Our trip to Versailles today was an exercise in patience: the crowds, the standing in line in chilly weather, the uncertainty if we would even be admitted.  The cheerful persistence of our guide made the day a success . Without her and her wonderful store of knowledge, this day could have been a zero.  Three cheers for Cerise .

     Versailles was a different experience for me the second time around, just as the Louvre was a lot different. I call it the Selfie Stick Phenomenon (even though they weren’t allowed there).  People ( some people)today were more interested in recording the day’s experience for Instagram.  (I am sometimes guilty of that too). 

     The crowds are overwhelming . It was difficult to appreciate the Hall of Mirrors with several hundred people in it .Though, in all likelihood, this may have been how the nobility of the 1700s experienced it.  I wonder what it looked like by real candlelight.  

     One has only to watch a period movie to be aghast at how long it took the king and queen to get dressed every day . I dashed into the bookstore at the end of our tour to buy a book about Marie Antoinette.  I have would loved to have seen her private chambers back then .Not so much to have waited on her!t

   It was a a good visit once we made it inside .