Today marked the end of our time in Normandy as we headed towards Paris, with a stop at the Palace of Versailles.
The Palace of Versailles started as a hunting lodge outside Paris, built in 1623 by King Louis XIII. In 1631 it was replaced with a château. The King did not allow his queen to stay at Versailles, so when he died and she became regent the château was abandoned. When Louis XIV reached adulthood he had Versailles expanded into a palace, becoming the de-faco capital of France.
Versailles was the site of the signing of the end of the American Revolutionary War (1783), marking independence for America.
In 1789 when the Bastille was stormed the peasants besieged the Palace and forced the King and Queen to return to Paris. The paintings and art work were transferred to the Louvre and the Palace was sold. King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were executed in Paris, ending the Ancien Régime.
Napoleon made the Palace, particularly the Trianon, his summer residence. In 1830, the new monarch, King Louis-Philippe, converted the Palace into a museum.
The estate is made up of several parts - the Palace, the Gardens and the Trianon.
We had purchased a 'passport' ticket allowing us access to all areas, with a timed entry to the Palace.
We ended up parking inside the estate near the Trianon. We had about an hour until our timed Palace tour, so we took the shortest path, through the gardens.
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| Heading down the road from Trianon to the Gardens |
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| Apollo's Fountain |
We they walked up the Royale Alley, past the statues of the Gods, towards the rear of the Palace:
At the end of the alley was Latona's Fountain. Built in 1670 and showing Latona and her children, the fountain tells the story of how the Lycian peasants were turned to amphibians after they prevented the Goddess Latona as well as her children Apollo and Diana from drinking.
I had printed out a full guided walk through the Gardens which explained each area, but we didn't have the time so agreed to do it after the Palace. We stopped at the top of the rise behind the Palace to snap some photos looking back over the Gardens, and then headed around to the Palace entry.
We had to exit the Gardens to head to the side of the Palace ready for our entrance. Once we were in the line and just about to enter, Kristine realised she had left her purse on the dashboard of the car - not good in such a busy place. We didn't have time to run back, so we crossed our fingers and started our tour of the Palace:
Our first area was the Lower Gallery:
From there we walked through The Mesdames’ Apartments (formerly housing the Daughters Of Louis XV):
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| Chambers of Marie-Antoinette |
We then headed into the second entrance and into the Eastern Wing:
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| Apollo Served by the Nymphs |
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| Horses of the Sun Drinking |
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| Horses of the Sun Grounded by Tritons |
We then looked in on the lower level of the Grand Chapel:
and continued down the Galley of the History of the Palace:
From here we headed upstairs into the most impressive (and crowded part of the Palace), starting with Louis XV Rooms:
From here we also had the view into the upper level of the Chapel and its impressive roof:
We continued through the rooms towards the Grand Apartments - the Hall of Mirrors and the King's Chamber:
This ended in the very impressive Hall of Mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed:
We then passed through the Royal Chambers on our way to the Hall of Battles:
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| Hall of Battles |
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| Something missing? |
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| None Shall Pass! |
After finishing up at the Palace we rushed back through the Gardens to the car to recover Kristine's purse, stopping only for a few pics:
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| This guy was getting his butt eaten by a lion |
Luckily Kristine's purse was still where we left it, so we took a break at the car and ate some lunch and then headed back to explore the Gardens. Unfortunately when we arrived our tickets didn't beep to allow us back in, so we were sent to a different gate across the main area. Again our tickets failed to let us in - turns out that the "Passport - explore the whole estate at your own pace" ticket only let us into the Garden twice and since we'd passed through twice we were not allowed back in. This wasn't clear on the ticket so we were a little annoyed that we had missed the Gardens. We had the option to buy another ticket, but instead decided to go and check out the Trianon.
The Trianon was a smaller Palace built to allow the royals an area around from the bustle of the royal courts. It consisted of the Grand and Petit Trianon as well as the Queen's Hamlet. It was getting late and we were getting tired so we only visited the Grand Trianon:
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| Fossils in the Palace steps |
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| We labelled this the puke room |
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| The Malachite Room |
After finishing up, we headed to our new apartment in the south of Paris. The drive was going to be 15min, but unfortunately we took a wrong turn and ended up in a tunnel under Paris. It cost a 14 euro toll and after about 20min we ended up back at Versailles.
We eventually arrived at the apartment and it was great - spacious and comfortable - so we settled in for the night before heading into Paris tomorrow.
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