Versailles

Wow, what an AMAZING day!

I was up at 6.30am while it was still very dark to get ready to get the bus to the Château de Versailles, the Sun King's (Louis XIV) life project. Naturally I was running late, so I ran-walked to the metro to get to the bus terminal in time. Waiting for the bus we saw the sunrise over the Tuileries gardens in front of the Louvre. One of the very rare occasions I have ever seen a sunrise, mornings are not my thing, and to see one here was magical. It doesn't induce me to wake up early tomorrow though!

The sun rose into brilliantly clear blue skies as the double-decker bus weaved its way through the Parisian rush hour traffic. Slowly we left the built up city behind and came to almost countryside before entering the old city of Versailles. Built up to house the courtiers of Louis XIV, the city was once the capital of France, and now boasts 90,000 inhabitants. 

Tapestries line the walls of the Palace

On arriving at the palace, I was surprised at the lack of grandeur that greeted me. Apart from the black and gold fencing and gates, the building seemed quite plain, and not as ornate as I was expecting. It was huge, of course, much bigger than any family could possibly need surely, but the stone was quite simple. I later discovered how much this exterior greatly contrasts with the over-the-top interior more familiar to me as a royal household. 

The famous Hall of Mirrors

We made our way through with our tour guide, Joelle, who filled us in on all the historical contexts and explained what we were seeing. Her knowledge was amazing, and her ability to fluently speak immediately in three languages incredible. I can only aspire to be that comfortable in two! I was surprised at how packed the palace was, much more crowded than we have experienced anywhere in Paris, including the Louvre.



After the tour we were given free time to wander around the gardens. In the souvenir store I found a poster of Bonaparte's family tree, Gran - I found Elizabeth Paterson on it!!!! (although they spelt her name wrong) And her son Jêrome, and his child. I will show you when I get home. With the family connection I naturally had to buy it. (My ancestor Elizabeth married Napoleon's brother Jêrome Bonaparte, but was forced to divorce her while she was pregnant with their son in order to marry a princess of Napoleon's choosing).

Queen/Amelia's bedroom ;)

Don't you hate it when you forget your keys and have to stand outside your golden gates like a tourist?

A quick wander through the gardens with amazing views before catching the petit train (little train) to the restaurant for lunch. The chocolate cake for dessert was the best bit, and the fresh bread of course. Our table consisted of the three of us (native language English), a lovely brother and sister from Peru (native language Spanish and very little English spoken), and a sweet elder man from Japan (native language Japanese, obviously, and even less English and no Spanish). It made for a very interesting meal, but we managed to keep a conversation going, and again I was embarrassed at how well other language speakers can speak English and feel inadequate not being able to speak theirs. 

Finally a brief (literally just for this photo) sit down by the Grand Canal after hours of non-stop walking!

Another boutique and purchases made of books (again, oops), before we walked back to the Grand Trianon. This was made as the summer holiday home for the royal family, and therefore was much simpler in style and more appealing.  

The Gallerie des Cotelle in the Grand Trianon

What a beautiful setting

Cute family shot outside the Grand Trianon

Marie Antoinette's sitting room in the Petit Trianon. The shutters
across the windows could either have a mirror facing into the room,
or be wound down to cover the windows of the floor underneath.

Onto the Petit Trianon, my personal favourite, the house built for the King's mistress which then belonged to Marie Antoinette and was decorated in her style. The colours were soft pastels and the walls were generally plain white. It felt very feminine and homely. Apparently, when the trianon belonged to the King's mistress, there was a spiral staircase leading directly to her bedroom, for obvious reasons. However, when King Louis XVI gave it to Marie Antoinette, along with the comment "this was built for the King's favourite [mistress], but you are my only favourite, I want to give it to you", she had the spiral staircase removed so that she could refuse the King if she so chose. It was one of the very few places where she could control everything. As the guide said, she was a very Revolutionary woman. 

M and A for Marie Antoinette... or Amelia Mawhinney?

Just chilling in front of my summer house, the Petit Trianon haha

The Temple of Love, cue forever alone meme haha

We then walked through the gorgeous gardens, past all the little summer houses, lakes and statues, to Marie Antoinette's Hamlet. She had her favourite artist go up to Normady and find beautiful villages and paint them, in order to recreate one in the palace grounds. What resulted was a gorgeous collection of buildings, reminiscent of Marie's native Austria, where she was able to play 'milk-maid' and teach her children about more average everyday life things. She even famously had a cow cleaned before showing her children how to milk it!

Marie Antoinette's Hamlet

Cute little cottage in the Hamlet

It was a lovely end to a fascinating day, in fact the last two places in the tour were my favourite; much more so than the palace. I led the long walk back to the bus in order to get the best seats upstairs, an Australian man and daughter started trying to discreetly sneak past me nearer the end for the same reason, so I merely lengthened my strides while they had to half-jog and eventually gave up. Muahaha, the seats were mine, God bless my long legs. They were worth it too. The views of not only the sunset in Versailles but of Paris lit up were beautiful, and I may have snapped a gazillion more photos of the illuminated Eiffel tower. Hey, it was my tourist day. 

Now my legs and feet are very tired, and I'm on the couch with a hottie (bottle, not guy sadly haha) and my laptop, but it wont be long before I hit the sack.