Whew! We were pretty exhausted after our first long day in Paris, so we weren't really looking forward to another day of sight-seeing and walking. But how could we NOT be excited?!?! We were headed to Versaille!
Versaille is the incredible palace built by Louis the XIV as an escape from the city of Paris… and also as a means of distracting his courtiers from interfering in his governing. At any time, Louis XIV would have up to 5,000 guests staying at his ma-hoo-ssive palace and sprawling grounds. The house is decorated extravigantly in the rococo/baroque style that displayed the wealth of France, which was the most powerful nation in Europe during the Sun King's reign. The place is just bursting with carved mouldings, painted ceilings depicting Greek myths, mirrors (a luxury at the time), gold, silver and precious stones. But the palace is really nothing compared to the acres of land that surround it. The garden covers almost 2000 acres of land. It is expertly manicured into symmetrical designs made of different kinds of trees, grass, flowers, sculptures and fountains. Oh the fountains. They even have them timed to music these days. The grounds also include a man-made lake, orangerie, a 1.5 km-long canal (which was complete with genuine Venetian gondoliers in Louis XIV's day).
You have to venture quite a way back into the gardens to get to the good stuff. When life got too busy at Versailles for the Sun King, he built a smaller palace, 'Le Grand Trianon', where he would escape to get some quiet time. And then he built an even smaller palace, 'Le Petit Trinanon', out amongst his gardens so he could be closer to nature. 'Le Petit Trianon' eventually became Marie-Antoinette's home-base when her husband, the gret-great-grandson of Louis XIV was King.
Antoinette was a weird one. She pretty much removed herself from any responsibility related to her role as queen. Instead, she focused on building her own little amusement park out in the boonies of her husband's palatial estate. She built a hamlet which included a mill, a dairy, a farm (more like a petting zoo) and a few little houses around a landscaped pond. She would pretend to be a peasant on her idyllic little park, while ignoring those real peasants in her country that would support the French Revolution and overthrow her monarchy. It was pretty, though. I totally wish I watched that Marie-Antoinette movie with Kirsten Dunst, again, before I went to Versailles to see what it was like with people around. I mean, not that there weren't tons of tourists, but I'd like to see it as it was, with courtiers and servants.
We were pretty exhausted by the time we got out to Marie-Antoinette's place, so we were all pretty grumpy as we trudged back towards the palace. We took one last look at the amazing views from the palace steps: the grand fountains, geometrical gardens and expansive canal. Wow.
When we returned to Paris, we met the owner of our apartment, a darling Frenchman named Jean-Jaques.
Later, we dined at a local restaurant and had an early night as we were all knackered.
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