Life lived amongst gold

There has always been one place in France I never really put much stock in seeing. Not that I didn't think Versailles was of importance, but I never really had this huge overwhelming desire to see the chateau. There were others I found much more interesting, like Vaux le Vicomte. You might remember Vaux as being the place that some celebrity had a wedding that lasted a hot minute, but I prefer to think of this place as the testing grounds for the likes of Charles le Brun before being roped into working on Versailles.                        

It's a busy place!

Plans changed though and we ended up on the train to Versailles after discovering getting to Giverny wasn't going to happen. (Think the first Spiderman movie where he said to get to the neighborhood he had to take a train, two buses and a taxi. It's tricky from Paris to Giverny.) I can't say much about the train ride to Versailles as I slept the entire time, both ways. :/ Fail on my part, it was the countryside which according to my dad was beautiful. Fail.

Recently recovered in gold leaf.

 As you can see it was another one of those steely gray days. Nice and overcast with some humidity going on that wasn't great. And the chateau isn't air conditioned so that wasn't so much awesome either. You'd get hot then cold then hot then... you get the drift. You can also see it's a busy place. Even in September when we went it was still busy. The queue to get the tickets wasn't too bad and I will say they had a free public facility so that was nice at least. 

Front courtyard where you entered.

 There are some interesting nooks and crannies of the chateau. I spent much of my time inside wandering through. I figured I was there I might as well enjoy it and see as much as possible. Big mistake. I needed about a month or two to really see everything. I have so many pictures from here. And there are some really surprising details, like an entire chapel being inside. It's massive too. You can barely make out all the detail on the organ in the back. You don't get to go inside the chapel, which was a bummer because the ceiling was beautiful.

Chapel inside Versailles. Yes an entire chapel. 

 There were two courtyards on the backside you can see from some of the windows. They actually opened the windows on the second floor (or maybe the third floor) to allow for some air flow. We were there in September so there were still some flowers blooming.

Gardens from inside the house.

Say what you will but Louis XIV had a healthy ego. No worries about self esteem issues here. His likeness is all over the place. Hard to escape him.

He had a healthy ego.

Everything was dripping in gold. Seriously all the ceilings were like the ones above. And the walls were just as ornate. Obviously you can't really touch them, but to stand so close to them was incredible. The amount of money put into Versailles is astounding and when you see it in person you really know where it all went- gold.

Ceiling in one of the rooms. I'm thinking of doing this to my apartment.

 There are a few interior courtyards. To think people used to walk to and fro here is kind of mind boggling. I couldn't quite wrap my head around living in a place this big. Although when you're fighting with someone it would be handy because well you don't have to leave to not see them!

One of the several interior courtyards.

I finally made my way outside. We had separated since we all had different interests. You can rent a golf cart to drive around the grounds. I was tempted, but alas I wasn't going to spend the euros on a golf cart and miss something. Hind sight I should had because I missed seeing the gardens.

Backside of the chateau leading to the gardens.

This is the view from the top of the stairs. I was bowled over by the sheer size of this place. You think you understand it when you read about Versailles and when you see some pictures, but it is astounding to stand at the top of the stairs and look out and still not see half of the place. It's amazing. I was only able to cover a small portion. If you walk down towards the first fountain and turn right you go into an entirely different section. It was incredible.

That's all water out there and leads to the more extensive gardens.

After seeing Versailles my opinions changed. I would go back again in a heartbeat to see some of the places I missed. There are so many different facets to the entire place and the town is equally interesting. If you ever find yourself in France it's worth the visit to see Versailles.