Tuesday, April 02, 2019

Northern France Day Five - Last day - Versailles

Versailles had been missed when we were in Paris, 
so Today Versailles was the target, before making for Nœux-Les-Mines for the night
We had purchased "jump the Queue" Tickets for this tourist trap.
We had arrived Early so walked around a little first.
We got the tickets and it still took us an hour to get processed and get in.
 The queue we walked passed was about 4 hours long.
People had bought chairs and laptops to watch movies while waiting.
 But we were inside and crowds were tight.
We could now see
what the money of the French had gone into.
 The rooms were finely painted and were very large
 The chapel was closed
but you could see what it was and what they were restoring
 The statues were impressive
 The ceilings are impressive in each room.
 the ornaments were fine artworks.
 the king's bedroom was posh to the extreme
 as for his ceiling.
This is an immense museum on how someone
in the 1700s could spend money.
We finally got the Gallary of Mirrors.
Along with the crowd.
Most would look up at the ceiling but the floor was just as good.
As was the view of the gardens
The side lamps were special too.
Most tourist would exit halfway down and not walk to the end.
Jennifer could not believe she was in the Gallary of Mirrors.
Next came the Naploens Apartment.
This where he would spend most f his time when he wanted to show quest how powerful he was.
He had a painting of himself and show of the place he lived in the palace.
We even got to see the original Coronation Painting

His bedroom looked rather plan
compared with the rest of the place.
We had to go outside in the front
to get the daughters apartment
We could still see the queue in the distance,
and we were still in awe of the size of this place.
These apartments looked like Hotel rooms.
Meeting rooms to discuss things
Lounges to relax in.
But what was behind the doors
The Military Gallary
This was a hall full of large Painting of the
French battles over  History that they have won.

Even Napolean had his added.

After that was the Hall of Statues
Some were even funny to look at.
from there we went to the Gardens.
 From this side, you could see just how big the Palace is.
 It was once over a thousand acres in size.
 today it is only 200 acres in size, the rest parkland.
 some of the water fountains were going and those were on timers.
 The gardens had pockets of interesting otems in them.
 But it was the size that was impressive
 Statues everywhere
 Most of the fountains are being cleaned when we were there.
 they were beautiful and in great detail.
 even the fish could be ugly and still be masters of art.
 Finally departing after 5 hours, we finally got see the front gate.
 Versailles was well worth the travel and effort.
so off we went to get to the hotel for the night.
Lesson, Paris traffic at rush hour is horrendous.









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