I've been teaching about Versailles for 20 years. But until you walk the grounds you cannot possibly fathom the scope of the place. That is why travel is so important to one's education. Textbooks can tell you it's big. Photos can show some of the grandeur. But seeing it in person...unbelievable.
A mirror selfie in the Hall of Mirrors
One of the big takeaways for me during our trip to Paris was how inevitable the fury of the French Revolution was. Why were the members of the Third Estate so vengeful? Walk the grounds of the Louvre. Walk the grounds of Versailles. My gosh, it's sickening to see how wealthy the Bourbons were. And to think that when they went bankrupt they had the unmitigated gall to ask the poor for more money. Revolution was inevitable. The Bourbons deserved what they got.
We took the RER train from the Invalides station which was about a ten minute walk from our apartment. The train ride lasted about thirty minutes. We stepped out of the train station at Versailles and followed the advice of several websites to avoid following crowds and take the beautiful tree-lined promenade just left of the green canopied Starbucks across from the station.
It was a cool morning and a pleasant five minute walk to the first gate,t he first majestic gate to the majestic palace. We walked into the large courtyard and headed to the left to the pre-paid timed ticket line. Once again, the best advice I have to offer...pre-paid timed tickets purchased in advance. We walked past dozens of people already in line before the place was open.
We also had a plan. As soon as the gate opened we fast walked to the room I wanted to see most...The Hall of Mirrors. It was in the Hall of Mirrors where the first truly unified German Empire was declared after the Franco-Prussian War in the 1870s. It was in this same room where The Treaty of Versailles was negotiated after The Great War. Very few rooms have the historical impact as this one. And we got there first. There was no one there. We got to enjoy the place for about five minutes before the next few tourists wandered in. So surreal to be in a room of such historical import.
We then wandered the rest of the palace. Unbelievable grandeur. Unbelievably ostentatious. We eventually headed outside and as wondrous as the palace is, it's the palatial grounds that really take your breath away.
Yeah, the gardens are beautiful. Yes, everything is manicured. Yes, there are statues of naked people everywhere. Dozens of fountains. But what takes your breath away is how much territory this place covers. You literally cannot see the end of the grounds. The gardens of Versailles extend beyond the horizon in all directions. It's more like a national park than a museum with some nice gardens.
We rented a golf cart for an hour to cover more territory, even that wasn't sufficient. We turned the cart in and walked. And walked and walked again. We took a mini tram train to the outer palatial estates of Marie Antoinette and the Queen. This is where the royals could pretend they were provincials living on farms.
Versailles was extremely impressive. Beautiful beyond words. Despite walking the grounds for hours we saw just a fraction of the place. I would go again in a heartbeat.
