Versailles October 27th

Versailles : The town of Versailles is 30 minutes southwest of Paris. The original portion of the chateau was the central portion which was a hunting lodge where a young Louis XIV spent a lot of time. When he became king of France in 1643 he expanded the lodge to a royal palace and moved from the Louvre in Paris out here to the suburbs so he could rule more absolutely. It is the most extravagant palace in all of Europe and was built to glorify Louis the "Sun King" who was the most powerful ruler in Europe and ruled until 1715.



This gold gate, the Royal Gate, is 260 feet long and decorated with 100,000 golden leaves. The original one was destroyed after the Revolution. This replacement was installed in 2008 at a cost of 5 million euros!

In the 1700's this courtyard would have been filled with people - as many as 5000 nobles were at Versailles at any given time and the palace and its grounds were considered public property.






Because Louis XIV ruled for 72 years, his great-grandson was the next to rule (1715-1774) was Louis XV. He didn't have the power or flair of his great grandfather and the power of the monarchy began to falter. Then came Louis XVI who married Marie Antoinette and ruled from 1774-1792 until he and his queen were beheaded by the revolutionaries.









The most famous room in Versailles is the Hall of Mirrors. Mirrors were a great luxury at the time and this 250 ft long hall contained 17 huge ones mirrored by 17 arches on the opposite wall that overlooked the spectacular gardens. The hall is lined with candelabra and 16 busts. Sorry that there aren't more pictures of the inside but it is really hard to capture the glory of such a grandiose place - you just have to see it.








Almost as impressive as the chateau is the gardens. Well, you could imagine that they would be really impressive when it isn't cold and desolate. The grounds are elaborate and Louis XIV presided over them until his last days. He threw grand parties out here and led VIPs on tours. He even had a thousand orange trees in containers that he would have wheeled out when the weather permitted to impress his visitors.


The grounds originally had 1500 fountains and 300 remain. The theme of Versailles is Apollo (the God of Sun for the Sun King) and this fountain shows young Apollo and Diana at the top with their mother Latona. As an unwed mother, Latona was taking a lot of flak from the locals. She called on Zeus (her baby daddy) and he turned all the peasants into frogs and lizards which surround the fountain.

We continued to walk down down these expansive grounds and then turned right to the Domaine of Marie Antoinette...

On the grounds of the Versailles are the Grand Trianon, Petit trianon, and the Hamlet of Marie Antoinette. Versailles began as an escape from the craziness of Paris but soon was just as crazy itself. So, Louis XIV built himself a much more modest set of houses at the far reaches of his grounds. He spent 2 to 3 nights per week out here but the following Louises spent more and more time here as the world continued to press in on them. The Grand Trianon was the King's quarters and this is the pretty little portico.



Louis XV was interested in botany and wanted a home closer to the gardens so he built the Petit Trianon at the urging of his mistress. When Louis XVI because king, he gave it to Marie Antoinette to use as her home base.

Marie Antoinette wanted a proper dressing room so she had a study next to her bedroom fitted with mirrors on chains that could be pulled up to obliterate the windows completely so she could see herself in 3D. We also saw our first indoor toilet at Petite Trianon. Again, not many pictures - Ryan was tired and getting a little castled out.







My favorite part of the Domaine de Marie Antoinette was Le Hameau - the Hamlet. Marie Antoinette was a young girl from the Austrian Royal Family when she married Louis XVI and she longed for the "simple life" of a peasant - well not the actual work part. She built a complex of 12 buildings patterned after a Normand village with thatched roofs. This was an actual working farm with a dairy, crops, a water mill, and domestic animals.















The whole area was so picturesque and pretty...

























This was Marie Antoinette's personal residence at the Hamlet.








We got done at Versailles a little early and returned to the hotel. I think we had a little wine and watched the final episode of The Sopranos. Then we went for a walk and ended up finding a little Italian place to eat. By little I mean tiny - we were seated at a banquet elbow to elbow with other people. Ryan ordered a pizza and I had a really good pesto fettucine. It was an utterly exhausting day.