Twelves miles west of Paris, lies one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world with 15M+ visitors annually. In 1623, Louis XIII, King of France, built a hunting lodge on a hill in a favorite hunting ground. His son, Louis XIV transformed and extended the buildings when he installed the Court and Government in 1682. A succession of Kings continued to embellish the Palace up until the French Revolution. Today, the Palace contains over 2300+ rooms. There will be a few more historical nuggets further along in this post, but let’s get there!
It’s not just a stop on the Metro, but requires getting a separate train ticket to the city of Versailles.
Before going inside the Versailles gates, we had one business to attend to – breakfast! Just past the Palace, we found a small bistro that fit our needs, but…………….not before walking past this. Ironically, my photo always catches the back part of an animal.
Regardless, we found our spot and grabbed a variety of breakfast options between all of us. Adrienne loved her salmon salad.
Two statues are at the gates of Versailles, one of which is Louis XIV (on the right).
The gates are golden in honor of Louis XIV, the Sun King.
Connor and I were able to grab a shot while the other two were wandering around.
We eventually all connected up in time for our tour.
Tour? Did I mention we booked a tour? Why, yes. A number of years ago was when we first found out about an English-speaking tour – which allowed you to skip the long line – we jumped at the chance. For an additional 10 euro, after you purchased an entrance ticket, you skipped the (loooooong) entrance line, went through another security checkpoint (BTW – they stopped school groups and let us go first) AND got access to parts of Versailles that was not available, except with a tour guide. Sign us up! Which we did prior to arriving. 🙂
One of the first ‘special’ things we saw was this last remnant of this being a hunting lodge. It’s located within an inner courtyard.
The elegance, the details and the opulence of everything we saw was almost beyond comprehension.
And then you come across a multitude of paintings.
One of the rooms held porcelain pieces from the various centuries and various Kings.
While I’ve seen this a number of other places, always love the doors that are hidden and part of the wall. We had come through the doorway on the left.
A lot of the furniture and furnishings were auctioned off, destroyed, carted away and no doubt sitting in private homes after the French Revolution. The foundation have actively sought out original furnishings, spending a great deal of euros to bring it back. Below was a desk used by Louis XIV.
One amazing thing we saw was the recently refurbished Opera House. This was definitely one of those ‘wow’ moments when you walked into the room.
Inaugurated in 1770 during the reign of Louis XV, it was at the time the largest concert hall in Europe. It hosted celebrations, shows and parliamentary debates.
It was an amazing room. Although it survived the French Revolutions (however, everything was stripped), it was nearly in ruins at the end of the Second World War.
I tried to get us all in one photo, but alas, it was impossible.
It was at this point we left the tour and joined the masses as they walked through the reminder of Versailles. Our last destination…….the Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace.
The length of the Hall of Mirrors pays tribute to the political, economic and artistic success of France. 357 mirrors bedeck the 17 arches opposite the windows, demonstrating the French could rival the Venetian monopoly on mirror manufacturing.
It was here the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919 ending the First World. We finished the tour and headed back to Paris.
But wait – what about the gardens and fountains? Here’s a quick photo.
I’ll let you pick the reason we didn’t walk through them.
~we were ready to head back to Paris.
~we had already put in a number of steps and didn’t want more.
~our pre-purchased tickets didn’t include the gardens.
If I’m entirely truthful, it’s a little bit of all of those, but mostly the last one. 😦
Ginny
Darden Travels 