The Château de Versailles, is one of the most beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art. The site began as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge before his son Louis XIV transformed and expanded it, moving the court and government of France to Versailles in 1682. Each of the three French kings who lived there until the French Revolution added improvements to make it more beautiful.
The Seasons in Versailles are represented by figures of men and women bearing attributes that identify them: these statues are just breath taking and I wish there was room in my garden for such a wonderful statue.
The inside of the chateau in comparison to Fountainbleau was much better maintained however it was restored and seemed to lack the true authenticity of the other chateau. We are very grateful to have experienced both Chateaus as the interior of Fountainbleau was beyond belief and the gardens of Versailles were something that photo can't do justice to.
There was a special exhibition of period clothing and I think that some of the designer of the day were way ahead of there time. Have a look at this couple of dresses.
The temple of love in the Queens estate was just a lovely place and so peaceful.
Marie-Antoinette, seeking to flee the Court of Versailles, ordered the construction of her hamlet in 1783. There, she regularly found the charms of country life, surrounded by her lady's companions. It became a veritable farm, directed by a farmer, whose products supplied the kitchens of the Palace.
This part of the Versailles estate we actually found to be the most beautiful and charming. We can see why she would want to get away from the chateau proper to this country tranquility.
Here we are back in the full glitz of the chateau.
The chapel with the wonderful pipped organ and painted ceiling leaves us speachless. Really wish I could hear the organ played in this room.
For those girls who have been on the Goddess weekends away with Sue and Crystal Magick what do you think of the drum here under the statue. Isn't it amazing.
The ceiling paintings in this chateau are amazing, and look fantastic thanks to the constant restoration that is done on them.
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, 73 meters in length it is the most amazing room we have ever seen. With the sun through the windows it just sparkles in every direction.
Entering the chateau for the evening show along with the other 7,500 people. Can you imagine things on this scale, it is very hard to get used to even though we are amongst it.
Unfortunately the night show, which was set on the channels of the gardens was all in the dark and too hard to take photos of, we have a lovely video though. Amongst the happenings of the show were gondolas with period dressed couples, decorated boat crafts, hot air balloon with girl dangling do acrobatic moves, and fire works, of which we have never seen the like, about a full hour of constant fire works that were just spectacular and I am sure would have cost a furtune.
Unlike Australia, they wait until everyone is seated before starting the show and therefore this show didn't start until 45 minutes after the scheduled time. This meant we had to dart out prior to the finish to run for the train station to get the last train home.
Funny looking back now as we burst through the turnstile there was the HUGE mean guard dog likely with the trainer protecting the station as it was now shut. We then were told to go for a 10 minute walk to a bus that could take us to Paris. After following directions we didn't feel right at the bus stop and lucky asked the most lovely couple if we were in the right spot, which we were not and they kindly helped us find the station and we caught the train to the centre of Paris. This we were very grateful for at 1.00pm in the morning however this then meant we had a 7km walk home. We fell into bed I assure you after the many kilometers and 7 hours of walking the chateau in the morning.
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