Prise Versailles

We began the morning with a delicious home cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, sliced ham, and fruit that we had bought before our trip and were stocked and ready for us in our apartment.  We then made our way to the Metro station to purchase metro-cards and take the hour long train ride South to the palace of Versailles.

Because in France, we belong to the Third-Estate, the Metro-card station did not like any of our credit cards.  We had to order our Paris Visite passes from the attendant.  It was a perfect opportunity to use my French and I was able to get our passes.  We then set off on the train to see King Louie at his palace in Versailles.

King Louie had other plans to crush the rebellion though, and he commanded that the commuter train we had to transfer to stop at the Musee D'Orsay.  Without any posted indication anywhere we have seen, that stop had become a terminus for the line.  We got off the train just in time to arrange an Uber to pick us up and drive us to the palace at Versailles before we missed any of the revolutionary action.

In fact, we later learned that King Louie had introduced a very sensitive magnetic strip to the Paris Visite metro passes.   Each time we wanted to ride a train that day, even though we allegedly had system-wide access to all of the Paris Metro, the cards never worked.  The first attendant who exchanged our cards, lied and said keeping them near a phone de-magnetizes them.  Therefore, we began keeping them in our pockets.  That also demagnetizes the cards.  The attendant recommended we keep them in tissue paper.  That is not a joke.  It is a ruse by the King's agents to create a run on toilet paper and therefore allow him to stay in power.

Nonetheless, we arrived at the palace of Versailles, commandeered two of the King's Golf Carts and went off in search for him in his massive gardens.  Versailles was beautiful and we learned that despite all of the King's wealth, he couldn't figure out the plumbing required to constantly maintain all of his numerous and ornate fountains.  The fabulous mirror room was also a room of historic importance, the most notable of which was being the room in which the Treaty of Versailles was signed, thereby ending the war to end all wars.  

Alas, King Louie, his wife Marie Antoinette and his children had already stopped using Versailles, moved full time into Paris, and even tried to escape our clutches.  We had to content ourselves with raiding his stores of supplies and having a picnic on his behalf instead!  Let them eat Ham and Cheese Sandwiches!

One thing of note is that every time I have tried to use French with the French, they have responded to me in English.  This disconnect in communication is reason for me to believe why the real storming happened at the Bastille, and not at Versailles as I was led to believe by my fellow revolutionaries.

Tomorrow -- The Louvre and Le Tour de Eiffel...