Versailles & Mont Saint-Michel

TAP Portugal from Boston through Lisbon to Paris for my birthday. I turned 37 at the Trianon Palace Versailles, a Waldorf Astoria hotel on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. Not a bad way to spend a birthday.

The Palace itself was overwhelming — the Hall of Mirrors, the gardens, the sheer scale of what one monarchy built for itself. Then north to Mont Saint-Michel, the medieval abbey on a tidal island that looks like it was pulled from a fantasy novel. The Hotel Les Terrasses Poulard, waking up to the abbey lit against the morning sky.

Back to Paris for one more night at the Hilton Orly, then through Lisbon home. This trip taught me that birthday trips are the best kind of trips — you’re celebrating yourself in a place that has nothing to do with your normal life.