We decided that today we would like to travel down to Versailles to see the palace and town. I sat down and did some planning before venturing on the Metro. I then got Brian to check it. Being a sea Captain for the last 65 years and a car rally driver for nearly as many, I knew his logistics and directional capabilities would get us through. (but really it was just a butt covering exercise in case we got lost, but I won't tell him that)

Everything came up trumps, I got the nod, and so we all made our way down to the Metro, armed with our plan, and all the knowledge we soaked up from Kane's lessons the day before. Through the gates, buy the tickets, down the right stairs and off to St Michel. Arrive at St Michel, hey this is easy! Finding the next line was a little difficult, so we asked information and found that the line was closed for maintenance, and we would have to go to Odeon to catch the next train. ****!! there goes our plan, and my excuse if anything goes wrong. Still its only an extra stop, so what could go wrong. We carefully check all the signs and made our way to the platform. The train rocks up and we pile on. As we did, we briefly looked at the fish bone chart on the other side of the carriage. Then came the panic. Wrong train, quick pile put. Well Brian and Cheryl managed, Dianne and I were securely locked inside. I just looked at Dianne and said DON'T PANIC we will simply get off at the next station. The Paris Metro has 16 lines, 303 stations and 214kms of track and we are only 2 of 4.21 million people who use it daily. This could be a long day! Anyway we made it to the next station, changed lines and went back to St Michel. When we arrived and the doors opened, the fear of panic for Dianne hit once again. The"re not here they've gone! to which I replied, Dianne, they are on the platform on the other side. Dianne felt much better when the train moved off, and she could see Brian & Cheryl waiting on the platform opposite. Again we crossed the tracks for take 2. We checked out our maps and came to the conclusion this must be the train. The train stopped we again hopped on, and then read the fishbone on the topside of the carriage, but this time on the OTHER side, and lo and behold we were going in the right direction! By this time we could have walked to Versailles with time to spare. It is only 12 miles from the centre of Paris. We reached Odeon, and successfully made the change to Javel where we had to change trains once again. After alighting from Javel we crossed over the street to the Regional line to Versailles. The station staff seemed to be overwhelmed by the number of passengers, so much so we ended up not buying a ticket. We got a free train ride.

The journey to Versailles wasn't your typical train ride. There were a couple of musicians busking. A sax player, and a accordion player. It was really great having this music. There was a group of Italians on the train, and when the buskers played "That's Amore" they all broke out into song. It certainly lifted peoples spirits and took out the monotony of the ride.

The Court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682 when Louis XIV moved from Paris. It remained as such until 1789 when the Royal Family returned due to the start of the French revolution.

The Chateau was first started in 1623, and added to and refurbished by many Kings until the revolution. It then fell into disrepair, and most of the furniture from within it, was stolen or sold. However the main restoration of this beautiful building didn't really occur until 1833 when it was turned into a museum.

It was unfortunate for us, but we did not go into the Chateau, as there was a line that snaked around many times. I suspect there would have been 3 thousand people queued up to see it. We were mindful the fact that we needed to fly out at lunch time tomorrow.

After spending time looking around, we decided to have a bite to eat at a nice little restaurant near the information bay. It was a good choice. We met a nice couple from Melbourne on the table opposite. He was a photographer based in London, but did shoots all over Europe and America.

It was time to get moving to catch the train back as we were going out to see Crazy Horse tonight. The trip back was uneventful and didn't take anywhere near as long as the trip down.

On the way back we stopped in at the little pub near the metro for a quiet ale. The weather has been quite warm, so the last thing you need is to get dehydrated.

Time passed, the girls were preparing for our departure tomorrow. We all then departed about 7 pm for Crazy Horse. The show commenced at 9.00pm apparently. I Ubered a vehicle and again another great ride from UBER. We found a good little restaurant down the road from Crazy Horse, and had another delightful meal. We decided to move about 8.30 to Crazy Horse, and when we picked up our tickets we were told the show had begun 22 mins earlier. Mmmmmm don't know what went wrong there. As it turned out it was just as well. The show was terrible, simply a high class strip club, with lots of beautiful women with lovely .... blue eyes. But nothing like the polish class and entertainment of the Moulin Rouge. I would only say to give this place a miss.

Finally we got back to our unit about 11 pm. Our trip to Paris is coming to an end.