Paris – Day 8 can be found here.
Up at 7 am this morning – no croissant run for us this morning, we need to get ready for our half day tour at Versailles which departs at 8:15 am.
Our guide Caroline met us at the gate to our apartment at 8:10 am, and then gave a quick call to the driver who swung around to pick us up. This is a great system, as Rue St. Dominique is a narrow street and it’s difficult for vehicles to wait around for long.
Context sent a Mercedes Sprinter to drive us, and our driver thoughtfully laid out still and sparkling water – and a couple of candies – in the backseat.
Our guide hopped in the back with us. She thankfully didn’t start peppering us with Versailles facts right away – instead it’s a chance for gradual introductions and a few bits of history. She expands on what we already learned – there was an attempt on the life of Louis XIV when he was in Paris, so he vowed to move out of the city.
Versailles already existed as a royal property, but in a much more limited form. It was a place where royalty and privileged nobles could stay after hunting trips in the surrounding woods. (At a 3 hours horse ride from Paris, it wasn’t really practical to go there and back as a day trip.)
We were also surprised to learn that the major new construction at Versailles took 40 years to complete. Louis began this major project when he was 24, and work continued on it until after his death. As opulent as the palace is, the gardens were his main focus.
Despite Paris traffic, we arrive after around about 50 minutes of driving – just in time for the gates to open.
The tour starts with a bit of orienteering – Caroline gives my son a map with the best viewing locations.
And my daughter her phone – which has been put into compass mode – to help with navigating. (This is an important skill at Versailles, as the grounds span more than 2,600 acres!)
From here, we head to the first viewpoint:
This will be where the trees from the Orangery will be placed when they come out of storage. In the distance, a lake that was dug by hand by the Swiss guards who defended Versailles.
Versailles is very much a work in progress at this time of year, but still beautiful all the same. (The fountains will start running at the end of March.)
We really lucked out with weather – it’s somewhere around 18 to 20 Celsius but feels even warmer with the sun.
From here, we follow the map to travel down a gravel path and into a grove. This is where some of the concerts and parties would have been held.
We’re not able to go inside at this time of year, but we do get a sense of what it looks like from the gate.
The guide said the best times to visit are later in the spring – in April, after Easter – or later in autumn. In summer it’s both extremely busy and extremely hot.
We carried on to the next viewpoint, where we see the Roman god Dionysus, the God of Wine – and also the representative of Autumn.
We cut across the paths to the next viewpoint, getting another beautiful view of the canal.
We also make a quick stop to pick up a cappuccino and a pain au chocolate for the kids.
We cut across further, until we reach the statue of Demeter, the Goddess of the harvest. She represents the season of Summer.
Caroline had worked as a gardener at Versailles, and pointed out the massive pipes feeding the fountain – all of which need to be activated by hand.
And from here we travel into another grove. This one had been damaged by a major storm, prompting them to re-imagine the fountain in the middle.
The gold pays homage to Louis XIV as the sun king, while the crystal refers to the glass found in the hall of mirrors.
From here we carried along to a massive fountain, this one bearing a statue of Poseidon:
From here you can also see into the town of Versailles, which apparently continues to contain a significant number of descendants of French nobility. Many of these massive houses have been broken into apartments, but some remain undivided.
We then took a bit of time to snap some family photos at the top of the central staircase, which also has a stellar view of the palace itself.
From here we went for another brief snack break, where the kids and I enjoyed some chocolate mousse:
We then went inside the beautiful palace.
Here Caroline had another fun set of activities for the kids, in which they had to find the name of the god painted atop each of the ceiling as well as the day of the week to which they correspond.
We started by viewing the chapel, where Marie Antoinette had married Louis XVI immediately upon her arrival at Versailles – before she even had time to see her apartment:
And we carried on into the king’s wing of Versailles. The palace has more than 2,000 rooms in total, over 1,200 of which can be visited. So this is going to be a very limited tour – but these are the most impressive of the rooms.
In addition to being a luxurious living space, the palace was also about control – every minute of every day was scheduled, and so there were very few opportunities for the nobles to plot against the king. The only real free time was allocated to partying – which most seemed to feel was a better activity than plotting.
