it’s a village really so there was a village in the way of the extension of Versa and as Louis 14’s the king who started Versa as the road pass that we know now he’s extending Versa you know he find that this Village is in the way of the extension or the expansion of Versa of the the palace itself so he’s going to buy the village and level the entire thing so he can just know add more things in his big grounds so I got two more questions before we get out there one is uh there’s a lot of talk about Lou a lot of Kings uh and this is a tough question I I understand all right but can you dumb it right down yeah right what KS do I need to about so we have a lot of Kings honestly I’m a guy I still know all of the Kings honestly but the Lou are the most important if you have to remember to remember three kings remember L the 14 15 and 16 and I’m going to break it down to you there’s a very easy way to remember them R the 14th was the Sun King yes the 15 is a party dude so he was the fun King and with the 16 you might know his life didn’t end well you know he had his head chopped off so we could call him the Don King so there you go sun Fun Don that’s all you need to know right that’s we should one day you and I will sit down with a beer and try and rhyme all the rest of the Kings yeah well they all have nicknames you know uh one was even called the spider the 11th was called the spider that was his eight legs wasn’t it yeah pretty much and he was kind of taking friends like a spiderweb pretty much um okay I said I had one more question before we uh get out there is there a big mistake that people make when they get out here so the big mistake that they do there’s actually two the first one is to just stick to the Palace you’ll see people just going in the palace getting stuck in there maybe spending a bit time in the gardens but that’s it not going to see everything you have to con ver as a full day trip really so go and explore everything the trons uh The Gardens and eventually the palace they also have a market here explore the town There’s plenty of things in there the market of is absolutely amazing uh there’s a place called The J the Royal tennis courts absolutely amazing as well so basically spend your day here and go and visit everything and the biggest mistake that everyone does here is going in the morning in the palace you do not want to be in the palace in the morning you’ll find a trillion people in there kind of trampling over you so we’re going to be there for evening we’ll be there in the evening yeah uh so pretty much the latest you enter the palace the better right the later the better honestly the palace is open until 6:30 uh and the gardens are open until 8:30 so I’d say your best move would probably to Ender the palace at 4 so start going to the gardland first go to C Trianon first and eventually end your trip with the palace enter at four and when you’re done trans station is just in front of the palace and you can go back to par and enjoy wine I say uh onwards to the picnic and do you mind if I grab you a couple times later in the day for a few more combinations I’ll be fine yeah absolutely whenever you want all [Music] right we’re we’re well we’re walking at the moment along the Grand Canal mhm much grander than the canal samata in in Paris i’ would say yeah much bigger but uh so what we’re doing we’re just having a picnic eating some of the food that we bought in the markets at uh Versa yeah munching on the cherries cherries T cherries yeah it’s kind of opulent decadent you feel a bit like Mar antoinet yeah I do you know what made me feel a bit like Mar Antoinette getting that croline oh so when we were getting the uh so when we were in jeny we got quason but this time we got a baguette which is a little fun language tip I’ve done on this show before don’t get a baguette get a tradition tradition they always much better TR uh yeah much better much why do you even make baguettes for tourists no yeah for tourists just for the tour I don’t know I don’t know but when we got instead we got be which are kind of like little donuts without the holes in they can’t imagine yes maybe that’s how people sell them I don’t know but uh they came you buy five for2 and they come in a little paper bag and I said to the woman can I trust you that there are five in there I was kind of kidding with her and then she went to open it and I was like no no no no no I trust you it was a joke it was a terrible joke and then she goes no I just wanted to put an extra beet in there for you so she’s trying to plump me up like a fat verside turkey headed for the guillotine anyway anyway anyway uh what are your first impressions Lena of uh of vessi oh it’s just so big it is big so big not just the palace the palace is like it’s it’s a good siiz Palace as as far as Palace has come um but there is the grounds well our guide our guide Thomas said that it’s the biggest Palace grounds in the world well there you go not the biggest Palace that’s somewhere in Asia yeah but the biggest Palace ground and we’ve already cycled across sort of the back half of it so the Triano the Pano and the gr is that what it is the gr where all the you know napoleons and Mar anets lived and all that kind of stuff yeah I glossed over the history there but it’s really beautiful on a warm and and nice day like this a lot of people are out in the garden picnicking it’s it’s busy but it’s not too busy and also I think biking here is the way to do it well if you’re going to get anywhere yeah it’s so enormous it’s so big to paint a little picture there’s people rowing in the Grand Canal there’s big fish popping up there swans and there’s a lot of picnickers yes perfect place for an freshly squeezed orange juice yeah of which we had a liter that’s a lot yeah that’s lot and that’s probably why we’re walking to the toilet so we’ll check back in with you guys soon okay bye Tom yeah this is quite romantic we’re uh by the side of the gro Canal yeah uh if if if I hadn’t just met you it could the most romantic podcast yeah well you know we tried to have that we Bor with people at a little place called The Temple of love in the hamlet of maret so yeah I’ve got a got a good connection you know you can meet people yeah you can you