PARIS trip - Part three: the beginning of the end (a)

Day5: Tuesday the 5th of July


We woke up very excited. We got out of the hotel a bit later than we had hoped. It was around 11am when we got to versailles. We had decided to spend the entire day there. I had visited it when I was in my Form9 during a school trip but it was the first time for Vânia. We wore something simple, classic and confortable. 


When we got there the place was packed and it was also incredibly hot.
We felt like cursing for being stupid and not getting the ticket in advance! Instead we had to get in a line and we were there for over 1hour just to get a ticket. 


While in line we engaged in economy related conversatrions with some americans and a greek man as well. It was nice to have something to do while waiting for so long. We were really tired to stand there.


After all that time we finally got to the ticket office and bought tickets. Combined they were around 57 euros for both of us and it would let us have access to the castle, to the gardens and Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon as well but we had to be very disciplined and calculated the way diligently. The man at the office after giving us the tickets asked about what we were wearing, complimented us and asked for a picture. He also asked where we were from and when we said "Portugal" he replied in Portuguese. We knew there are a ton of Portuguese people in paris but its always nice to actually interact with one. We said our goodbyes since he had work to do and we had to go.


We were starving so we went to grab a burger for strength and headed over to the Palace.


We went throught the main gate and there was a guard there who told us to stop. He said:
"I'm sorry but I can't let you in."
Because I was used to having so many people in  France act really odd I asked, again: "I'm sorry? Are you serious?" 
Guard: "You cannot go through here, you have to go through the side entrance because of what you are wearing."
We were both very "WTF" but we just did what he had told us. He wasn't very nice actually, he didn't go straight to the point and just seemed like he wanted to "get rid of us".


Still we listened, asked the minimum necessary questions and headed over to the side entrace.


We went past that gate (there was nobody there btw) and went straight to the Garden entrance (because we needed to rush in able to see everything) on time.


When we were going to show our tickets there was thing employee who said:
Female guard: "I am sorry but i cannot let you in the gardens"
Me: "What? Why not?"
FG: "We cannot let anyone in costume get inside Versailles, its the rules we have."
Me: *in shock* "I am sorry??? These are not costumes madam, this is how we dress."
"FG": "Yes we know... but you cannot go in."
This other guy came over and asked what language we spoke to which we replied "Portuguese"
Male Guard: *in Portuguese* "I know this is how you dress like but unfortunately at the eyes of the people in charge of Versailles, that is considered a costume and we cannot let you in wearing that."
Me: "This is an outrage for us, I don't even have anything in my suitcase that is not this style of clothing, we came all the way from another country to visit france and versailles and yet you are not letting us in even though we have bought tickets... and we bought them while wearing these!"
MG: "I am really sorry, there was a group in the morning and we didn't let them in so we can't let you in either, its the rules, you can go back to the office and ask for a refund though... I am really sorry.... I am you know :|"
Me: "Well thank you for the information."


We were absolutely shocked, still... we couldn't do anything so we went to get our money back. 


We went throught the side entrance because Vania couldn't stand the 1st gate guard anymore, he had been so offensive and terribly rude to us... and we talked about it and came to the decision that this couldn 't be the end of it and that we would like to make a formal complaint. We saw some tourism assistants at the main gate and (from the outside) asked them if they knew where we could make a complaint. They asked us why and I told them why and they were speachless. 
So they went to ask the rude guard where the office was and he told them it was inside on the left and the guard looked at us again and rudely shouted "BUT DON'T THINK YOU CAN GO THERE THROUGH HERE! I WILL NOT LET YOU IN DRESSED LIKE THAT!" 
I was so fucking pissed i yelled in french "I ALREADY KNOW THAT!".
So the guys tried to help us call the office and there was no reply and they suggested we'd go to a tourism office outside of the castle and we did that.


We talked to the tourism office clerk and she was shocked as well and said:
"You know... its like this... it depends on who's at the gates, i've heard of people being able to enter and people being stopped although nobody had made any complaints to me before... and I agree with you! I think you should make a complaint, in fact i'm going to take a copy right now. Please wait a bit."


I can't reproduce what i wrote anymore... just what we felt. We were completely mistreated, offended. It was by far the worse experience I have ever had while in lolita. It was worse than that time when this random guy took his "instrument" out of his pants to show it to me. Way worse than that because that guy was probably a pervert and we are talking about a museum in a democratic country... regardless of wether Sarcozy is for or against freedom of speech and religion (not going to start a debate on the subject... just shooting into the air here). But it was you know? Terrible... and I thought about posting this on the lolita comms and ask people to email the versailles bureau and complain because if it happened to us it might happen to you as well. Or just because we should stick together against injustice.


Anyway the result was that we wasted more than half a day, spent money on transportation that nobody refunded to us and also that Vania does not want to go back to Versailles... ever. That's how she feels now and honestly? I don't blame her.

Extra points if you know where that's from btw. 

So we just sat, had a few cups of coffee while discussing how terrible that was.... and headed back. 
... while the day wasn't over, it was pretty much ruined. (to be continued...)


Extra:

Link so you can read

link so you can read

Here are some screencaps of the webpage. For some reason I figured they'd have a huge sign on the website saying that we cannot go in costumes and what they consider a costume which is nowhere to be seen. I did a search on the word costume and its not even on the site... plus the only rules written are those three. This makes it even worse for people who travel there on purpose and lose an entire day being offended like we did.