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| Palace of Versailles |
It's a quick 3 hour train ride from Stuttgart to Paris. We left Stuttgart around 0700 and by 1000 we were in Paris. Paris has four main train stations and we arrived at Gard 'Est. Before getting onto the subway, we stopped in the tourist information office and bought a Paris Pass, which came in very handy during the visit and definitely saved us some money.
After finding our hotel, and dropping our bags off, we were on our way to Versailles. Versailles is about 30 minutes outside of the city and you can reach it on the regional/commuter trains. Fortunately we had a train stop just a couple blocks away from our hotel.
We'd decided to go to Versailles on our first day, hoping the crowds wouldn't be as bad on a weekday. We also wanted to leave Saturday and Sunday open for sightseeing in the city. Despite our hopes, it was very crowded inside the palace. Although it wasn't as bad outside. I imagine it's crowded all the time. Versailles has nearly 15 million visitors a year so that probably translates into big crowds ALL the time.
You could easily spend a whole day at Versailles. It might have been better to give ourselves more time but I'm just glad we made it out there. There is a lot of walking involved but when you explore the grounds it is possible to rent a bike or ride a tram. We ended up walking but we didn't do nearly as much exploring as we could have. By the end of the day we were definitely tired!
Versailles began as the old brick and stone chateau of Louis XIII. It was later transformed and greatly enlarged by his son Louis XIV. He installed the Court and the Seat of Government here in 1682. So basically he never had to leave. All the State's business could be done from Versailles. During the French Revolution, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were snatched from Versailles by an angry mob on October 5, 1789 and later killed in Paris. Versailles was later opened as a museum 'for the people of France' in 1837.
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| As many as 5,000 nobles could be visiting at any given time, plus entourages. |
You can sign up for guided tours of the palace but the tours were all full by the time we got there. They do provide a free audio guide that you can listen to as you walk through the various rooms and wings. We were able to see the King's and Queen's State Apartments. One of the first rooms you get to see is the Royal Chapel. Mom forgot to get her camera out of her bag, which we had left at the hotel, so I did my best to capture our visit to Versailles.
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| Royal Chapel where Mass was held daily at 10 a.m. |
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| View from upstairs |
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| Sculpture-lined hall |
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| The War Room |
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| The Hall of Mirrors |
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| Queen's Bedchamber - Looks as it did when Marie-Antoinette was queen |
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| Louis XIV bust in the Diana Room (billiards room) |
The Grand Trianon was the king's private residence away from the palace.
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| The Grand Trianon |
Louis XV had the Petit Trianon built but it's famous for being given to Marie-Antoinette by Louis XVI. She retreated often to the Petit Trianon. She was from Vienna and often felt like an outsider.
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| Petit Trianon |
Versailles was laid out along an eight-mile axis that includes the grounds, the palace and the town of Versailles. The town has obviously grown since then.
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| The Orangerie |
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| Back of Versailles |
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| View down the Royal Drive and looking towards the Grand Canal |
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| Of the original 1,500 fountains, 300 remain. |
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| The fountains are gravity-powered |
I'll do another blog about Paris soon. In just four days, we walked nearly 30 miles and visited many of the major sites (Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Orsay Museum, Arc de Triomphe, Rodin Museum, Sacre-Coeur Basilica and Notre Dame). We also visited Paris's Holocaust Museum, which I became interested in seeing after reading and watching the movie,
Sarah's Key. Definitely recommend it if you haven't seen or read it before. Pretty powerful and sheds light on what happened to Jews living in Paris and France during the German occupation during World War Two. The museum is very good.
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