Lost Chronicles: Gus, I, and Versailles

A post about a story not documented by photos or other witnesses

Versailles
(photo by Leann)

This is a first hand account of an adventure Gus and I had visiting Versailles. We got there early in the morning to avoid huge crowds of tourist. I was impressed when I first saw the gardens. The fact that it was empty of tourist and lit with cool morning sun made the view a grand spectacle. But man, these gardens were HUGE!!!! HUGE!!!! It's possible to see from the photo, but starring out to the Versailles gardens, the horizon line is not even the end of the gardens. Although we came in a group of four, Kira and Leann were separated from Gus and I when an old man jogger gave us two a little tour of the gardens. It was about 9:30am and Gus and I could not find Kira or Leann. We decided to meet them at Marie Antoinette's house since we were all planning to go there. We didn't grab a map because we figured it was easy to find. And it should have been, but little did we know that Gus and I would spend the next few hours lost walking the gardens. We passed the main gardens of Versailles which contained many impressive statues and fountains and ended up walking to the outskirts of the garden. The outskirts of the garden is like a giant man-made forest. There were no maps, and no people except for the occassional joggers. Gus and I figured we weren't lost because it was still early in the morning and the tourist hadn't showed up yet. We found a snail and made marks in the grounds as indicaters of our guesses to where it would be in a few hours. As we continued to walk further into the gardens, our search for Marie's house became less confident. The paths in the forest were long, and we couldn't really see past the trees so we were searching for the house aimlessly with no idea to where the house could be. We walked and walked. After a couple hours we stumbled into a supermarket. I thought it was odd to put a supermarket in the middle of the Versailles gardens but we used it to gather refreshments and we asked a lady if she knew where the house was located. She looked at us confusingly and then told us that we were not in the gardens anymore. It so happened that Gus and I walked so far we had accidentally exited the gardens!!! She told us to go back and turn left as soon as we reentered the gardens but she lied!!! We went left but we couldn't find it!!! So again we walked aimlesslyin search for the house. We were tired and we were lost and we were slowly going insane because we had no food! I was about to crack when we stumbled into the marking we made hours ago (mr. snail was nowhere to be seen). The markings saved us, and we finally started recognizing our surroundings. We didn't care about the house, we just wanted to get back to main gardens, to where people were. But eventually found the house and finally got something to eat. The gardens were now packed with tourist and the sunlight was hot. I checked the time and it was about 1:30pm meaning we were lost for nearly 4 hours! I think Gus and I got to see a part of Versailles that not many get to see. It wasn't the coolest thing ever, but it sure was an adventure!