For our third day in Paris, we got out of the city and took the train to Versailles. It was great to see the countryside, even though it was quite overcast. The walk from the train station to the chateau was nice as we got to see a bit of the village and some of the cool buildings that used to house other government official. Overall, it’s difficult to describe Versailles to someone who has never been. The tremendous scale of the buildings, rooms, decor, gardens, and overall estate are quite overwhelming, and most of the time it is hard to wrap your mind around the fact that someone actually lived this way (and at what expense to the common folk?)
The gilding was amazing and after looking at my dad’s (Lynne) photos from 2005 it looks very different. They did a renovation of the exterior and the Louis XIV statue was even moved forward hundreds of feet to reside farther from the entrance gate.
The hall of mirrors was incredible to see but we also loved the hall with all the war paintings that document French military history. It felt very similar to the grand hall in The Louvre (which we visited later in the week).
During the first half of the trip the weather was cool and then it really heated up. As we entered the garden it started to mist and continued to rain on and off while we walk around. The gardens are typically free unless they are having a fountain show. The word “show” should be used very loosely as it really just means that they turn the fountains on! Since everyone had paid for the show, hundreds of people sat around the fountains and waited. The fountains turned on and it was impressive but we all kept looking at each other and waiting for something else to happen. There had to be some lights or maybe even fountains synchronized with music, right? No, but in the end, I am glad to say that we at least saw the fountains in their full glory.
This was an interesting aspect of the chateau. There were many rooms that had small doors near the ceiling where musicians could play for the evenings entertainment, especially when the king and queen had apartment parties (the meaning being very different from what we consider “apartments” and “parties,” of course!). It would have been amazing to see all the inner-workings of the chateau, with the numerous passageways and hidden doors…maybe after our coronation, right?
A couple miles walk from the chateau, through the beautiful gardens, and you arrive at some of the other buildings utilized by the king and his family. The Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon basically served as little vacation palaces that were apparently far enough away from the chateau for some peace and quite. This is also where Marie Antoinette had her little getaway village built (Hameau de la reine), which surprised us by being the highlight of the day. By the time we made it this deep into the grounds it was raining pretty hard. We were the farthest from the main house we had been and soaking wet, but we were determined to see this area before everything closed for the evening. Fortunately we were able to find shelter under some parts of these picturesque buildings, and Kirk braved the rain with our amazing camera. With his jacket (drenched, of course) draped over his head and a couple feet in front of his body (leaving his back exposed to the weather), he was able to protect the camera while running around in the mud to get some great photos of the buildings. Of course, our camera is so awesome that you can’t even tell it’s raining hard! But if you look at the pond in the last picture you can see the splashing drops. I think he rattled off about fifty good pictures in five minutes, and then we waited for the rain to let up a little before making the long walk back to the chateau.
After we got back to Paris, we went for a walk just north of St. Germain on some cute little streets were there were a lot of restaurant options. Tired, and a bit wet from the rain, we were looking for a quiet place to relax. We stumbled upon Vins et Terroirs on Rue St. Andre des Arts, and we couldn’t have been happier. We enjoyed some fantastic house wine, a Roquefort ravioli that was so rich and delicious, and a pork dish with apples. I could eat the ravioli everyday, and such a fantastic meal was the perfect end to the night.
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