Sunday, 21 October, 2018 – Nice, low 20s

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Today we are going to visit the Palace of Versailles. Julie has booked us a tour.

The Kids had come home late last night as there were Track works that closed the rail from our neighbourhood. They eventually took a bus home only to have one of the society girls throw up on the bus.

The intention this morning was to take an Uber to the Palace. I was the conservative one this time and suggested an earlier start than was proven to be necessary.

We did not follow instructions and went into the Palace. When we finally did read them, we had to walk a long ways down to the Booking Office over yukky cobblestones.

Ryan guides us to the booking office and Julie gets the official tickets. We are assigned a guide and then have another 30 minutes to wait which we do by settling into a McDonalds.

Our guide, Danielle, eventually shows up and we take the long walk back over the cobblestones. Our guide has an arrangement with the Palace Staff to get us to the front and into the Palace area which takes around 10 minutes.

This time security requires Ryan and the Asian guy to check their backpacks because they have Tripods in them.

The Black girl and her partner were interesting people. We were supposed to catch up with them afterwards but lost track of them along the way.

Our guide, Danielle, who was very knowledgeable, explained to us why the Palace and grounds were built. It was designed by Louis XIV and built in such grandeur to attract the 1,400 nobles to live there. The reason was so that Louis XIV could spy on them all.

In another room Danielle described the French Revolution of 1783 including the murders of Louis the XVI, Marie Antoinette, hence the title of this Post, and most of the nobility that were in the Palace. Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables or the plays . movies about it give a good fictionalised story around this time. This includes the fanatical pursuit of the hero Jean Valjean by Inspector Javert and his eventual suicide by jumping into the Seine because of being saved by his pursued. Sorry, I diverge from the real stories of today.

I didn’t take many photos inside for the usual reasons, that ain’t food and wine! We do pay extra to go into the gardens and so here is a shot from there.

By this stage my back and my legs are totally frozen from the slow walking and standing. I had made it but at what cost. I slump down on the stairs behind a statue.

The guys are in a queue to buy tickets for a “green puffing billy” train around the gardens. I am sitting down a ways away and can’t get up because there is nothing to hold onto. The guy selling tickets won’t sell them until all four of us are over there. An American woman in the line apparently raises a big stink. Finally Ryan comes over and gives me a hand. I walk through the queue and then trip over one of the poles, falling to the ground, bruising my knee and badly bruising my hand, This turns the trick for the ticket seller who was going to call a Doctor but Julie talked him out of it. He gave us a special car on the train.

We take the train about half way around and stop near a restaurant St Augustine. It turns out that it is a cafeteria, not a restaurant. Ryan and Tanika organise food and drink.

We took a train around the gardens just like we did in Luxembourg. Photos did not come out. We have to walk a long ways to get out of the garden and then out of the Palace area. Ryan guides us to an Uber pick up area and we eventually end up back at the Castle. After our less than sterling lunch, a bit of a snack is necessary.