The UNESCO-listed historic centre of the Mexican city of Queretaro, about 2 hours north of Mexico City, is a treasure house of New World baroque architecture, of which the chief secular jewel is the Casa de la Marquesa.

The façade of the Casa de la Marquesa.

Built in the mid-18C as an aristocratic residence, it’s now run as an elegant boutique hotel.  I didn’t stay there, but I went for a meal in the excellent restaurant.

It’s true.  I dined in a duchess’s boudoir at the Chateau de Versailles.  Full confession: the duchess’s boudoir is nowadays known as Angelina’s, the Versailles outpost of the celebrated Parisian tea room.

Generally speaking, I don’t care to eat or drink at establishments that are inside tourist attractions, on the grounds that they are usually crowded and over-priced.  However, sometimes options are in short supply.  Such was the case on a very rainy day in late March (2016) during my visit to the Chateau.  Having just toured the Private Apartments (see the 2 previous posts) and the State Rooms, I was footsore, hungry, and slightly dehydrated.  My preference would have been to leave the Chateau and find a restaurant in the town, but one look out the window at people struggling to control their umbrellas in the gusting winds sent me in search of a restaurant inside the Chateau.  As far as I could make out, there was only one.  I followed the signs until I arrived here:

Sign at the entrance of Angelina’s tea room and restaurant in the Chateau de Versailles.

Naturally, I was not alone in having this notion and I was confronted by a long line of fellow visitors waiting for a table.  Angelina’s is known primarily known as a tea room, but it does offer a limited menu of light meals.  The line for the self-serve snackbar was shorter, but I wanted to have a hot meal.  So I waited.  And waited.  For 40 minutes.  The wait turned out to be worth it, though.