Versailles

Versailles, home to Louis XIV, XV and XVI, is a humongous chateau just outside of Paris. It represents the wealth and importance of the French monarchy (and thus France) in earlier times. It also represents the greed and oppression of the monarchy and the reason for the French Revolution. The French are definitely proud of their new political system, but they are also proud of their powerful past.

We went to Versailles on Saturday. From the time we arrived at 9am to the time we left at 5pm, the place was packed. It was overrun with tourists of all nationalities and speaking all languages. There were times inside the palace where moving in any direction was rendered impossible by the masses crowding around you. If I’m going to be honest, I really wasn’t all that interested in the royal quarters. I had seen them once before, and there is only so much grandeur one can endure in a day, or a lifetime. The Hall of Mirrors was beautiful, but not exactly what I had imagined.

The part of Versailles I enjoyed the most was the gardens. There were a gazillion huge fountains set to music, kind of like the Bellagio in Las Vegas, but minus the coordinating lights and prostitutes standing nearby. The topiary, flowers and trees were all wonderful to look at. We spent several hours walking around the grounds, taking it all in and trying to imagine what it would be like without all the people.

We also saw the chateau that Louis XVI built for Marie Antoinette. It is called the Petit Trainon. The inside was being renovated, so it was closed. But, the gardens made up for it. At the time of Marie Antoinette, the pastoral lifestyle was considered very romantic. According to our professor, the popular novels of the time were 3,000 page accounts on the love lives of shepherds. So, Marie Antoinette had an English style rose garden and a field full of sheep and horses.

We had a lot of time left after seeing everything, so we decided to sit in the grass and read. But, of course, it started to rain. We moved our reading and talking to an indoor café. A couple of us shared some really excellent tiramisu and delicious chocolate lava cake. After Versailles, I ate TexMex with Kelly. You really have no idea how good greasy Mexican food or an amazing hamburger can make you feel when you’re just the slightest bit homesick. When you’re living in a foreign country, a little (or a lot) of a certain, hard to find type of food can turn that feeling into wonderful nostalgia. I bet Marie Antoinette requested her mother’s meatloaf (or whatever the queen of Austria would make for dinner) during some of the more lonely days of her life at Versailles.