Versailles

During my last week of work we took a day trip to see the former home of the Sun King, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.  After quite a few obstacles we finally got into the chateau and it was such a great trip!  We were lucky in that the weather was amazing, and unlucky that every tourist in France was at Versailles that day.  However once we got into the gardens the crowds dissipated.

Versailles is amazing because it is dripping baroque architecture and the history is some of France's best.  If you like gold leaf and interesting history, Versailles is the place for you.

Ceiling painting, gold leaf and marble

On the left is the chapel in Versailles (wow) and on the right is one of the more modest bedrooms/one of the only rooms that wasn't too crowded to get a photo (I think it was the Dauphine's room).

There was a lot of pleasing symmetry in the gardens.

Below is Marie Antoinette's bedroom, which was very popular.  You can see her bed reflected in the mirror.  Interesting note: there is a hidden door by her bed that Marie Antoinette used to escape the first time revolutionaries came for her.

The question everyone asks about Versailles is why on earth did they build it if they already had the Tuileries palace in Paris?  Excellent question, because it seems rather ridiculous, which it is.  But here are the reasons: Royalty and nobility wanted to distance themselves from Paris mobs and later revolutionaries, someone's ego was being fed (they didn't really have to use all that gold did they?), and I think they genuinely believed it was for the glory of France (pictured on building below).

Concerning that last point, the chateau at Versailles was the center of court where nearly all matters of the state took place, and there was a strict and tiring daily schedule that everyone had to take part in.  They built something impossibly grand to impress and to contribute to France's glory and power, and it worked.  When we were walking back up the gardens to the chateau it looked so intimidating, and if we were visiting foreign dignitaries in the 18th century I would have thought, "Wow, don't mess with France."

We also discovered that people are often never satisfied with what they have.  They had the Tuileries palace, built Versailles, then Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette built Le Grand et Le Petit Trianons which are two small palaces on the grounds of Versailles where they could escape the pressures of court.  Marie Antoinette also had a hamlet built which looked like a little Austrian village where she could pretend to be normal person/shepherdess.  Meanwhile all of these building were built while France was in major debt.  I see why all the French citizens went crazy.