You would need to drink a lot to think that Louis XIV actually had chiselled abs
One room was dedicated to billiards, of which Louis XIV was an avid player. This was also one of the rare opportunities that lesser nobles would get to approach the King, so this room also became known as the “Room of Applause” as many would hang about here attempting to curry favour. However, we heard it was not necessary for the other players to let the King win – apparently he was an accomplished pool player in his own right.
A beautiful room for senior dignitaries at the same level as the king – which was very rarely used, except for family
Last in the Greek God themed rooms was the Apollo room which was the sovereign’s ceremonial room and later contained the throne. Here our guide had us closely examine the walls as there are 2 secret doors that allowed the king to access concealed quarters where he could retreat from the constant scrutiny of the court. Maybe next time we’ll try to book a tour of these fascinating hidden rooms and passageways.
Can you spot the secret door?
The hall of mirrors was truly incredible. We were fascinated to learn that there was quite the uproar over Louis XIV’s attempts to obtain this much mirrored glass. It was impractical to have all the panes made in Venice so he initially recruited the glassmakers themselves to live and work in Versailles, but the Venetian guild then targeted their families (killing some) to prevent guild secrets from being shared.
He then invited the glassmakers to bring their families to Versailles, but even then some of the glassmakers were poisoned by spies within the palace. Amazing the lengths that some would go to in order to protect the secret of manufacturing mirrors.
Some of these panels are still the originals.
And just look at the number of chandeliers – Caroline said that Versailles would go through upward of 3,000 candles in a single night.
And here’s a painting of Marie Leszczyńska, wife of Louis XV:
The presence of a waking dog is apparently a code designed to indicate that she was faithful to her husband – a sleeping dog would’ve suggested she was unfaithful instead. Less so on the part of Louis XV, who had the same mistress, Madame de Pompadour, for 6 years. At least he fared better than Louis XIV, his predecessor, who once survived an assassination attempt by a spurned mistress.
Unfortunately, we were unable to see the King’s bedchamber – which is under renovation – but we did get the chance to see the Queen’s bedchamber, which is apparently quite similar. Each of these bedchambers contained 88 pounds of gold at one point in time, while the mirrors inside cost the modern equivalent of more than 120,000 Euro.
On either side of the Hall of Mirrors is a room for war:
And a room for peace:
In the end, Louis XVI – the last of three sons, and not expected to become king – was deposed by revolutionaries. Though he had previously attempted to implement reforms, he did not ultimately ratify many of the important decrees regarding the abolition of privileges and the rights of citizens. He was executed by guillotine in 1793. His wife, Marie Antoinette, met the same fate.
Her youngest child died at 11 months of age – perhaps the reason behind both her saddened expression, and the empty crib in this painting
And that was the end of our tour of the palace – which was just fine by us, as it was growing quite hot in there despite the mid-March weather.
We very much enjoyed the palace tour, particularly with Caroline’s commentary. That said, however, I think next time we would try to time our tour for when the fountains are running and just spend more time in the gardens.
Caroline said her goodbyes, and the van took us back to Paris. The drive again took around 50 minutes. We got back at around 1:30 pm, so I popped out for fresh baguette.
We then had a relaxing afternoon, and the kids finished the Lost Mines of Phandelver! Proud of them for completing their first-ever Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Now we need to figure out what to try next…
Soon after, it was time to head out for dinner – so we went to Malabar, a restaurant just around the corner from us.
My son had a cheeseburger:
While the rest of us had the steak frites:
It was fantastic – truly world class.
The cocktails were also excellent. I had the Ruby Carroll:
And my wife had Spanish Tonic:
And yes, that glass is smoking – and proved remarkably difficult to extinguish
For dessert, the kids had the not-so-petit chocolate gateaux:
It was a fantastic final dinner in Paris. So glad we decided to come here.
Then it was back to our apartment to pack as much as we could – and my wife and I stayed up with this exquisite bottle of champagne:
Not too late, though, as we need to be up bright and early again tomorrow to catch our flight back to Canada.
Continue reading Paris – Day 10.