The Palace is located in the suburb of Versailles, about 20 kilometers southwest of Paris. The Palace itself began as a small (relative to its current size) hunting lodge for King Louis XIII in 1624. When Louis XIV came to power, he took a great interest in this lodge. Starting in 1669, he began a major expansion project that would turn it into one of the largest palaces in the world. The court officially moved to the Palace in 1682.
This is part of the original chateau before it was enlarged by Louis XIV. The expansion was seen as a symbol of the monarch's absolute power. It became the center of all power in France, and housed all of the government offices. It allowed Louis to keep close watch on the nobility, as he required many of the nobles to spend a significant part of the year at Versailles. This prevented them from gaining too much regional loyalty that would threaten Louis' scheme of centralizing power.
The chapel is one of the first things you see when you go through the visitor's entrance. There was such a crowd around the doorway on the first floor you could barely see in. This picture was taken from the second floor where there were less people and you could get a better view. The organ was playing and filled the adjacent hallways with music.
Even the smallest details of the Palace are interesting, with the most insignificant features being incredibly ornate. This is a window latch on the second floor. If you click on the photo and enlarge it you will see how amazing the detail is for an object with such a simple function as latching a window.
The Hall of Mirrors is one of the most famous rooms in the world. It serves as the central gallery of the Palace and is lined with an impressive array of chandeliers and mirrored arches. In addition, on each side are sculpted "gueridons" that are gilded and support additional light fixtures. The ones here were made to replace the originals that had been solid silver. Louis XIV had them melted down in 1689 to pay for a war.
Connecting two sets of state apartments, this space was well used by the king. Louis walked through it everyday as he made his way from his private apartment to the chapel. Mirrors were one of the most expensive things you could own in the 17th century because the art of glass making was just starting to allow large clear pains to be produced. What better way to show off your wealth than filling an entire room with them! Each arch along the wall holds 21 mirrors. This room would have been much more impressive when it was lit by candles, with the hundreds of flickering flames being reflected in the mirrors to dazzle anyone walking through.
The Hall of Mirrors, like many other rooms in the Palace, has an impressive painted and gilded ceiling. Below is a collection of pictures from several other rooms in the Palace with painted, carved, and sculpted ceilings. They are truly remarkable.
This is another one of the Palace's large halls. On the walls are huge paintings of battles - presumably French victories. The scale of these works is immense, and as you look at the picture you can see that the room continues on for quite a way. One can only imagine how long it must have taken to complete all of the paintings in this room.
Throughout its history, the Palace has seen many renovation and restoration projects. The most recent restoration effort began in 2003 and is called the "Grand Versailles". It will continue for the next 17 years, and has a government endowment of 135 million euros for the first seven years. One of the visible parts of the renovation that we saw was the application of new gilding along the roof of the building. In the picture above, you can see the difference it makes on the left hand side of the roof. The section opposite this (behind where I was standing) is covered in scaffolding as they work on that side.
The gardens of Versailles are just as impressive as the Palace itself. They are massive. Just to give you an idea, there are 200 thousand trees, 210 thousand flowers planted each year, 50 fountains, and 620 water jets.
There are two large reflecting pools that are immediately behind the central portion of the Palace. There are large gardens on either side, and a large section that is on a lower elevation beyond the pools.
This is the view from when you reach the end of reflecting pools. Unfortunately, we were on a time crunch and had only a little over 2 hours to see the Palace, the gardens, and to get something to eat for lunch. This was as far as we got, but still it was a great view.
Here is the view looking back the other way toward the Palace, with the reflecting pools in the foreground. This gives you a good idea of how huge this place is - especially considering that you still can't see either end! From here we walked back through and out the front entrance to go search for some food in town.
By the time we exited the Palace and crossed the parking lot to the large street, we had about 20-25 minutes to get lunch. As much as we hated the idea, Norman had told us that there was a McDonald's two blocks down and to the left. Given that Jessica and I don't know French at all, we decided that would be the fastest and easiest way to go. As it turned out, someone there spoke a little English and understood our order of two chicken sandwiches. We had ten minutes to make it back to the bus, and I snapped this picture on the way.
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