Quelle surprise? Well, let us tell you about it.

Saturday night, just the two of us dined at a cute little place in our neighborhood, La Poule au Pot (The Chicken in the Pot). It was a great meal in an old fashioned French restaurant (they’ve been in business for 71 years).

La Poule au Pot

No big surprises at dinner. So far, so good.

Then we got a call from Caz & Christina who had been out on an excursion for the day. We met up with them in a couple minutes on the sidewalk in front of our apartment. Within just a few moments, Clint’s eye caught a sparkle from something shiny upon Christina’s finger. And there’s the surprise! Ah, Paris romance is truly a magical thing.

We gathered together up in our apartment with a bottle of Champagne and celebrated the engagement with them. We are so happy for them both.

Cheers!

"Newly engaged in Paris." That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

A Skype call back to California with the happy news has Mary surprised, too!

We could’ve, maybe should’ve, partied all night. But we knew that all four of us had an early morning train to catch to Versailles. So with the bottle of Champagne emptied, we rested and met again on Sunday morning for the train trip.

Versailles was free-of-charge today, so we expected huge crowds. The crowds were just fine, though, and we were able to tour the palace just fine. It’s quite a spectacular place. We learned quite a bit about its history and how it is that it is so well preserved today. Suffice it to say that we were quite glad that we made the journey out of town to see it.

The palace courtyard

California isn't the only place with golden gates.

The Royal Chapel inside the palace

The famous Hall of Mirrors

You can't tell us that King Charles VIII wasn't gay. Just look at those skin-tight hot pants and that pose!

Some of Versailles' gardens on a crisp autumn afternoon

We’re off to celebrate with C & C tonight, back at the fondue restaurant we found last week. There’s still a lot more to see and do here before we leave on Friday … and we have a trip to Brussels booked for Tuesday. Stay tuned for updates!