If you’ll pardon the lame rhyming headline, I’ll tell you a bit about my side trip to Versailles a couple weeks ago. We woke up on Saturday morning and hopped on a train out of Paris to the suburb of Versailles, which is about 10 miles from Paris and home of the Palace of Versailles. This was the home and seat of the French monarch for over 100 years, made most famous by the Sun King, Louis XIV. It’s also where Louis XVI lived with his wife Marie Antoinette until the French Revolution brought down the monarchy. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, was signed at the palace. It’s a place of great history, so needless to say I had to go.
We got off the train and headed right for the palace. I really liked the statue of Louis XIV out front, standing guard in front. The palace itself is a pretty commanding presence, but it looks more magnificent the closer you get to it. I paid for a ticket to go inside, and off we were.
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Before you enter, there’s this plaque, which translates roughly to this: “After the World War, a citizen of United States of America, John D. Rockefeller Jr., contributed magnificent donations to restore the chateau and park of Versailles, Trianon Palace, the gardens, the Cathedral of Reims, and the chateau of Fontainebleau.
By entering the name of John D. Rockefeller Jr. the government of the Republic wanted to show him the gratitude of the French people.”
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The palace is absolutely beautiful on the inside. There are so many different rooms, all with really ornate, detailed art and decor. I really liked this huge organ:
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It’s remarkable how much money and wealth was poured into this palace. It really shows the might of the French king in the 17th century, as well as the excess of that institution. The king’s and queen’s bedrooms are another example of this opulence.
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The Hall of Mirrors is much less spectacular than I expected, but pretty impressive nonetheless. There are lots of mirrors (natch) and it’s where the palace’s namesake treaty was signed to end WWI.
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There are also so great replicas of some famous paintings about French monarchs. Here’s a detail of a replica of David’s The Coronation of Napoleon. The story (which is probably not true) is that Napoleon took the crown from the pope’s hands and crowned himself. Either way, this doesn’t show that, but rather Napoleon’s crowning of his wife, Josephine.
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After this, we went out to the gardens, which cost us another few euro but was well worth it. This was the most beautiful part of Versailles for me. There were fountains and topiaries and beautiful trees and columns. It was like a rich, French monarch’s playground–okay, that’s exactly what it was. They even had stealthily placed speakers blasting baroque music as you walked through the huge campus. I’ll leave you with some pictures of what I saw.
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