Waiting on line at Versailles

Well, I know it started with Louis XIV who used his halls as a latrine.  But our trip to Versailles highlighted the arbitrariness of rules and the lack of their enforcement in France.  Inasmuch as my husband and I are both attorneys, we were rather taken aback by this.

To start out, we planned to take a 9:55 AM train to Versailles which is about 40 minutes outside of Paris.  The train arrived early at 9:50 which was when we boarded.  At 9:52, the train left. THREE minutes before it was scheduled to leave.  Here in the states, the train would leave as scheduled or later but not BEFORE.  Is this any way to run a railroad?

We bought our tickets online for Versailles so we wouldn’t have to wait “on line.”  Wrong.  We stood in line for an hour and a half in the blazing sun.  About 45 minutes into our wait, with our backs turned for a second, some German tourists jumped in line ahead of us.  Then the same thing happened behind us with French tourists.  To say we rule followers almost started an international incident is an understatement.

We finally got into the chateau and there were huge signs, billboards practically, bearing a drawing of a camera with a giant black line through it — the universal symbol for “no photographs.” Duh.  We walked through the museum and flashes were going off like crazy; it was like strobe lights everywhere. All of the tourists were snapping away at their cameras.  I was incredulous.  I asked one of the guards.  He said that we were allowed to take photos.  “But what about that gigantic sign downstairs?” I asked.  He shrugged his shoulders and said, “this is France” (i.e., we don’t follow our own rules).

We walked through the gardens for about 2 hours or so.  By the time we got to the far reaches of the estate, our feet (and hips and backs) had given out.  Actually, it was just me who could barely move. We saw a little tram that would take us back to the chateau.   The tram, on an endless loop of the entire estate, was practically empty.  We took out our wallets and the tram operator told us he didn’t have any more tickets.  “But you have all these seats” we implored.  Well, apparently, they are only allowed to sell a certain amount of tickets and after that, they can’t let anyone else on even if the car is completely empty.  Is this any way to run a tram service as well as a country whose economy is based on tourism?

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