Paris

Friday 5 August - Wednesday 9 August

We spent our time in Paris visiting the places we missed the first time. These included a side trip to Chateau Chantilly and Chateau Versailles. The Cateau at Chatilly was left to the Art Institute of France fy the Duke of Ormal on one condition - that they did not change anything. All the art and the furniture etvc had to stay in the same position as he left it and it had to be open to the public. Once year after his death the chateau was officially opened to the public.

The Chateau also has a Grand Stable where they still teach horsemanship. It also housed the famous live horse museam.

We wondered around around the Chateau before joining a public tour of the private rooms of the prince etc. Amazing, I wont even try to explain the details - we bought a book to show it. After the tour, we headed over to the Grand Stables were we watched a horse show. Very cool indeed. The horses had been trained to perform certain tricks, for example, sitting down, bowing etc.

After the show we caught the train back into Paris and back to the campsite.

Chateau Versaille - Sunday 7 August 05

We got up early and caught the bus and train the to the Fat tire bike tour office. We planned to arrive early so we could burn one of our memory cards onto CD. If we weren't able to burn the images then we only had 3 shots left. No problems - Cam burnt the CD and we were all set.

After choosing our bikes and riding to the train station we caught the train to Versaille. The trip took around 20 mins. Once in Versaille we rode tot he Sunday Markets and bought food for our planned picnic lunch.

From the markets we rode to the Chateau and into the gardens. Our first stop was the village that Marie-Antonette spent her days while living in the Chateau. We saw the fattest pigs ever and the funnist thing with the fist. CLinton (our tour guide) broke a big chunk off his baguette and through it into the pond. The fish all tried to eat it - however - it was too big soo it basically moved over the top of the fish as they all flipped and flopped trying to get to the bread. It was both funny and grose all at once. It carried on for at least 15 mins before the chunk of bread disappeared under the over hanging trees. From there we rode tot he Petit Trianon and then onto to the Grand Trianon where we ditched the bikes and walked into the garden to se the Grand Canal. From there we rode down to the canal and followed it around until we were facing the Chateau. We stopped here for lunch - the view was amazing.

After some cheese and wine we jumped back on the bikes and followed the canal around to the opposite end from our picnic spot. This was right in front of the main fountain - which just happened to go on when we arrived. Very good timing.

From the fountain we rode around tothe front of the Chateau and locked up our biked. We then collected our Audio-guides and headed into the Palace. Wow !! not a wonder the French didn't really like their Royals much - the place is covered with gold mirrors and paintings. It was nearly gawdy. It was great to see what the inside of a Castle or Palace look like, nice to see how Royality lived.

After the tour we rode back to the train station and back to the office.

At the office we said our good byes to the Fat tire guys and headed back to the campground.

Monday 9 August 05

Today is our last day at the campground before heading to the the Campanile Roissy Cdg for one night before flying out to Indonesia on Wednesday morning.

We spent the day reparing ot elave. We washed our clothes and bikes. As this was the last time we were going to be using the bikes for the rest of the trip we had to remove all dirt etc so we could get through customs in Australia.

We also seperated our stuff so we could leave most of our bags at the Santika hotel in Bali when we flew to Sambawa with Mum and Dad.

Tuesday 8 August 05

We packed up camp and caught the train out to the airport. From the airport we caugh another bus to the Campanile Roissy Cdg - our hotel for the night. We settled in and had some lunch. After lunch we went back to our room and watched some in house movies and enjoying the luxury of a bath etc.