Sara and the Jumping Goat of Versailles

My little sister Sara just got back from a two week vacation to Paris. I had the chance yesterday to sit and watch a slide show of her pictures. I'd never really wanted to visit Paris until I saw her pics. I am mostly jealous she went to the Orsay Museum. Anyway, she told me this story and I laughed so hard, that I feel the need to make sure it makes its way into the world.

I did not know this, but apparently Marie Antoinette made herself a little peasant village on the grounds of Versailles. She'd go wander around so she could feel like she was mingling with the common folk. Sara visited this little village, which today is still complete with pens of goats.

She was taking a picture and noticed something in the corner of her eye - in the picture you can actually see a smudge in the lower right corner. She realized that a goat had just jumped out of the pen. My sister speak a little French, but the word for "goat" is not one she knows. She is convinced that "little fucker" (her words) waited until all the French people were gone and said, Hey, this American girl probably doesn't know the word for goat, before making his escape.

So she walks over to the groundskeeper, who doesn't speak any English. In fact, he is Portuguese. So now she's trying to tell the Portuguese groundskeeper in broken French that the goat just jumped out of the pen. Except the little fucker is a wily goat, and is actually hiding behind a tree. Every time Sara points at it, it hides, and the groundskeeper thinks Sara is a crazy American who can't find the exit. Finally, Sara physically brings the groundskeeper over to the goat, and he starts screaming and chasing the goat, which goes bounding away towards the village.

And Sara is standing there yelling after him, "That's what I was trying to tell you!!!!"