France

Went straight to collect the car this morning and after a few hassles discovered that the slip from the travel agent showed the wrong location for pickup so had to lug our packs thru the Metro system to find the right location - luckily this was not far away because by this stage of the trip we seem to be carting around a lot more 'stuff' than we started out with!

Had no trouble navigating the short distance to Versailles and after the obligatory tour of this vast, decadent palace spent some hours wandering the gardens and sitting in a secluded spot of the lower garden by the canal to eat icecream and write some more postcards while we enjoyed the light entertainment of watching people try to row boats on the canal.  We saw some very large fish - maybe carp? - and watched the white swans on the canal and the play of the sun on the great Chateau.

Made our way all the back to the entrance to discover that Pete has lost his wallet this time (Merde!).  Reported to the security office and peered in all the nearby garbage bins (in case it had been tossed by a pickpocket) then Pete went back to the stall where we bought the icecream and with a combination of his non-existent French and sign language the wallet was located - astonishing! Talk about lucky!!  The result was that we were a little later setting out to find somewhere to stay than we should have been.

We were astonished to find that all the accommodation in Versailles was booked out, particularly since it was well after the main tourist peak season.  We began to worry a little as we left town and drove towards Chartres and found that every hotel, motel and Chambres d'Hotes along the way was also full, we were both a little gratified and disturbed when the time came that there were queues of people in front of me at the hotel receptions also getting the same answer 'Complet' (at least it wasn't just my atrocious french!).  We were deeply disheartened at 10pm when we stopped at a small Italian restaurant in Chartres for dinner and in a last ditch effort we asked our hostess if she knew of anywhere we might find accommodation at this late hour - she was very sympathetic and gave as a good list of hotels and Chambres d'Hotes but by the time we began to check them they were all closed for the night and resigned ourselves to a night in the car.  We found a quiet park in a residential area on the outskirts of Chartres and parked in the carpark.  After some hours it was freezing cold and I climbed over the backseats of the station wagon to rummage for clothes, passing an odd assortment to Pete and ending with my head wrapped in a t-shirt turban in an effort to keep warm.  The only disturbance came in the early hours of the morning when a car drew up nearby and someone walked over and shone a torch in the car, we worried it might be the police come to tell us to move on but it wasn't and strangely the man left when he realised that someone was sleeping in the car.