Train to Versailles

Train to Versailles

Friday 3 July

All good, plenty of time, 9.30 - stop on the way to the station to check on the bus to Cdg (Charles de  Gaulle) airport for tomorrow - just keeping our options open. Spoke to nice bus driver who said he'd give us a special deal (and this is before Cairo !)

Ok biggest station we have ever been in. No worries, walk up and down for a bit. Lots of info boards flashing but nothing that says Versailles. Can't see anyone who looks official. Notice a large metro map and we work out what line we are on and where to change. But no platform number. 

Eventually see a small info kiosk. Wait in line, guy tells us next train is 10.03 and to get tickets from machine. 

See yellow ticket machines and head on over and sort out all questions/steps to take, looks ok, then go through it all again for second passenger, 

hit button and it tells us we can't use that machine!  Now we find a bigger info office and wait our turn. Nice girl says we have to use green machines, I ask if we can just buy the tickets from her and she says ticket office is two floors down. Ok so find a green machine next to original small info kiosk!  

Go through all the options again get the right leaving time and the return time, times two and at the end it says can't use card, cash only, no change given. Did we have the right change ?? No of course not.  

So maybe there's a bus.....  Head on out to the bus depot just around the corner, search for ticket office, come across a guy with a uniform on, feeling a bit stressed, David launches in to "bus to Versailles?" This black guy drawls in a deep voice "Well, hello....." the French always like to greet politely!  So after a few "Bonjours" he tells us there is no bus, we have to get the train from platform 7!  

So with a sigh of resignation we headed down two floors to the ticket office in the railway station, a lesser person would have gone shopping in Paris by now!   Only one other person in the queue.  Ten mins later she was still there and there were six others behind us. Only one hatch out of six open but no one opened up - it's the French way, impatient French lady pushes past us and says something pertinent to guy behind counter, to no avail.  Eventually woman at the counter moved away and it was our turn!  The train we got on was the 10.50 just as well to keep some time up your sleeve. I think we will take the bus to Cdg tomorrow!

A large train with two levels, we chose the top deck and settled in for our journey.  Nice, smooth and city scenery, only took 35 mins.  

Walked through the station and took our bearings (like follow any obvious tourist)!  The signs were there at the first cross road, 

sort of worn out look to the city, not really inspirational, but we did only walk up a couple of roads. 

What an interesting looking shop?

And then around the corner is this amazing view of something that looks unreal (Disneyland?).   

It glitters in the sunshine, and yes, it is gold.  

But first we pass by the Town Hall, and this in itself is worth a visit to Versailles.  

So we continue walking up the cobbled road along with thousands of others, we take a slight detour to a hut (small info office) and get all the details about guided tours, etc and continue walking, up past the statue of Luis XIV mounted on a horse and on and on until we reach the information office we had been guided to by the nice girl in the hut.  

We book our guided tour in English, and head out to enjoy the gardens for an hour and a half before our tour begins.  

Well, where do you start, the gardens are massive, bigger than a normal city park, we are pretty hungry so look for somewhere to buy some lunch and wander around the left hand side while we look.  

There is a maze not far away, so we wander through that taking photos of course.  And we find a cafe just before it begins to rain.  

A nice chicken salad for me and a jambon et fromage baguette for David. By the time we finished it had stopped raining and we wandered back up the other side of the gardens to the 'golden gates' to meet our tour guide.

We were quite a big group, probably 12 or so, but not as big as some of the other groups, it was pretty packed at times going through the rooms. 

Wikipedia: "The earliest mention of the name of Versailles is in a document dated 1038, relating to the village of Versailles. In 1575, the seigneury of Versailles was bought by Albert de Gondi, a naturalized Florentine, who invited Louis XIII on several hunting trips in the forests surrounding Versailles. 

This is the side entrance.

Pleased with the location, Louis ordered the construction of a hunting lodge in 1624. Eight years later, Louis obtained the seigneury of Versailles from the Gondi family and began to make enlargements to the château. 

This structure would become the core of the new palace.  Louis XIII's successor, Louis XIV, had it expanded into one of the largest palaces in the world.  Following the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1678, he began to gradually move the court to Versailles. The court was officially established there on 6 May 1682."

This was an anti-room to Marie Antoinettes room - the tour guide suggested she may well have kept all her wigs in there to be cared for by one of her 1500 servants?

This painting was commissioned by Louis XIV to show off his fine dancing legs, he was so vain, he was over 50 when this was done, and another courtier's legs were used as the model!

The bedroom was a public place where the populace in the palace could come to watch the King eat his breakfast!

In 1682 Louis XIV permanently settled the Court and government at Versailles. This was a revolution in the lifestyle of the royal family and the Court, which traditionally moved from one palace to another year round. The king asked his first architect, Jules Hardouin-Mansart, to enlarge the Palace to house the entire royal family as well as courtiers with responsibilities at the Court: nearly 4,000 people in all. (Plus 700 horses!)

This is the War Room where all the battles that the French won are displayed.

The palace was really a city in itself, with a maze of underground tunnels not only for the courtiers to move around unseen but with the kitchens being at the other end of the palace to the dining rooms, the servants needed to be able to move food around efficiently.

Hall of Mirrors:  The Grande Galerie (La Grande Galerie in French), as it was called in the 17th century, served daily as a passageway and a waiting and meeting place, frequented by courtiers and the visiting public.  It was originally the long balcony overlooking the gardens and was enclosed with mirrors to attract more light in from the reflection of the lakes.

Such opulance during a time of hardship for the Kings people caused Versailles to be the catalyst to the French Revolution.  I wonder how any leader could be so self besotted that he cannot rule with a fair hand, but then, if it wasn't for people like Lius XIV we wouldn't have such a rich history.

This is the original carpet that Marie Antoinette had made for this room.

And so another colourful day in the rich tapestry of life comes to an end.