Having 'done' the rounds of the usual touristy places like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Notre Dame, I wanted to take a trip out of town to see the Palace of Versailles. And so it was that we boarded a bus for a forty-five minute ride to the Palace. Driving through verdant greenery we arrived at the Palace, a marvel of architectural beauty. Versailles was the royal residence of France for a little more than a century — from 1682 until 1790, when the French Revolution began. Louis XIV built a hunting lodge at the village outside Paris in 1660 which became the base on which was constructed one of the most costly and extravagant buildings in the world, befitting the home of the 'Sun King'.
The men in charge of the project were Louis Le Vau, architect; Charles Le Brun, painter and decorator; and Andre Le Notre, landscape architect. By 1688 the palace was almost complete. Louis XV and Louis XVI added some rooms to the Palace.
At first glance I was awestruck at the magnificence and majesty of this palace and gardens. Our knowledgeable Italian guide started the tour with a stop for a cup of tea before embarking on the long walk through the gardens of the palace.
What a walk it must have been, for the gardens stretch 3 km from the gallery of the palace bedrooms to the canal. The gardens were built over an area of 800 ha, mobilising the most refined skills and the heaviest engineering work, the digging of the Grand Canal and the construction of imposing water reservoirs of an immense network of pipes to supply the fountains! Water is drawn from the river Seine and the garden is dotted with 200 sculptures, making it the biggest open air museum in the world. I saw life size marble statues of the many Greek Gods.
We were ready to see the palace which had only a few rooms open for visitors. The first of these was the Royal Chapel built between 1699 and 1710. Aesthetically designed, the ceiling had a painting of the Assumption of Christ. We were told that the Sun King came here every morning to attend mass.
Beautiful though the Palace of Versailles was, not everything in the palace was original. The French Revolution had forced the nobility to sell 17,000 pieces of furniture. It was Louis Phillipe who restored the palace and recreated the former glory.
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