Today we set off on the train to Versailles, which is now a suburb of Paris, about 22km to the south west. The town itself is called Ville de Versailles and is a very handsome town with many, many substantial buildings like the one below.
Because Louis XIV moved the whole court of France to Versailles, in order to break away from the power of the bishops in Paris, anyone who desired to "have influence" had to live here too. Hence the very fine buildings and all of the services required to support royalty.
A new approach is being built to frame this statue of Louis XIV on horseback. This is a huge open area, paved with very big, deep cobblestones. You can't help but feel sorry for all of those horses over the years. It is certainly broken ankle territory for humans; I don't know what you call a horse's ankle, but I bet these cobbles proved the downfall of more than a few horses as well.
What seems like hundreds of buses park in the area to the right. We walked from the railway station, down a long avenue which culminates in this entry to the palace. The rail service is via very long, double decker trains from Paris that run every 10 minutes. If you were to add up the buses and the double decker trains, I think you'd total a lot of visitors to Versailles.
Maybe we picked a bad day to come. Apparently weekends are bedlam. This is the priority entry queue for pass-holders! There were queues just as long to buy tickets, and then they had to join this queue. One of the things that causes the queues is the Xray scanning and/or physical security checks upon entry to most public buildings. Anyway, after about 30 minutes we were in - although it felt more like 2 hours.
Audio-guides in English were free and very welcome. But because the crowds were so vast, you only got a short look at everything. It was a bit like being herded cattle. Because they want the crowd to keep moving, there is not a lot of commentary on the audio-guide and you have to elbow your way to the front if you want a photo (like I did here). I'm learning to be quite aggressive - but my competition are the Asian people who have mastered the art of getting to the front of any queue, any line, any railing, any group of veiwing chairs, any platform, etc, etc. I guess they've had more practice than me, living in more densely populated areas. Anyway, with elbows out, I managed OK.
My pamphlet says that the Palace of Versaille is on the UNESCO World Heritage register and supports, wait for it, 15 million visitors per year. It felt as though 1 million of them were there today! But if you do the maths , there should only have been 42,000.
Versaille is a royal residence, an history museum and a garden estate. All we saw today was the royal residence section. We may return to look at the gardens and the "delicate, rural world of Marie-Antionette" and at "the Petit Trianon and Grand Trianon of Louis XIV". I'll let you know when I discover what a Trianon is. Could it be a three cornered building, I wonder?
And the photo above? ....... La Chappelle de Versaille..... the royal chapel. Only the minions occupy this ground floor part of the church, the king and the important people are upstairs on the balconies - just like at the opera or the movies.
Glancing out a window as we climbed an internal staircase.
And up we go ...........
...... and we come out at La Chapelle again .... this time on the royal level. You can see the organ and choir stalls at the far end.
This is the room in which the king and queen would wait (or maybe hesitate) while some stressed servants threw open the huge, gold doors so they could glide into La Chapelle.
Of course there was no grand gliding for us, no servants to throw open doors so we could majestically enter or exit. We queued for 5 minutes just to get through this doorway in order to move into the private apartments. This room is entirely marble. I know because I had a full 5 minutes to look at it.
Have you noticed that I have astutely managed to avoid photographing the crowd by only photographing things above crowd head height. Yes, you'd noticed? Good! Because it took some doing.
Have you noticed that I have astutely managed to avoid photographing the crowd by only photographing things above crowd head height. Yes, you'd noticed? Good! Because it took some doing.
The temporary display throughout the apartments is currently themed "Thrones".. .. So when you see a brass edged, glass box with a seat in it, you'll know its a throne. This one had lost its padding.
More marble and better upholstered thrones.
More marble, more gold and a beautiful bust of Louis XIV, aged 25 flanked by two Roman emperors.
Another fine chair, er, sorry ..... throne. And a very large fireplace.
A bit of ceiling detail. Again you'll notice - no crowds!
Louis XIV again, and the wallpaper is silk. Isn't it stunning? It's original.
Another glance out of a window.
This room was both beautiful and amazing. Louis called it the War Room and guess who that is on the horse.
You proceed from the War Room into the Great Hall of Mirrors (with the thrones down the middle). Here you can see the crowds that I managed not to photograph in the preceding pictures.
The Great Hall of Mirrors faces South towards the sun and the vast water garden spreads out beyond. I heard somewhere that Louis held war battles and boat races on that long stretch. The mind boggles ..... how did they get war boats to this place? Paul thinks I'm wrong - that Louis held them at "you know, that place with the tower". Another thing I'll have to research.
Moving down the very long Hall of Mirrors, we see a mobile throne (little joke there!)...
..... and the ceiling ........
.... the king's bed chamber ...... he woke up facing East because he was the "Sun King". "The room was created by Louis XIV in 1701 and was where he lived until his death in 1715. It was in this room that the royal rising and going to sleep ceremonies took place." So says my pamphlet. This guy was a bit over the top!
...... and the queen's bed chamber. Apparently, only the queen was allowed behind the balustrade; makes you think really, because this was a very big room.
The room where the king and queen breakfasted. The little square stools are for the children. It was a huge room. Apparently they ate in public, just as they slept in public.
This is the throne of Napoleon I. Very smart. This is the Crowning Room, dedicated to Napoleon I by king Louis-Phillipe in 1834. Louis-Phillipe realised the room to begin his History of France Museum.
And this fabulously large painting is a copy of the one in the Louvre. It depicts the crowning of the Empress Josephine by Napoleon I at Notre Dame in 1804. He is holding the crown and Josephine is kneeling; the bishop, or is it the pope, having first crowned Napoleon. She is lucky to still be there (in the painting, I mean). Napoleon divorced her several years later and she was "painted out "of many major works of art.
And we leave the royal apartments via what was probably the front door. Amidst black and pink marble we go down these stairs to .......
........ the grand entry hall, where the horses and carriages would have deposited everyone of status at the front door of the palace, which was up the five steps at the left hand side.
Hope we go back..... those Trianon's have me intrigued.
The website is good - choose English from the top right hand corner.
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