can meet people here what I wanted to ask you was a bit of a different question here Tom um imagine that for some reason I know you’re French but for some reason you’re getting kicked out of France yeah you’re getting sent to South Africa yeah because I think you have a slight South African accident even though I know your friends right so you’re getting kicked there it’s your last day and the authorities say Tom we know you love Versa we’re going to let you go back to see one thing you can’t tour the whole thing you can say one thing to remember for the rest of your life yeah what are you going to do um that’s tough question so much to see here but I got to go with the Hamlet of Mari antoinet just at the back of the tree on is a tiny place it’s uh it looks like a noric village you know Mar an was a was a queen who was tired of all that fancy Royals um kind of day-to-day she didn’t want to have two all of these people around her so she built like a fake Village I don’t know if you’ve seen the the TV show westw but that’s pretty much exactly what it is it’s pretty much her in the middle of a fake village with people pretending their peasant so she can kind of have an idea of what a normal life is and this is a magical place with pretty much no one around right so what do you like to do when you go there uh I like to go around the uh the actual Hamlet this little animal farm uh it’s run by an association I rescue animal the animals are absolutely the cutest there’s always little baby goats uh baby GES there’s the fattest pig you’ve ever seen uh it’s it’s just a magical place and just Rel my brother well yeah we have a lot of pigs here as well that’s okay my brother doesn’t listen you that’s fine but yeah it’s it’s just lovely over there it’s just so quiet you know you you arrive ver side the first first thing in the morning you see everyone crowding the badass and then you find this little Safe Haven when there’s nothing there that is going to go in the way of you relaxing just just even sitting there walking around is just awesome so I would definitely go there well I appreciate that answer Tom and uh I’m looking forward to this evening’s entertainment I hope you like it yeah well before Before I Let You Go I wanted to ask you something I just remembered I did facts at the start of this episode mine was that there’s around 2,000 Windows here can you confirm that uh there are actually 2, uh 153 Windows to be exact 2,1 just me showing off well my statistic was if you assume it takes 30 seconds to appreciate looking through a window it will take you 6 weeks to look through all the windows here yeah that’s uh that’s pretty accurate yeah and and keep in mind that what you see in Versa as crazy as it looks there’s so many things that you see you’re only seeing half cuz they not they don’t even open the entire thing uh they don’t have the staff uh so there’s plenty of hidden gems here and there plenty of secret place there’s an entire Opera completely hidden in the palace really yeah they don’t it for tourist simply because there still shows there so they can’t afford to show the people is that the one that was in the movie uh the mar anet movie with yeah yeah the Opera was buil by Louis the 15 so by the time Mar Is Here Yeah Louis the 15 I call him the fun King the fun King yeah exactly the party dude what and the last thing I want to check on my wife’s fact yeah she said that Maran tette had 500 pairs of shoes she had a lot of shoes lot of dresses she was spending a ton of money uh the people of France called madam deficits so she was gambling she was buying new shoes she’s buying new clothes all the time so yeah your wife’s very right the French didn’t like her then not really not really no she was pretty much a scapegoat of the time and it makes sense everyone’s starving and meanwhile she goes shopping so did it turn around though I know I know we got to get on the bikes again but uh quick question did it turn around uh that people ended up liking like today when people say the the name Mar anetta people still like oh she ruined France or they you know well we tried to explain to people what exactly happened and and I kind of sympathize with her because yeah sure she was spending a lot of money she was not caring about the people but on the other hand she was Foreigner and you know everyone blamed all the problems they had on her uh it’s easy to blame everything on the foreign Queen right uh and eventually people still see her at the bad go but I feel like once you get into the story uh the way we explain the story as well people start kind of empathize sympathize with her well I with her as an expat yeah exactly she was just expat doing her best she was trying to do her best she was she never asked to be in the position so I feel like people at the end of a tour or at the end of of the movie Mar anet at the end of a book start feeling kind of bad for her yeah yeah okay to the bikes to the Bikes let’s go so you’re hearing uh pothole Heaven the Palace of potholes what you he in is the first ever podcast recording from a bicycle at versai with a husband and wife combination who’s Swedish and Australian so you’re listening to Unique stuff here hang on it looks like we’re going into the woods I’ll be [Music] back hey L quick question yeah do you know if it’s an or un I don’t know doesn’t matter the old trick say or un say like the station so where we are now this is before the wine guys we’re just having a pretty cool experience we’re just having a glass of well one glass of red wine so far outside the Palace of Versa yes close to the greater public after hours yeah and uh it seems to be running out of wine but that’s okay that’s okay and we’re about to go and watch the fireworks show I’m very [Music] excited so Lena Oliver once again it’s the end of the day it’s the end of the tour yes it tend to go that way you and I are walking it’s pretty special actually let’s paint a little picture this the sun is low we’ve got a a plastic Goblet of s Emon yes St says red wine m one could say that we’re talking as if we’ve already drunk the wine but that’s not the case I know I think it’s I don’t know what it is this atmosphere we drunk on atmosphere I think so too and what I’d like to add