Day 5: All Day at Château de Versailles
Today is devoted to exploring the elaborate palace that Louis XIV, XV, and XVI called home. We'll make the 30-minute train trip to Versailles, then tour key rooms of the palace together.
The Chateau de Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal chateau in Versailles, France. In English it is often referred to as the Palace of Versailles. When the chateau was built, Versailles was a country village, but it is now a suburb of Paris with city status in its own right. From 1682, when King Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in 1789, the Court of Versailles was the centre of power in Ancien Régime France.
In 1660, Louis XIV, who was approaching majority and the assumption of full royal powers from the advisors who had governed France during his minority, was casting about for a site near Paris but away from the tumults and diseases of the crowded city. He had grown up in the disorders of the civil war between rival factions of aristocrats called the Fronde and wanted a site where he could organize and completely control a government of France by absolute personal rule. He settled on the royal hunting lodge at Versailles, and over the following decades had it expanded into the largest palace in Europe. Versailles is famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy which Louis XIV espoused.
We started out the day by changing our route and headed for the RER where we waited through 4 trains to catch the right one. Like a bunch of kids seeing a double decker train for the first time we headed for the top and settled in or the 30 minute ride. I found it interesting how the city scape changed as we left the main city, from glitz and sleek to hohum and mundane...normal. The train ride provided us with a TV version from the train of everyday life in France. Construction workers going about their work brings the glitz of
historic Paris back into focus.
We arrived at the station and walked through a small part of the city that had a war memorial to remind us that the resplendent palace was part of real peoples lives . We received our whisper sets and were off for a visit to the palace to be entertained and informed of palace history and hijinks by Elizabeth. The decorations were magnificent but I think that the Russian palaces have this place beat for opulance. Dave and I
headed back to the city and I continued onto a walk along the Seine. For whatever reason I am not a Versailles girl but more a Tower of London kind of girl.
Our final dinner at Nabuchodonosor was fabulous, a must do for everyone who wants good food and entertainment.
***Born out of the will of a king, the city has a rational and symmetrical grid of streets. For the standards of the 18th century, Versailles was a very modern European city. Versailles was used as a model for the building of Washington DC
I have ever believed that had there been no
queen, there would have been no revolution.”
Thomas Jefferson
She keeps Moet et Chandon In her pretty cabinet
'Let them eat cake' she says Just like Marie Antoinette
