The Last Time I Saw Paris Part 2: Versailles

The last time I saw Paris was the first time… and will definitely not be the last time. John and I went for my 50th birthday in May of 2011, before I was blogging. ‘La Ville-Lumiere’ or ‘The City of Light’ is truly a magical place.I’ve mentioned our trip in a few posts and there’s been some interest so for the next few Wednesdays I’ll be posting slideshows showing some different parts of our trip. The final post will include a few tips… just some things we learned that really helped to make our trip even more fabulous.

Part 2 is Versailles.

If you’re interested in more information you can visit the official web site at http://en.chateauversailles.fr/homepage

If you missed Part 1 – The Eiffel Tower, you can find it here.

Versailles is about 25 miles outside of Paris and John and I took the train to get there, about a 40 minute ride and then a 5-10 minute walk from the station. We went on a Friday to avoid the weekend crowds, but there was still a lot of people.The Palace itself is quite something to see with rooms with highly adorned walls and ceilings (most ceilings had painted scenes), real gold gilding, and huge paintings. The one thing that struck me was that there was colour everywhere, in fabrics, paintings, and upholstery. And, as I said, that gilding was literally in every room. Louis XIV was the “Sun King” after all. The palace is so large that only a small portion is open to the public at any  given time, and there is always renovation and restoration going on somewhere.

We enjoyed the grounds most of all, mainly because it was quite crowded in the palace. Can’t even imagine what it would be like in the summer. But the grounds were wonderful, and there were moments when we felt like we were totally on our own.

You could probably walk the grounds for days and still not see everything. John and I have a strong sense of history, and there we were walking among the footsteps of kings and queens from centuries ago, and wandering through Marie Antoinette’s hamlet village just as she had done. We got lost after the village for about a half an hour among trees and paths, but somehow we managed to find our way.

So here we go!

(If you put your cursor on the slideshow some icons will appear. To make the slideshow bigger click on the box in the bottom right hand corner, and you can turn some lovely instrumental music on by clicking on the sound button that is to the left of the music info. The default is mute.The music I chose is Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Spring, 3rd Movement. This classic rock girl could listen to the Four Seasons violin concertos for hours. Go figure that one! lol. But I digress.)

I hope you enjoy the show!

It
was such a gorgeous day with the most beautiful blue sky. It left such an impression
on us that whenever we have a blue sky here at home, we call it our
Versailles sky.

Next Wednesday: The Louvre Museum.

Thanks so much for reading and watching.

XOX