Forty minutes outside of Paris lies the palace and grounds of Versailles. This complex was created during the 1700s under Louis XIII through Louis XVI, but is best associated with Louis XIV, the so-called Sun King. We arrived at about 11AM amidst a horde of tourists. Even though it was a weekday, the entrance line was massive, and would take several hours to reach the parts on display. However, if you go into that line right away, you are a fool. Versailles also includes the gardens, which are simply massive in scale, and have no line. We went around back to check them out.
When I said they were massive, I was being modest. The gardens of Versailles are fucking enormous. From the back of the palace, it is a kilometer to the grand canal past elegantly manicured hedges, marble statues, and a few smaller ponds. The grand canal itself is 2km long, and bisected by the 1km long petit canal. At one end of that canal sits the Grand Trianon, which was the king's summer palace (you know, for those summer days when Versailles just wasn't cutting it). A few hundred meters down the road sits the Petit Trianon, which was originally built as a place for Louis XIV to keep his side pieces before it was given to Marie Antoinette for a wedding present (which she inevitably used to entertain her side pieces). Further down the road from that is the hameau du reine, or queen's hamlet, which is a collection of about 10 rustic houses (and a rustic queen's mansion) where Marie Antoinette and her peeps raised cows and sheep, and gave the profits of this work to the poor. This may seem like a charitable gesture out of line with how she is remembered in history, but it is also important to note that she was also busy burning through fucktons of francs to redecorate le Petit Trianon with things like mechanical sliding mirrors and gilt everything, as well as redecorating Versailles.
Speaking of Versailles, after walking several kilometers to see all that other stuff, we went back to the front gate at around 2 and voila! The massive lines had disappeared and we could walk right in. Once inside, we went through a floor containing studies for the paintings in Versailles, up a flight of stairs, and down a long hallway used for crowd control (that hour long wait we saw outside was probably followed by another hour learning about the history of the expansion of Versailles, and not by choice. Fortunately for the poor saps who didn't start their day with a trek around the gardens, the king's apartments that awaited them were worth the wait. If the Napoleon III apartments make Powell Hall look like a crack house, then Versailles makes those apartments look like Powell Hall compared to the Napoleon III apartments without my hyperbole. The walls are covered in exquisite wallpapers, or made of three different kinds of marble. There are statues of marble and bronze everywhere. The furniture is all patterned velvet, much of it bearing sun motifs. The ceilings are all painted with scenes from Greek and Christian mythology, in a program meant to convey the near god-like status of Louis XIV, and the whole thing is covered in more gould leaf than Paul Wall's teeth. Most lavish among the chambers is the famed Hall of Mirrors, which is a cavernous hall that combines amazing ceiling frescoes with marble, gilt statues, candelabras, floor to ceiling mirrors, and second-floor views of the gardens of Versailles. This hall is so over the top luxurious that it would have been the perfect place for Kanye to hold his wedding, if they would have allowed it. Looking at this place, it is no wonder that by the end of his reign, Louis XIV's France was rather short of funds. Versailles is one of the three most opulent buildings in the world, with only the Papal Apartments and palace of the Chinese emperor in the Forbidden City having a shot at being more extravagant. After seeing the scale and splendor of the Versailles complex though, I would bet against it.
Tomorrow we will go to some more art museums and stuff.
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