My Trip to France
In the morning after our breakfast we had time before our tour of Versailles that afternoon so we went shopping! We strolled through the markets and bought bread and 3 kinds of goat cheeses and fresh strawberries and tomatoes. Four bottles of wines to take home - a St. Emilion, a Mouton, a red and white Sancerre - and cheap ones to drink (that were fabulous!). We got some nice souvenirs for our friends and families at a little shop. We walked by the antique jewelry store and I oohed and aahed over the lovely cameos - so inexpensive compared to US prices and the water opals. I chose a stunning teardrop water opal ring surrounded by 36 malachite stones around the opal and on each side that was very lush and very French.Versailles
Then we stopped at a cafe and had some wine and I bought a little vegetable
tart from a shop and we prepared for our trip to Versailles. Our guide
was Parisienne and picked us up in a nice van, and then we picked up an
Italian family and a woman from Australia. He explained the history
of Versailles to us in the short trip and pointed out sights along the
way including the statue of Joan of Arc. Louis the 14th was king
at the age of 5 but didn't rule France till he was an adult. He had
grown up aware of much scheming and political unrest and was afraid of
the Parisians so he decided to leave the Louvre and build a new palace.
One of his ministers had built a magnificent palace which he had visited
and was taken with - he promptly arrested the minister and took away his
grand palace and also took his architect and artists and had them build
him Versailles one days journey outside the city. This was a safe
distance. His father had a hunting lodge on the spot, which was halfway
between Paris and a great forest where the king's hunted. They had
built the lodge one day's journey from the forest because it was unsafe
to travel at night.
Versailles took about 5 years to build and had an architect, artist and landscaper. The gardens are world famous and when we arrived we saw them first. 250 acres of gardens include a large lake for boating which was very popular then and now. The formal gardens are filled with beautiful statues including one I loved of Diana. The magnificent stairways and the orangerie and the garden of palm trees are on one side, the lake and the more formal gardens and stairs and fountains are in the center and another lovely garden with fountains is on the right. On the grounds are also the Grand and Petite Trianon - little getaway palaces which you can tour and the little town Marie Antoinette had built for herself - of which many buildings are still standing. These I would love to see someday.
Our tour inside was of the King and Queen's Royal Apartments (not the private apartments which is a different tour). First you entered the hallway looking into the chapel. Chapel in not the right word of course because it was a very large ornate church with the entire ceiling one miraculous painting of heaven and god. The audio tour played music and choral voices so that you could imagine the space filled with sound. The Kings apartments were the first rooms we passed through. The grand apartments were for visitors to walk through and wait in and the King held audiences in some of them, and some were for his art collection. They had little furniture in them. Each room was dedicated to a different planet, and the enormous ceilings had paintings illustrating each god (Mars, Mercury, Diana - the moon, etc.) and their entourage. Truly majestic. The audio guides gave us magnificent histories of each room, some which had been redecorated by other kings since the time of Louis the 14th. The royal beds were so big and ornate, the king didn't sleep in his - it was for show, but the Queen did live in her rooms and all events in her bedroom were accompanied by about 40 servants. The painting of Marie Antoinette and her family was interesting as it was one of the first "family-style" portraits of royalty - ushering in the new idea of actually being close with your children in a family way - new for royalty anyway. They were trying to tone down her unpopular image but did not succeed. She was a very unpopular Queen and "let them eat cake" seems sure to have come from her lips. To live so extravagantly while the people starved seems completely unbelievable. We passed through the Guards room that was stormed by the women of Paris before the start of the revolution. The guards were all killed but the Queen and King escaped. The mob passed through all of the rooms of the palace without doing damage to any of them - but the King and Queen were forced to return to the city where the people could keep a close eye of them. It appears that Louis was not in touch with what was going on and was unprepared for what happened next.The Royal Apartments and the Hall of Mirrors
Going around the palace wings each room had some of the windows open to the gardens and the lovely spring air and sunshine streamed in. The Hall of Mirrors was the most grandiose, ostentatious, extravagant and flamboyant processional hall. Used for grand entrances you could easily picture the court lining the walls. One nice thing about these audio guide speeches were that they were accompanied by music of the period so you felt immersed in the period. One side all windows, the other all mirrors, filled with chandeliers and gilded statues, each ceiling more impressive than the last - all statues and paintings featuring Louis or his sons and their family. Near the end was the large painting of Napoleon's coronation as Emperor by the Pope 9 through the crown is in his hand) and Josephine is so lovely. We walked down the magnificent marble stairs and through the long wing where all of Napoleons battles are commemorated through very very large paintings. This is a very big wing. More than anything you can feel the immensity of his campaign through out Europe and Africa, all of the countries where he fought and defeated armies, establishing his rule. It is quite staggering. We walked past the wing where parliament is (and you can tour that also) and back to the courtyard and to the big statue of Louis in front of the main entrance with the clock.
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