Château de Versailles
Augusto and Jacqueline went off to Luxembourg this weekend, but I decided to stay in Paris and check out some of the castles instead. First up was Versailles, which is more of a palace than a castle, but quite impressive nonetheless.
I took the train out to the palace and simply followed the crowd to find the palace. The place is quite large, but the first thing that caught my eye was the glittering golden gates. These looked pretty legit; they weren't just yellowish, but a gleaming gold. I took quite of few shots of the gates from inside and out.
I wandered around the grounds a bit to get a feel for the layout of the place, then decided to start with the palace. I bought a ticket from one of the vending machines and then went inside. You enter through a small building on the left of the gate, just out of the shot in the previous photo.
The courtyard behind that gate is very nice, if not only because you get to look out from behind those golden gates like you own the place. I couldn't resist taking a shot from behind the gates.
The face of the palace is very intricately detailed and trimmed with copious amounts of gold. I also quite liked the smooth stone (maybe marble?) patio immediate in front of the door.
Inside there were plenty of impressive rooms, very much in the same style as other buildings I had visited in Paris like the Louvre. All very ornate with plenty of statues and paintings.
A standout was, of course, the Hall of Mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles to end the Great War was signed. Lots of massive chandliers and plenty of mirrors.
Other interesting places included the king's and queen's bedrooms, but I couldn't imagine sleeping in a place like that. Not my style.
Lastly, my favorite part of the palace. The south wing of the building had been made into a sort of military history museum, with paintings and busts of various generals and kings. The best part, however was the main hall that housed somewhere between 30 and 40 huge painting of various important battles in French history from the 13th through 18th centuries. They were all arranged in chronological order and many had small plaques nearby explaining the situation in each painting. I spent quite a bit of time looking through them all.
Once I was done with the palace itself I still had the vast palace grounds to explore. What essentially amounted to large public park extended from the palace for probably a couple of miles at least, with a huge pond down the middle and various fountains scattered about. I wandered around a bit and decided to check out the other residence on the property: the Grand Trianon.
The Grand Trianon was a smaller residence, but still easily qualifies as a mansion. It was built by one of the old kings, but Napoleon lived there when he was in power. He had originally wanted to live in the palace proper, but was not crazy about the expense associated with doing so.
The building was smaller and more comfortable than the big palace, and as I walked through I decided that it would be the most awesome "grandma and grandpa" house ever. I can just imagine hanging out there as a kid, spending my summer with my grandparents. It even had a massive pool table!
After exploring a few more of the criss-crossing paths that cut across the grounds I decided to head out and grab some food. Versailles certainly did not disappoint.
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