After two lovely days at sea we’ve sailed up the river Seine in the early hours of this Sunday morning and I will shortly be on my way to visit Versailles. I’ve never been there and it entails a long bus ride, but I’m told it’s worth going.
The ship was cleared and we boarded our bus for the one-and-a-half-hour ride to Versailles. Strangely (at least I think so) our guide is a Japanese man named Shota Suzuki, who happens to have a very pronounced Japanese accent. He came to France 25 years ago to study history and he knows his stuff, but he still sounds like he just came from Tokyo.
As we rode along the countryside we passed through lots of fields of canola. I remember seeing these when I’ve been here and driving through some of the English countryside too. Since olive trees don’t grow in this part of the country, I guess canola oil is used instead.
 |
| It's boring I know, but that golden field in the back is canola and we passed hundreds just like it. |
Versailles, as I’m sure everyone knows, is the former royal residence located a little more than 10 miles west of Paris. During the reign of King Louis XIII in the first quarter of the 17th century it was built as a hunting lodge. It wasn’t until his son Louis XIV, the Sun King, that Versailles became the marvel that it is today. Louis XIV became king of France at the age of 4. His father Louis XIII had stipulated in his will that a regency council govern in his son’s stead until he reached the age of majority. XIV’s mother, Queen Anne (good name!) with whom he was very close, had the will annulled by the Parlément of France and she became the sole regent. She appointed Cardinal Mazarin as Chief Minister to take care of day-to-day policy and it was he who was Louis XIV’s chief advisor and mentor on affairs of state until he reached the age of majority and until Mazarin died in 1661. That is a very oversimplified and abbreviated history of one of the most important of France’s monarchs.
Louis XIV began the expansion of the hunting château to a palace in 1661. It went through several phases of expansion between then and 1715. In 1682 the King made Versailles his principal residence making it the de facto capital of France. It remained as the seat of both the court and government through the reign of Louis XV. It wasn’t until the onset of the French Revolution in 1789 that the ill-fated King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette moved back to Paris. The palace at Versailles was sacked and remained empty and abandoned for the remainder of the Revolution. In fact, even now many of the rooms are devoid of furniture. Napoleon considered making his residence the palace at Versailles, but he abandoned that idea because of the cost to renovate it. In the 1920’s John D. Rockefeller contributed the equivalent of about $40 million dollars to restore the palace. He was also the benefactor of Colonial Williamsburg in my hometown.
Versailles played a little part in our American history. In 1783 Versailles was the site of the signing of two of the three Treaties of Paris which ended our Revolutionary War. The American delegates signed one treaty in the city of Paris itself, but Spain and France signed separate treaties formally ending the war in September 1783 in Versailles. In June 1919 after six months of negotiations the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles was the site of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles ending the First World War.
Upon our arrival in Versailles the first order of business was to feed us at a local restaurant almost next door to the palace. Heaven knows on cruise ships they have to make sure we’re never hungry! We had an interesting lunch that consisted of a first course that was like salmon sushi followed by a boeuf bourguignon, and finally a tart tatin. It was all tasty, but an odd assortment.
 |
| The restaurant where we had our eclectic lunch |
We proceeded to walk to the palace then. I can attest to the fact that cobblestones are not good for knees that have been replaced. It was a beautiful Sunday so there were throngs of visitors to see the place. There were queues everywhere and it was hard making sure we were following the right person. We had a time slot to enter the building and we finally proceeded through metal detectors to enter the huge building. Unfortunately Louis lived before Mr. Otis invented the elevator so I walked up and down more steps than I have in ages. We passed through the royal chapel, reception rooms, waiting rooms, and others whose purpose I can’t remember. As I mentioned earlier most of those had little or no furniture in them. Instead the walls were covered with paintings in many gilt frames and the ceilings were full of frescoes. From what our guide told us many of the paintings involved Greek and Roman gods and often included portrayals of a member of the royal family as one of those gods. I tried taking photos but there were so many people around that most of them include lots of people’s heads and I rarely could get a clean shot.
 |
| Thegate before the main gate. Clearly Louis XIV liked gold because everything is covered with gilt or made of gold. |
 |
| This is part of the inner fence also all gilded |
One room in the Petit Appartement du Roi (the little apartment of the king as opposed to the big one – everyone needs more than one!) is called the Salon de la Pendule. It houses one of the more interesting items of furnishings in the palace, the Passemant Astronomical Clock. This is a very ornate rococo style clock standing more than 6 feet tall. It’s encased in what I assume must be a bulletproof case. It was presented to Louis XV in the mid-18th century who clearly prized it enough that he placed it in its own room and named the room after the clock.
 |
| The famous clock |
 |
| These are some of the rooms we walked through which were reception and waiting rooms, all splendidly decorated |
 |
| Apparently Louis XIV was captivated by Caesar and Roman gods and this is a likeness of him decked out like one |
We were unable to see the king’s apartments because some of the rooms were closed for renovation. We did pass through the Hall of Mirrors which is quite spectacular. The room is about 240 feet long by 35 feet wide. On one side are 17 large windows facing toward the gardens. On the opposing wall are 17 equally large mirrors composed of more than 350 mirrored surfaces. In front of the windows and mirrors are gilt torcheres, classical statues holding what are now crystal electrified candelabra and which would have of course been holding candles. The ceiling and walls are decorated with paintings depicting different events during the reign of Louis XIV. We had a few minutes to walk through a room that would probably take days or weeks to appreciate, and we were accompanied by hordes of other visitors. It was overwhelming. Upon leaving the Hall of Mirrors we walked through the Queen’s apartments. Again these are richly appointed with lots of gilt and painting, but not too much furniture. The one painting that stood out to me was a family portrait of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette with their two children. The family lived at Versailles and after the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 they were eventually in October forced to move to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Versailles was ransacked after that.
 |
| The Hall of Mirrors. Sorry the photos aren't better but there were just too many people there. |
The Queen’s apartment was the last of the room s that we saw. Our guide then gave us free time to visit the gardens. I was tired and my one knee was killing me so I returned to the bus. I had to walk across the large cobblestone courtyard and car park. My travel companions who did go in the garden said it wasn’t really very spectacular because nothing was really blooming yet. Once everyone returned we headed back to Rouen after a very long day.
 |
| The Queen's bedroom |
 |
| The family portrait of the ill-fated monarchs |
I have some impressions of what I saw. While the scale of Versailles is definitely impressive, I think I’ve seen some palaces I liked better. I thought the Winter Palace and Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg were more beautiful. A couple of King Ludwig’s in Bavaria are more romantic. Or maybe I was just tired and things in my memory always seem grander. Anyway, I was glad I went and finally saw Versailles.
I’ll write about my second day in Rouen in my next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment