Day 4--Versailles



Today we decided to journey to the Chateau de Versailles, which is about 23km outside of Paris. We got up early and caught a train and then a bus which dropped us off right at the front gates.

Again, the hugeness of some of these buildings blow the mind away, but in the case of Versailles the size is horizontal instead of vertical and the entire complex seemed to sprall everywhere. Even the gates were huge, they were made of some kind of black iron with gold pated tips. Versailles was orginally the royalty's summer home and then later became the palace. It's amazing the thing is still standing after the revolution.

Here is a photo of a statue along the front gate. There were many like this

Once inside the gates you can get a full view of the courtyard which, as you can see, is extremely large and impressive. The cobblestone was neat to look at bad very hard to walk on. I was afraid I might twist my ankles, wearing shoes with taller heels then normal. That and the fact that I slept terrible the night before and was feeling quite slow and stupid. My walk was slow and plodding, but eventually we made it closer to the actual building.

This shows a closer view of one of the buildings in the complex. Across the top it says, "All For the Glory of France," which I found funny since I though the monarchy at that time built Versailles in order to impress people with their wealth and power, all while sucking the life out of French resources. But whatever.

This large staue sits in the center of the front courtyard, I believe it is Louis the XIV, who orginally started the improvements on Versailles. He was known as the "Sun King".

I was attracted to this clock right at the top and center of the front building. In the middle of all this drab stone color, this clock stands out quite brightly, as you can see by the color version of photo. It is really pretty. Notice the sun in the center, which I'm sure is a symbol for the "Sun King".

At ground level near the clock there are several really gold gates, like the one I am standing by here.



We took our tour in stages, touring one wing and then exiting the building to tour another wing. It was too dark in most of the inside rooms to get many really good pictures, but the main thing I can say was it was huge. We took an audiotour with headsets which was nice because it was in our language and we could go at our own pace. The first wing we toured were the King's apartments and the apartments of the Dauphin and Dauphine (princes and princesses basically). It was nice, but after a while it just all seemed the same. There wasn't much in the way of furniture since during the revolution the palace was plundered and most anything of value was stolen. They are in the process of trying to locate the original furniture pieces and bring them back to their rightful home, but it's a long process. Perhaps it was because I was so incredibly tired, but the only thing that really impressed me up to this point was a brief glimpse of the Hall of Mirrors, but even that wasn't as grand as it's meant to be seem because much of it was blocked from view for renovation. After this wing we went back outside to enter another wing, but I can't say I was highly looking forward to it. In fact, I was quite bored and really wanted a nap.

To refresh ourselves we went out into the back to take a walk out on the grounds, which were so huge I nearly died when I saw it. This photo was a feeble attempt on my part to show how extensive the grounds are, but it doesn't do the real thing justice. We would have taken a longer walk around this area but it was incredibly cold that day, probably the coldest day of our whole trip, and we were really just too tired. Reluctantly, we went back to tour another wing, the State Apartments and Queen's Apartments. I wasn't disappointed.

The first thing we saw when we entered this wing was the chapel and it was really marvelous. Where Notre Dame was very dark, this chapel was white and bright, with large windows along the top allowing in the sun. Here you can see the alter on the main floor and the organ on the second floor. There is also a glimpse of the magnificent painted ceiling which was really impressive.

Here is a better view of the ceiling, although I really couldn't get close enough to get all the details. Bascially it's a large painting of God the Father surrounded by the hosts of heaven, or something along those lines. All of the rooms in this wing had fantastic painted ceilings and some rooms had the biggest paintings I had ever seen. To bad I couldn't get any really good pictures, but it was much more interesting then the first wing we toured. This was a good thing, I was beginning to fear I had wasted my money by coming here, but I no longer had this opinion--the money was well spent.



We were also given an oppurtunity to actually walk through the Hall of Mirrors, which was better then just getting a glimpse of it. It's a large hallway with 17 windows along one side and mirrors on the opposite side to reflect all the light. There was also many beautiful chandeliers hanging from the painted ceiling. Too bad half the hallway was blocked off, because it would have been more impressive to see it undisturbed, but I can't have everything.

After touring this second wing we were both nearly dead on our feet and although our ticket allowed us the oppurtunity to see much more of the complex we opted to leave and go back to the hotel to rest. As it was, we were there for half the day and it was enough for both of us. Perhaps this was a waste, but we were both on overload from what we had seen and really couldn't take much more. This picture shows a poster for the Spongebob Squarepants movie in French. We kept seeing it everywhere and it made us laugh so I took this picture to entertain my children who love Spongbob. I love how it says "Bob L'Eponge, le film." We were trying to figure out how the themesong would go in French and nearly died laughing. Remember, we were really tired. We finally made it back to the hotel for some much needed rest.