Today we ventured by train out to Versailles. We headed, of course, up the wide leafy bulevards straight to the palace - the Chateau de Versailles.
The palace was impressive from outside. Almost as impressive was the huge crowd that had turned up on this wet and windy day.
The palace was just as impressive on the inside; huge guilt rooms with painted scenes on the ceilings. Half of the Hall of Mirrors had been renevoted, with the other half covered up.
Even though we walked through many rooms, we saw only a fraction of the palace. What we saw was packed with visitors and, appart from a handful of pieces, was lacking furniture. It was hard to get a feeling of how the palace was in its heyday.
Everything is big in scale at Versailles.
The Orangery.
The gardens are incredible - especially the distances. We walked through the gardens to the pink marble Grand Trianon: a pretty amazing building when you consider it was built so the King could escape the rigors of court life at the Chateau. Unlike the Chateau, the crowds at the Trianon were more bearable, and many rooms were decorated with furniture from various periods.
A room at the Grand Trianon.
Next we walked to the Petit Trianon - built for Marie Antionette as a mini getaway castle. Inside was interesting, but more fascinating were the grounds around the builing; especially the Queen's Hamlet. The Hamlet is a little pretend village where the Queen could come a play with the pretend villagers. It is obvious that the royalty were out of touch with the poverty of the commoners.
The Queen's Hamlet.
After the long walk back, we treated ourselves to a drink at a Salon de The, and then some sweet things from a patisserie.
A treat.
Back in Paris, for dinner we tried a French vegetarian restaurant in the Marais. The food was good and the service was friendly.
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