as well is I’m very grateful for Tom because he provided the uh the gravitas and the depth to this epe episode that you and I were sorely lacking as usual okay so we are free to add a flu exactly well I’m happy about that but I thought no I thought we’d add a little bit of confident enough to do that I thought it’s almost like we were built for it I thought we’d add a bit of a sort of a thought of what we’ve seen yes now I hope that you guys are following Along on social media because I did a live Facebook video uh about with the dance performance in the Hall of Mirrors what a treat what a treat so the deal also slightly confusing but really really good well the thing is they closed off the the Palace of asai except for 250 people and they’re doing that every Saturday of the summer yeah and the idea is uh oh maybe you guys can hear that classical music in the background as the as the fountain shows begin we’re out in the sort of the back Garden this is magical someone’s blowing soap bubbles the sky is kind of like you know Miami Vice colored like 80s Sky people keep looking at us funny cuz we’re walking along with the microphone and two glasses of wine I know but the the so what they did is we we sort of filed through the entire Palace of our side rooms that are open to the public and we we sort of went really quickly through them stopping off at several of the key rooms along the way to to see shows essentially so there was fencing at the end there was a and they all dressed it was like a walk show it was it was like one of your walk shows but way more EXT it was amazing and so the main one that you guys may I hope have seen on Facebook and probably YouTube by this point was uh maybe eight people danced dressed up and dancing to music from four other people it was absolutely wonderful so I encourage you guys to go and check that out it was great and then they finished it off with a with a fencing performance the courtyard which was very close to my heart because I took fencing when I was a young girl as you do the less said about that the better that career never took off but what we’re going to do now is we’re going stop in the dark we’re going to walk down the towards the Grand Canal down the main steps here like Lena said there are soap bubbles everywhere I don’t know what’s going on there and in the in the distance we can see the fountains it looks to me is that smoke or is that uh H it’s just I don’t know I won’t go on guys we’ll give you a little uh review and maybe take some pictures to put on Instagram about these fireworks but what I wanted to do before I uh round off I wanted to remind you guys specifically if you want to do this fat tire tour Fat Tire tour that uh that lener and I have done today it’s the sunset tour with the fireworks it’s every Saturday only it runs until the end of summer 2019 which I hope is when you’re listening to this and if you book using the code earful at the checkout you get an extra 10% off hello a nice chunk of change which well I think the tour is €1 130 so if you’re coming even by yourself you’ll be saving a good bit of money they’ll find out that this uh partnership is working which is very important to me uh and I assume it’s very important to them too so guys get booking but besides this everybody WIS they’re turning up the music I guess it’s all time to start um but not just that they do a lot more trips out to Versailles I don’t have I don’t have the information at the top of my head but I know they do a lot more tours here morning tours tours during the week it’s not just this Saturday one that I’m doing you guys should check it out it’s a good way to see ver as for us red wine and fireworks I think that sounds like a splendid idea onwards and upwards on [Music] wow well that was it the fireworks done done it was fantastic and now and we went out with a bang we went out with a bang and uh we’re walking on the way back to the train station now make your own way home with trying to find a station with a head full of ideas yes and I thought I’d end with Lena what was your favorite bit of this entire day um well I have to say that I think my favorite part of the day was the towards the end it was seeing the palace and the garden at Sunset when everything like all the colors are muted it just everything turns very soft and the lamps go on I think that’s really beautiful I agree with you yeah I liked being in the in the rooms when they were doing the dancing as well I thought it was pretty cool like that was very special for people who I I I realized at the start of the episode I didn’t say who you were Lena you’re my wife oh hi Lena’s my wife if you’re new around here Lena’s been on the show a bunch of times especially when I can’t find a guest or unlike the classic standing person or when we were on the honeymoon season and I uh I roped her into coming along on this trip with me as I did in the ja episode but the fireworks that Lena mentioned are just want to say something I haven’t talked about properly for a long while is uh I filmed the whole thing for patreon supporters as usually I do the walk shows but I figured I’d explain it a little bit patreon before I finish there are people who become members of the eful tower the idea is they pay a Weekly subscription and it’s essentially the reason why this show exists thanks to those guys there are 250 members at the moment I met up with a bunch of them in recent weeks and uh as far as I’m concerned and they’re the greatest people on Earth so if you want to join that group you will make me eternally grateful patreon.com slth earful Tower and just like that we’ve turned the corner I see the versai station okay we’re going to cross the road now but farewell thanks for listening earful Tower listeners I’ll say it one more time Fat Tire tours.com you can get 10% off if you use the discount code earful right there at the checkout let them know the partnership is working Lena AKA Parisian postcards on Instagram that’s me any last words oh it sounded very threatening well I’m about to take you to the guillotine I know what your last word should be okay what did Mary Antoinette allegedly say Lam me cake and that is for you guys we’ll talk to you again have some cake on Monday bye [Music]