Day 6
Versailles! Another bucket list item for me.
Unfortunetly it was rainy the day we went, and Jason and I opted to not walk in the gardens. That said, we certianly got a great adventure out of just walking the halls with our tour group and seeing how the french royals and nobility lived during this time.
Since we started our trip with a tour of Louis Braille's home, we had a better sense of how the French peasantry lived, and it was certainly not in conditions like what they had in Versailles. Because I had the privilege of seeing that, I had a better appreciation of why the French guillotined those that lived in Versailles.
Approaching the golden gates of Versailles was a longer walk than I would have assumed; and those golden gates are massive. Just beyond them lies the balcony where Marie Antionette addressed the masses when the peasants stormed Versailles.
The feeling of walking up to those gates really helped to place the history of what happened here during the French revolution.
Arriving inside the palace I was immediately awestruck at all the frescos adorning the ceilings, as well as their classical themes. Here we se Hercules meeting the bride that was promised to him by Zeus/Jupiter on mt Olympus.
Every room was named for various roman/greek gods. ​
One of the highlights was seeing the royal bedrooms. The kings and queens lived 'separate' lives, in that they had their own bedrooms.
The rooms were so ornate and I imagine were a bit overstimulating, even back then, in terms of how much was going on visually.
Especially after seeing the modest bedrooms of the Braille family, seeing the royal bedrooms in their full splendor made me think to myself, ok, I understand why the people of France worked to overthrow all this. ​
The hall of mirrors took my breath away. The mirrors reflected light around the room and made the space feel large and airy.
This was absolutely worth the trip alone to see the hall of mirrors!
I can just imagine what it must have looked liked in it's heyday. Even though it was crowded with other tourists, it didn't bother me much, nor did it take away from the splendor.
