Château de Versailles

Went on a day tour today to the Versailles Palace and grounds and what’s different with this tour is we didn’t do it on foot but did it on bikes.

It was a bit uncomfortable at first since I have not been on a push bike for maybe a decade. But as the saying goes, you never forget these things. So after a bit of adventurous riding through the streets and traffic of Paris, we got on a train to Versailles and once there, we’re off! It is a place for bike tours not only because of the scenery but also because the place is HUGE, you will never finish it in a day if you are not on a bike or some fast moving vehicle. In fact you can hire Segways and golf carts to go around as well. But the tour we paid for is guided and we were led by an American guy nicknamed “Curly Top” (only because I couldn’t remember his name) who is quite passionate about the history of France and Versailles. He is also very pro-Marie Antoinette.

It was just outside Marie Antoinette’s living area (above) where “Curly “ told us a little about Versailles’ history and he summed it up in a single sentence which I think will stick with me for a while. He said “Louis XIV built it all, Louis XV enjoyed it all, and Louis XIV paid for it all (with his life)”. He also defended Marie Antoinette as she is often seen by historians as an unkind and selfish person (watch the movie Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst).

After a short picnic lunch, we rode to the front of the grounds to the palace. Man my legs were burning after two uphill stretches. The hills weren’t very steep but my legs weren’t used to it. Our group was lucky because the palace wasn’t very crowded.

If you think the outside of the palace looks amazing, the inside is even better. Louis XIV sure knows how to build them. There are paintings and sculptures everywhere - on the ceiling and big ones on the walls.

The best room in the whole palace is the Hall of Mirrors built for big parties. In fact apart from the bed rooms, all the other rooms were built for parties of different sizes.

Below is the bedroom of Marie Antoinette. The bed is a bit high I thought but that’s the way they like it. Every detail of the paintings, design and sculpture around the bed has some sort of meaning. Too much to absorb I’m afraid…I’ll just wiki it later…

Outside the palace you have the gardens and the view of the canal (where we had our picnic earlier). The only thing we missed is seeing the fountains working.