Off on holidays yet again, and again it’s off to France we go. This time we have decided to be culture vultures, at least for the first few days, and head for the Huttopia campsite in Versailles from where we will visit the renowned Palace of Versailles.
Locating the campsite was harder than I had thought, but if we will insist on ignoring the sat-nav announcements, we should expect no better. Driving the van around some of these Paris/Versailles streets is hair- raising to say the least.
Anyway, finally we find the campsite after a journey of around 3 hours from Caen, and we quickly settle in and switch on the TV and Satellite, only to find that it’s bust. The aerial is stuck in its extended position and will have to be lowered manually. This is a disaster – no CBeeBies to watch, no cringlingly embarrassing interviews with Diane Abbott – how will we spend the evenings without TV reception? Good job we brought the Scrabble and a few books along (as well as the mobile broadband dongle for internet access).
Next morning it’s off to visit Versailles Palace gardens. The Palace building is closed on Mondays, but the gardens are open and it’s free to visit, so we unload the bikes and head there for the day.
The gardens are absolutely spectacular. Here are a few photos of what we saw there:
The Palace from the gardens 
More garden views 
A view of the Orangerie 
Gardens at Versailles – one of the numerous fountains, this one overlooks the ‘tapis vert’.