THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES

Thursday, April 30, 2009 (picture of bridge in the Trianon Gardens)
Today we had planned to visit Fontainebleau but this morning Martha said, lets go to see the Palace of Versailles instead of waiting till we are in Paris, as then we will have to take the train out for a day trip…. So as we are being flexible off we went in the morning traffic to find Versailles….. a big problem was that we were driving due East with the sun in our eyes… this made all road signs impossible to read… we were lucky that we did get on the A11 ( pay highway) but then, a short time later, decided to get off on the N10 and that was a big mistake as it was bumper to bumper slow going. We drove a total of 70 miles from Chartres to Versailles and it took us 3 hours….

Was it worth it… you bet… the Palace of Versailles is just as beautiful as the history books say……... King Louis XIIIs former hunting lodge was transformed by his son, Louis XIV, who installed his court and government in Versailles. From here, the sun god as he liked to be called because he gave life and warmth to all he touched, ruled the French people for 70 years. The town that was built around the Palace bears witness to this rich period of French History. Versailles is linked to Marie-Antoinette, Queen to Louis XVI, as she was the only queen who imposed her personal tastes on Versailles. In the Trianon estate given to her she set up a small French hamlet that allowed her to escape from the court etiquette and enjoy life among the commoners who lived and worked for her in the twelve houses, with thatched roofs, that she had built. She included a pond, with a swan, and small little streams with bridges. One of these is in the picture that I have put at the top of this blog.

We spent 4 ½ hours wandering from room to room enjoying all the fancy 18th century furnishings that abound in this Palace. I can not image what the crowds would be like during the summer months as it was very full today and sometimes we had trouble getting up to the rope to see what was in the rooms. Of course, the best was the Hall of Mirrors …we had fun taking our pictures in the reflections of the mirrors…. we both enjoyed the famous Bernini bust of a young Louis XIV.

After seeing all the rooms in the Palace we went out to the gardens and took the little train out to see the petite hamlet built by Marie Antoinette. The train did not go all the way but dropped us off at the edge of the Trianon Estates where we had a very pretty walk back through the woods to find these houses.

Leaving Versailles we traveled toward Fontainebleau, our original destination for today. We knew that it would be too late to entered this Chateau but thought we’d at least see where it was on our way to find our Formule One for the night…. Yes, we got turned around…. We had noticed a group of people who looked like they were holding a meeting in a field… soon we saw another group of people doing the same thing….as we drove by I said, “Martha, that’s the same people we saw earlier”. I had remembered a lady in a long black coat… we had gone through a detour….got turned around… and had driven about 20 miles in the wrong direction…. It took us nearly 3 hours to drive the
128 miles to our hotel….Martha said “today I have driven from LA to San Francisco”we were both tired by the time we got settled in for the night. At one point I even suggested that maybe I should drive so she could read the map………but all well that ends well and as usual we find our way……….tomorrows another day.