Visiting Versailles

Today was my last day in Paris!  We had a last few things to see in Paris and then we wanted to go see Versailles, so we had yet again, another busy day!

We started the cool morning (that was a treat as the temperatures in Paris have been quite hot and few places have air conditioning) by walking through the Luxumburg Gardens and looking at the outside of the Palace.

 

 

  

Next we went to one last art museum, the Orsay.   It is full of art from the impression era, including many of Monet, Van Gogh, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, and Degas.  Interesting stuff!

 

Close to the Orsay was a bridge where people put locks on it signifying they were in Paris.  Maggie brought some for us, so we joined in the fun.  I wonder if they will still be there in 20 years?

And then we made our way to one of the most famous sites in Europe, Versailles.  Built during the reign of Louis XIV in the prime of France's political and economic time, it is over-the-top!  It really is undescribable!  I just kept thinking how could anyone come up with this?  The outside carvings and statues.  The inside plated with gold and mural paintings on every surface.  Then there are the gardens that stretch on for acres and acres.  It really was a obnoxious to think that people lived there while much of the rest of France lived in the gutter.

This was also the Palace where Louis XVI and Maria-Antoinette lived and were captured by the French revolutionists.  No wonder the people were calling for revolution.  The upper-crust lived like this and everyone else lived in poverty.

Louis XIV, himself, really was a nut.  He called himself the Sun god and people worshiped him.  However, he had a chapel in the palace that he and his family attended mass at every morning.  People would watch him worship God and would worship Louis while he was worshiping God.  Messed up!  Many of the other rooms in the palace were dedicated to Roman gods.  To say his theology was off is an understatement!
For some reason people didn't describe the King as arrogant, but to build a palace like that and call himself a god...um...I think he had a little pride!

It really was awing to walk through and quite beautiful, but it was a lot much!  I think I read that the cost of it was 1/2 of current day France's annual Gross Domestic Product.  I know I wouldn't want to live there!  Everywhere I looked would be a "hands in your pocket" place!

On another interesting note, the peace treaty ending World War I was signed here.

Here are some pictures of the Chateau de Versailles. 

Statue of Louis XIV

The chapel

The Hall of Mirrors

Portrait of Maria-Antoinette and her children

After a final crepe at the cafe with Bengali workers and a few hours of packing and cramming London and Paris souveneirs into bags that were already too full, it is time for a few minutes of rest.  We say au revoir to Paris early this morning.  Next stop Madrid, Spain.  Then Chicago (back on US soil!).  And finally Kansas City!  I'll sleep in my own bed tomorrow night!