The palace and the chalet.

The Palace at Versailles with 'Marie-Antoinette' in production.
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Escaping Paris for greener fields, we pick up our hire car and head out to Versailles, France's former capital and site of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles ending the American Revolutionary War against Britain.

It's now more famous for its beautiful gardens and grand palace, the Chteau de Versailles, with 120 rooms, 2143 windows, 1252 fireplaces, and 67 staircases. It's most famous room being the 'Galerie de Galces' or Hall of Mirrors. It contains 578 mirrors and is 73 m long, 10.50 m wide, and 12.30 m high.

Number 8.

Number 8.
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None of which we had the pleasure of seeing since the palace had been taken over by a swarm of Hollywood cast and crew filming Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Marianne Faithfull and a small pet monkey dressed as a bellboy. We watched the peasants revolt a few times before the wind began to slice through us.

We then drove around in search of a campsite or cheap hotel for the night. Unsuccessful, we drove back to a small settlement of huts we had found in Versailles, and, failing to find any owners or anyone at all incharge, we crept into hut number 8 and had an unforgettable night in a delightful French Chalet. Dinner was a banquet from our supply of fresh fruit, salad, bread, cakes and wine which we had picked up from the local Supermarch. We had discovered that France was less than friendly to visiting vegetarians, with the prevailing and common belief that fish and chicken were vegetarian foods. For around 15, we could eat and drink like obese vegetarian kings for 2 days.

A free night in a charming little chalet, plus a free bottle of wine which they had so carefully laid out for us.

Merci!