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Published: November 22nd 2012
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Crowds
Swarming like locusts! July 28th:
Fairly early start; the crowds start early at Versailles.
The lady at the bakery gave me change for €10 instead of €20, when I pointed this out she offered me a bag (?) somebody in the queue translated what I was saying in much clearer French and the matter was resolved… hopefully just a communication breakdown rather than “rip the tourist off” she did seem like a nice lady, lacking in ripabillity, but then one never can tell.
For some reason there are lots of soldiers at the station, soldiers with automatic weapons. Now guns generally make me nervous, but BLOODY BIG GUNS make me very nervous indeed!
~Later~
Went to ask someone which tube to take to get to Versailles and as luck would have it, the people I asked were heading there too. They are a mother and daughter from Oregon US (which would explain why they didn’t understand my French) and they seem to have done their online homework better than me!
We had a few mishaps of not getting off at the right stops, so most likely we won’t have missed the queues
The inconstant gardener
the palace gardens at Versailles unfortunately.
~Laterer~
...NOPE, definitely not!
The queue is looped back and forth about 3 or 4 times… at least I have a couple of people to talk to.
~Even later~
We were in the line for maybe 40 minutes, but by golly it was worth it! The palace at Versailles is amazing! Such opulence (let them eat cake indeed… yes I know that’s a misquote/translation), beautiful artwork and architecture with gold, marble and mirrors everywhere! By the time we were finished with the palace I was feeling “palaced out” so the gardens were a nice change of pace… not a change of pace as far as scale goes though, they stretch for bloody miles! In some ways it amazes me that all of this is still here, that at no point over the years did anyone say “hey the hell with this place, let’s bulldoze half the grounds and build housing.” I mean at what point did somebody say; “that palace thing… why don’t we charge entry for people to wander around it or something?”
I stopped for lunch with the 2 gals from the train before we investigated bike and
car hire (well I say “car” they were glorified golf carts) the price for either was pretty near extortion, so we headed off on foot to see Marie Antoinette’s digs, and we saw it all… even her shitter!
After this… I feel lucky in hindsight… my dogs were barking and I was about ready to leave, but instead I stuck with the 2 ladies; the daughter (Grace) was determined to see EVERYTHING, and it was thanks to her that I saw the hamlet that Marie Ants in her Pants had created to remind herself of her roots, it was lovely and rustic.
Eventually we ran out of things to look at and our feet were sore so we took the golf cart bus back to the castle and departed through the waves of panhandlers to get the metro back into town.
The ladies and I finally parted company; they returned to their hotel and I went to a huge CD/DVD/books/etc store called Fnac… where I ran wild!
The store was smart enough to have listening posts so I picked up a few things that I wouldn’t otherwise have even looked at. The shame though was the lack of good French hard rock/metal; I heard 2 good ones; one, the lyrics were in English and they were TERRIBLE, the kind of thing that guy from Linkin Park might have written during those really difficult months of high school. The other one was good but it wasn’t there! The listening post copy seemed to be only copy there… which I guess is a good sign as it suggests that it was sold out.
Took my shiz back to Gare De Nord and bought an apricot pastry and a simple (yet delicious) sandwich with camembert and lettuce.
I’m once more feeling mopey about having to end the trip, but at least I have a room to myself tonight, though the loud English twats next door seem to have chosen that room out of the ones at their disposal (because it’s a largish group and they are spread out between 3 or 4 rooms on different floors) to party in and be generally noisy arses… I mean you’re tourists in Paris, at least if you’re going to drink, go and do it on the steps of the Sacre Coeur and take your noise with so! So much door slamming!
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