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| Versailles Palace, Versailles, France |
Hubby and I
made a point to go to places we haven’t visited in our first trip to Paris so a
day trip to Versailles was a must. While we didn’t get to explore the rest of
the city and only stayed in the Chateau/Palace and Gardens, the beauty of the place
was sufficient.
We got the
9am timed entry, the first schedule as the Palace opened. We decided to skip
the Musical Fountains (which ran during weekends and Tuesdays) to avoid the
massive crowds it was reputed to have. I don’t think we would have enjoyed it,
anyway, had there been so many people. We went on a Thursday and while there
were still a lot of people, the Hall of Mirrors in the Chateau was not filled
with people wall to wall. Was quite happy with our decision!
The Palace
was beautiful and so luxurious (and heavily gilded) that it was easy to
understand why the people revolted. Of course, we didn’t get to see all of the 2,000++
rooms but the King’s State Apartments were really lavish with rooms named after
Roman/Greek gods found in the ceiling paintings. I will not even attempt to
describe it here in detail, much less give you rundown of history. You can find
that all in the official site. We did get a glimpse of the Royal Chapel being
restored.
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| Royal Chapel being restored in Versailles, France |
The Hall of Mirrors was breathtaking. The girls insist that I spent
over 30 minutes taking pictures just in that hall. Who's counting the minutes, anyway?
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| Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, France |
Hubby claims that he liked the Gallery of Battles
more with its huge paintings of historic battles in French history.
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| Gallery of Battles, Versailles, France |
After a
couple of hours exploring the palace, we decided to get lunch by the gardens at
the Brasserie de la Girandole. We sat in the patio (they have a take-away spot
as well) and it was quite lovely to be within the gardens having lunch in the
shaded terrace. We tried their duck confit and pepper steak. Both the duck and steak
were cooked perfectly and were good. Service was also fast and friendly.
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| Duck Confit, La Girandole, Versailles, France |
We then took
the Les Petits Train to get to the Trianon estate. We wouldn’t have survived
walking (other options were biking or driving a golf cart which only seats 4)
without this. The Palace and Gardens cover an area of 800 hectares! We took a
round trip where we were able to hop on and hop off at the Grand Trianon, Petit
Trianon, and Grand Canal before going back to the Palace.
From the
Palace, we went to the Grand and Petit Trianon which were built to provide the
kings a respite from court and as well be closer to the gardens. Though not as grand
as the main Palace, these structures were quite impressive, nonetheless—masterpieces
of royal architects with its own unique architectural features (such as the peristyle).
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| Grand Trianon, Versailles, France |
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| Petit Trianon, Versailles, France |
From the
Petit Trianon, we trekked to the Queen’s Hamlet,
Domaine de Marie-Antoinette. The hamlet features traditional
Normandy rustic architecture. We loved the quaint, thatched-roof cottages
spread out around lake. Each of the houses had a small garden and the balconies
were decked with flowers. Officially said to be for the education of
Marie-Antoinette’s children and for hosting guests, unofficially, it is known for
the place where the Queen was able to play pretend. It is said that during her
time at the hamlet, the Queen enjoyed dressing in simple clothing and
completing farm chores, such as milking the cows.
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| The Queen's Hamlet, Versailles, France |
We didn’t go
down anymore to the Grand Canal where one can rent canoes/rowing boats. This
would have been nice if we had 2 days to spend in Versailles. We went back to
the Palace as we still had to explore the gardens. From the golds of the Palace,
we explored the greens of the gardens. The manicured lawns, perfect topiaries, (386)
marble, bronze or lead sculptures/statues, along with its beautiful fountains
showed it had a right to be in the UNESCO world heritage list (along with the
palace, of course). It is also the biggest open-air sculpture museum in the
world.
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| Latona Fountain, Versailles, France |
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| Statues at Versailles Gardens, Versailles, France |
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| beautiful topiaries, Gardens of Versailles, Versailles, France |
We walked
over 24,000 steps (according to the pedometer) on our day in Versailles.
Needless to say, we couldn’t explore any more. We took the RER train back to
the city—a 30-minute ride back to the city of lights.
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