Ketchup costs extra

I continued to wonder what a young Laura would have eaten during this trip. (Nothing at all against French food of course; it was just that Laura was a picky eater.) I took to noticing what was on the plates of children at adjacent tables. Why, french fries, of course! That would have been fine with Laura. As suggestible as I am, next lunch I ordered french fries too. That's when I learned that there is often an extra charge for ketchup! That took me by surprise. It was mildly amusing and rather quaint! I think Laura would have enjoyed it.

Another interesting thing was the French credit card. It seems in order to be efficient and get a train ticket out of a machine and not wait in a long line, one had to have a French credit card. Not even a credit card issued in another European country would do (so we were told eventually) it had to be one issued in France. A tourist might be directed to the ticket machine and spend some time stepping through the menus to select their train ticket only to find out at the end their credit card would not work and they had wasted their time. At least at Versailles, they made it plain with a clear sign: French credit cards only! It seems they have chips in credit cards there while we still have the magnetic strip.
Photos: You'll need to click on the photo of the menu to see the one euro charge for ketchup on this menu