Versailles

Yesterday we went to the chateau at Versailles, which is where some of the King Louis' lived, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. They were living there during the French Revolution when the people (do you hear them singing the songs of angry men?) came and took them to Paris to the guillotine.  Quite historical and fun to see. 

The palace was HUGE  and ornate. We figured if we were peasants living on the slums of the street, we would be upset too that the King lived in such a place.  

Brannan taking a royal rest. How natural!

One unfortunate thing was that there were some modern art pieces on display there for some reason. So you’re walking along looking at 17^th century décor, and BAM here’s some weird modern art taking up the whole corner of the room. Very strange.

This one was called "Mary Poppins" (?)

This was the queen's bedroom, with some strange modern art next to it. And an Asian guy who photo-bombed us.

These shoes were made out of pots and lids. I don't know why.

This was a black heart hanging from the ceiling.

Louis XIV was the one that built the place, and you could see that he loved himself a little bit. He called himself the Sun King because everything he did was like the sun; warming it and bringing it light. My favorite thing was the chapel which is where you go to church, right? Well in this chapel, the king would come out and the people would bow and praise him. They had some painting of Jesus on the ceiling that gave a minor acknowledgement to that “other” God.   

He was also a merry fellow and loved games and parties. In the most famous painting of him, he had the artist show off his “dancing legs” because he was such a good dancer. 

Woo woo! Nice stems!

A sculpture done by Bernini, with the wind blowing in the King's hair

The Hall of Mirrors was also a good example of his vanity. Back in the day, mirrors and windows were very hard to make and hardly anyone had them. But the king built a whole hallway of windows on one side and mirrors on the other side and people were pretty astonished when they came in. It was very beautiful, even today, so I can only imagine how mind-boggling it was back then.

One thing we found astounding was that everything the king and queen did was public. They had a royal ceremony for getting out of bed in the morning, as well as getting dressed, going to sleep, eating, etc. They even gave birth in front of the public so that the royal bloodline could be verified.  I think it would drive me nuts.

The king's bedroom. The railing sectioned off the on-lookers

Seems they would get tired of the chateau sometimes, because in the gardens they built a home away from home; a palace away from palace. It was smaller, but still huge and ornate, and they could go there to get away from it all, I guess.  The king built it for his wife, and it was all pink marble. We named it the Pink Palace. 

This room was very 1970's yellow. Money can't buy good taste.

The best little gem was what we discovered at the edge of the gardens. Apparently Marie Antoinette dreamed of being a peasant instead of a queen, because she had her very own fairy tale peasant village. It even had a working farm and dairy and mill. She had her own house out there that she would go stay in, called the Hamlet.  

Thatch roof and all

Field trip! These kids were set free to harass the goats.

Almost got it, frenchies. Almost.

Fine swine!

The whole place felt like the English countryside, and that any moment, a Jane Austin character would walk down the lane to bid us good morning.

And then there were the fish who had the easiest life on the planet. Nothing to chase them, and apparently every visitor fed them, and they expected it.

Sorry Brannan, I don't have any bread crumbs for you either.

There wasn't even food in the vicinity! They just saw us standing up there and came over with mouths open. I've never seen fish do that.

Marie Antoinette also had built a few gazebo type buildings that they could host garden parties in, and she had a puppet house where they could put on puppet shows for an audience.  If you’re the queen, you can do whatever you want.

This was a fake mountain, so their guests could feel like they were in the Alps or something.

The gardens were enormous and immaculate. All the tree-lined paths were trimmed so all the trees were square. We even read that one of the Louis’ had them change the flowers in the beds daily outside his window so that he could have something new to smell every day. Unfortunately, the minute we walked outside to go walk around the gardens, it started pouring. Thankfully it only lasted about 15 minutes, but it was pretty wet and cold. 

It was wet, but at least Melanie had a good attitude and didn't complain at all.

Then the sun came out, and we got to walk around the beautiful gardens. 

I think I hear angels singing.

The gardens go back as far as you can see.

This cat came out to enjoy some sunshine too. I tried to say hello, but he only spoke French.

 

There were many beautiful fountains and statues. They only turn the fountains on over the weekends, so they weren’t on when we went, but you can imagine how beautiful they would be. They were mostly Greek Gods or some type of myth. 

I ripped this one off the internet. It's the same fountain as the one above, but shows what it's like when it's turned on.

Here's another one that's the same as the picture above it, with the water on.

Such a beautiful place! We certainly didn't anticipate how enormous the place was, and were dismally unprepared in the snack department, but still enjoyed the day seeing how royalty lived.