Fri 25 Jul- Vaux le Vicomte, chateau de Fontainebleau

Fri 25 Jul- after a nice included breakfast, we left for one of the highlight gardens, the Vaux le Vicomte, designed by Andre Le Notre as N. Fouquet's estate. He was Lord high treasurer for Louis XIV until Louis got jealous and put Fouquet in prison for life and took his inspiration to build Versailles. We walked the grounds for two and a half hours, at least 3 km, from the chateau around the Grand Canal up the statue of Hercules and then back to have lunch in the Restaurant L'Ecureuil on the chateau's grounds: two perfect salads, just what we wanted, and two cold beers, which really hit the spot, as it was a partly cloudy day and a warm 26-27 C.
After that, we headed to the famous chateau de Fontainebleau, occupied by the kings of France for 800 years, and also by Napoleon. We saw the White Horse Courtyard, the Oval Courtyard, the Fountain Courtyard, walked by the English Garden, and sat in the shade admiring the huge Grand Parterre, the largest in Europe, with 45,000 plants blooming in the encircling flower beds. We didn't have the energy to walk around it, though. The Forest of Fontainbleau seems to surround the chateau and town for miles around; one entrance is just outside our hotel, 7 km from the chateau.
We returned to the hotel for a much-need rest, then went out for a light dinner: beers, a salad for Kiyomi, and a chocolate dessert 'moelleux chocolat coeur fondant groseille' for Stan (YUM!). We're still waiting for the GCT cruise to go on sale, hoping it will be before we leave on the Viking cruise.