Paris: Day 5 - Versailles

I've always wanted to see Versailles. I believe the first time I'd heard about was when I was 14 (or so). The idea of the place intrigued me. I imagined walking those halls - those same halls as the tragic Queen, Marie Antoinette (please remember, this is a 14 year old drama queen imagining these scenes). At last, after X number of years (like I was going to say!), I arrived!

The day before, at Disneyland, we had lucky weather! Cool and overcast but, not a single raindrop. We were not as lucky at Versailles. I had wisely packed umbrellas for Jeff and I - I'd even included a jacket for Jeff. Sadly, I neglected a raincoat for myself. Desole! It was pouring in the morning as we ate breakfast. It was sprinkling as we headed out on the Metro (to the RER station). It would rain, on and off, for the remainder of the day.



The best part of the cloudy, gray day? The pictures! It gave us beautiful pictures, without the odd soft-focus quality from DLRP.





There is a major restoration project at Versailles. I read that they're hoping to bring the palace up to it's sparkling pre-Revolution glory. I'm of two minds on this project. On the one hand, I love seeing historic sites cared for and maintained, especially one as beautiful as Versailles. On the other, glitter-izing the palace almost removes it's darker history - the Revolution, the looting, the neglect. The replanting of the gardens to follow original layouts, I applaud. Re-gilding the 100 year old doors? 50-50. After all, when you remove the patina from a bronze piece - it loses it value, by losing it's history (of dust, and dirt, and time).







The tour starts in the Chapel Royale. An audio thingie is included to give you bits of info and put some of the things you're seeing in context. You get to move at your own pace (slowly), unless you're taking a guided tour. Next time I go (and I will see it again!), I'll try one of the tours - mostly because Jeff and I kept walking the wrong way! We'd go through a room to it's apparent (to us) end, and find that we'd skipped a room we were supposed to turn to, or a door we were supposed to walk through, missing vital pieces of beauty, to reach the location we were standing in. So, inevitably, we'd backtrack time and again, wasting our energy. The guided tour might have helped.