Brian here.

So after a nice morning in the gardens, we got Colin asleep in the stroller and made our way inside. On our way to the ticket kiosk, we received the lovely news that strollers are NOT allowed inside the Chateau. Vraiment. The message seems to be toddlers aren't welcome here, and most French families probably know this. I wanted to slap the lady (all French like) who then suggested we might like to tour the grounds instead, as we had just done that for several hours, and now the weather had turned beyond nasty. Ann was ready to just leave, but I wanted to see if I could get Colin to sleep in his sling during at least part of the tour. So we paid the exorbitant entry fee, checked our stroller, and started inside with a HUGE child sleeping in the sling hammock style. He was getting a great response from the other tourists.

Welcome to Louis 14's personal household church. This was one of the final building projects during his lifetime.

In the Chapel, I sat down on the floor because dead weight Colin was taking his toll. The attendant came and tapped me on the shoulder and I assumed I was going to be told that sitting on the floor is not allowed. Instead he offered me his seat and I decided not to have mean thoughts about Versailles' anti-toddler policies.

This is the passageway to the Opera, which was closed for restoration. Too bad, I would have liked to see it. I love this picture Ann took though.

Colin was awake by the time we reached the Hall of Mirrors. The state rooms on the way there were housing a huge exhibit of antique silverwork. It was very impressive. Colin however does not seem to like the Baroque Aesthetic. What can I say, he's a Classicist. Almost immediately upon waking he wanted home and was only propelled through the rest of the tour by, "Let's go find the bye-bye!" (Incidentally, I do think it's great that Colin applies the term 'home' to places we've been for like 2 days).

Then, he showed his disapproval of Baroque excess by staging a lay-in on the floor of the Hall of Mirrors. I was totally unfazed by the disapproving glances. If you don't want toddlers laying on the floor, allow strollers.

What kind of Nelly sleeps in a bed like this? Oh yeah, Louis the 14th. We read on wikipedia about his elaborate wake up routine- levee. He was pretty clever though, as all of the machinations centered around Versailles were designed to occupy the nobility away from their own homes so that they couldn't pull power away from his center.

Napoleon's notorious self coronation.

Almost to the bye-bye.

Colin shares his final thoughts on the Chateau de Versailles. We're glad we went in though. We don't have to do it again now for a long time.