A very brief glimpse of Versailles - a tale of woe.

This was going to be my last post about the French part of our holiday, however my tale of sorrow and despair cannot be told in one post.

Full justice must be done to my suffering feet and thumping disappointment.

Dare you read on?

After my last trip to Paris some 12 years ago a lot of people said to me

"Did you go to Versailles"?  "Next time to go to Paris you MUST go to Versailles"!

So this time we decided to include it in our trip.

I was very excited.  I had read books about it and a biography of Marie Antoinette.

And after seeing some of the furniture from Versailles in the Louvre, and visiting the Conciergerie, I thought that visiting Versailles would be a nice way to spend our last day in France.

Knowing that it was the middle of Summer and hence the height of tourist season, we decided book our tickets online and then rise early and catch an early train.

But even with all our wonderful planning, when we arrived we encountered

this.

Still we thought we would be fine because we booked our tickets in advance.

Right?

So we joined the queue of all the other people who had done the same thing...............

Yes that's right - that's ONE queue.  It snaked back and forth across the front courtyard.

I was overcome.

Still, I mean we were at VERSAILLES!!!  Such history!  Such architecture!

And the wait in the queue was only 1 hour and 45 minutes.......

I was pleased to get at least one photo of the beautiful gates without my fellow tourists in front of it - thanks to some thoughtful barricading.

Finally we were through stage 1 of the entry process.

Only one more security check to go and then I could finally walk down the famous hall of mirrors.

Security checks done and we were finally in the Chateau de Versailles!  

I couldn't believe I was finally here.

We were ushered (read herded) into a magnificent great hall,

and I had just enough time to take this photo.....

and then suddenly an alarm sounded and everyone had to evacuate the palace.

Close to 2  hours waiting in a queue and I was inside for less than 5 minutes.

To be continued.....................

Versailles (I think, I wasn't inside long enough to tell), France - June 2015