Paris and now you can sit up straight again.

So where were we? Ah yes, just recovering from the Great Coke Spillage Disaster of '09. (It was still a wee bit damp on Saurday morning but I mopped a bit more and now I'm sure you just could never tell! The towels may not recover so easily however.) We partook of the hotel breakfast, which usually costs 12 euros but for us it was free as part of our quote for the original hotel. (I do get excited easily! Lol.) Our plan for Saturday was to visit Versailles Palace, built by Louis XIV in a fit of jealousy. Nicholas Fouquet, The French Minister of Finance, invited Louis XIV to a lavish party at his magnificent residence,the Vaux-le-Vicomte mansion. Big mistake! Louis was furious. He decided that Fouquet must be embezzling money and tossed him in prison, confiscating his mansion at the same time. He then set out to build a residence to out-do any other. Which indeed it did. It cost a fortune to build, over a period of 40 years, and took about 1/4 of the revenue from all of France to maintain. So anyway! We thought it was a good idea to spend Saturday checking out Versailles, but so did many thousands of other people! It was very crowded indeed! What were they all doing there?? We struck another spot of luck however. As we were walking from the station we came across some people promoting their tour company and telling us that by buying from them we could avoid the queues. Well, you don't ever know for sure, do you? But we decided that we would go with them and we booked a guided tour. Just as well! When we arrived at the palace there were zillions of people and the queues were REALLY long! There was one queue to buy tickets and then when you finally made it you had to join another equally long queue just to get admittance. I hate to think how long it all took.

We just met our guide at the appointed time and toddled in. Well, more or less. It was good having a guide, aside from the benefits of getting a fast admission, as she was really knowledgeable. And kept us together too. It wasn't all that pleasant at the start as there were just so many people in the rooms and it was a bit clausrophobic. But it got better and we were able to admire the opulence. Wonderful, over the top, splendid, grotesque, beautiful...... all those things. I really liked the Hall of Mirrors.

Afterwards we went into the Gardens, which also had queues which we were able to bypass. We didn't wander too far afield, as one was pretty much like another and there wasn't much in flower. And also we could see the lower gardens from the top level. We were lucky in that it was the first weekend in which the fountains were turned on for the season, so we got to see a little musical fountain performance.
What I was wondering is, in the days before pumps and electricity, how did fountains work? Especially very grand ones with different bits going at different times?
And so we went back to the station and back to Paris. A really good trip, especially as Versailles is such a significant part of history. I guess in some ways it was a tick it off the list kind of visit, as it's just something that you do, but it was well worth it.
We ate that night at a restaurant not far from the hotel, and I had warm goats' cheese salad, which was really nice! So that was Saturday. And if you've been worrying all this time about what happened to Nicholas Fouquet, well he languished in prison for 20 years where he died of natural causes. Charming! Louis XIV most certainly believed that he was the sun and that the world revolved around him.