Lest anyone think otherwise

Monday, August 13, 2007

Sometimes I wonder if my blog gives off the impression that I only ever have these awesome, exciting, wonderful cultural experiences. Yesterday's disaster of a day will set the record straight. It was all SO BAD that all we could do was just laugh (while we grumbled).

My friend Jules is here on a vacation, and I am so thrilled! She arrived in Paris the day before I'd returned from Marseilles, and had 36 hours of relaxation and the Louvre. We spent all day Saturday just wandering around Paris talking, catching up, me pointing out touristy things along the way. It was wonderful--the best vacation day anyone could dream of.

We'd decided to go to Versailles on Sunday, because Sunday is the only day that the fountains are turned on in the massive gardens that make Versailles so famous. (For those who don't know, Versailles is claimed to be one of the most world famous castles, with acres and acres of gardens and fountains and such as it's back yard.) I figured, if you're going to pay money to see these gardens, you might as well see them with the fountains on, right?

Well, two American ladies that I'd worked with down in Marseilles were arriving in Paris for three days of vacation before returning to the US, and so we'd arranged to meet them at their hotel on Sunday morning so we could all go to Versailles together. They were supposed to be there by 11am. At 12:30, when they still hadn't shown up, we decided to go ahead and leave. (We found out later that they didn't make it in until 2pm!)

So we take the train out to Versailles, pick up lunch and carry it over to the castle, wisely thinking to eat it while waiting in the world's longest line to get into the castle. We got in line...and waited...and waited...and waited. Two and a half hours later, we finally made it into the building where you buy your tickets, and saw why it took so long: they only had two cashiers selling tickets to the thousands of people trying to get in. Seriously, it seems like they could hire another worker or two to make that line shorter, or build automatic teller machines to see tickets. We were trying to fight off being grumbly at that point, because at least now we were getting in.

We got our tickets at 4pm, and the castle closes at 6:30. (Remember that we'd tried to start our day at 11...) There were hardly any signs anywhere, and the signs that were up were not clear. We started looking for a bathroom (since we'd been in line for 2.5 hours), only to find a line 50 people deep at the first bathroom we encountered. We walked through two sections of the castle, listening to the audiotour. At one point, I lowered the little player and turned to Jules and said, "I could make up better stuff than this!" I wanted to poke my eye out it was so boring.

We finally found the other bathroom (yes, they only have two), and grew more and more grumpy. We wander around and around trying to find out how to get to the part of the castle that I'd seen in photos (the pretty part)--the part that surely had made it so famous. Because what we'd seen so far in no way justified the thousands of tourists that flock there on a normal basis. What we'd seen so far would surely spark everyone I know to have told me ahead of time, "Versailles is a terrible waste of time, there are so many better castles to go to." But no...no one had ever said anything like that to me, in fact--just the opposite. So we trudged on.

We found the "pretty part." It was SO crowded with tourists that no only could we (a) not enjoy it or (b) see anything through all the masses of people, but (c) we couldn't even hear the audiotour cassette because of the noise of all the people. I couldn't even stand on my tippy-toes and look over all their heads because all the tourists would lift their cameras in the air to take pictures over people's heads.

After about 20-30 minutes, the introvert-I-can't-stand-tourists-or-crowds-and-I'm-seriously-grumpy-by-now came out and I was ready to start PUSHING people out of my way just to get out of that building. I turned to tell Jules, "Let's just go out and enjoy the gardens for a few minutes before we leave," when I looked out at the gardens through the window. They had turned the fountains OFF. We missed it. And in the distance, a storm was brewing.

She said, "Let's just go, so that maybe we can beat these crowds to the train back to Paris." I agreed. I just wanted to leave. I felt like we'd wasted a whole day of our lives, as well as 13.50euros (except for the wonderful company I'd had in having her with me). As we walked out of the building, she said, "Out of all my experiences in ALL the world (and she lives in the Middle East, mind you)--that was the worst thing ever. Bottom of the list. Terrible." Maybe this will give you a clue: I didn't take ONE SINGLE photograph. Wasn't even inspired ONCE.

We walk through the gate of the castle and feel a rain drop. I quickly advise her about storms here--no use to bother with an umbrella, the wind always blows them inside out, and besides...an umbrella doesn't cover the bottom half of you. As I finish saying that, the heavens opened up and just DUMPED all over us. We were drenched from head to toe by the time we got on the train. That part of the day was actually fun, we laughed about it. (I mean, running through a downpour with a friend IS fun!)

While on the train, we got to see a beautiful rainbow, which did pick up our spirits. We thanked the Lord for His blessings and promises and just were thankful for that visual reminder that He is good...even if Versailles is terrible. We called Svia and told her we were on our way to the hotel to pick up our friends, and she could start heading towards the restaurant where we would all meet for dinner.

Then Jules and I got turned around at one of the metro connections, which delayed us about 20 minutes. We got to the ladies' hotel, heard all about their bad day of arriving in Paris, and headed back to the train station. Only to find out--the train wasn't running it's full course that day, and so it was no use to take it to switch a gazillion more times to get get to the restaurant. I had to pull out my map and rethink our route. Svia doesn't have a cell phone, so we couldn't call her and tell her we would be late.

We take the detour route I'd come up with, and arrived at the train station near the restaurant...to find out that 3/4 of the exits are under construction and we couldn't exit where we needed to. After walking all around our elbow, we finally arrived at the rendezvous spot...two hours after I'd called Svia. She was nowhere to be found. She'd waited over an hour for us and finally decided to leave.

We had fondue for dinner, which seemed to redeem the whole day for everyone. We laughed and talked and enjoyed the world's most fattening dinner--bread, potatoes, and a assortment of pork products all dipped in melted cheese. Thank goodness the whole day wasn't bad.

But seriously--Versailles? Someone needs to tell me what's so great about it, because I think it's TERRIBLE. Ick, ick, ick. So, lest anyone think I always manage to have wonderful experiences...let the record state that I don't always have fun, I do have to wait in wretched lines sometimes, I do find places boring, and I do get grumpy. And if anyone ever comes to visit, I will not take you to Versailles.

Now that the sun is finally shining, Jules and I are going to do stuff that I know is fun and pleasant.