If ever there was an advertisement for opulence, excess and ego the Palace of Versailles would surely feature. Modified, or rather extended, by a succession of pompous egomaniacs it is perhaps no surprise that the people of France revolted.
We set of for Versailles on a grey, rainy morning heading for a Metro station a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower. A continuing thread of our time in Paris would be the sight of the tower in her many guises and although she showed more of herself this morning she was still modest in her drapery of cloud.
Managing to walk right past the Metro station we needed, we did have the presumed benefit of finding a café to grab a takeaway coffee. I say presumed because the coffee was insanely expensive and as it turns out tasted something worse than dirty dishwater. I’ve been drinking coffee like a mad man on this trip but thankfully this morning I decided not to partake – Megan, Sally and Pete were not so lucky.
Retracing our steps, we jumped on the Metro for our journey to the South-West. Police with automatic weapons continued their ubiquitous patrolling – something that most of our group still have not come to terms with. Let’s hope that it never comes to this at home.
A 15-minute walk had us in front of the palace, already competing with arriving tour buses despite the weather and time of year.
Making our way through the first of two security checkpoints, I was struck by the size of the palace, not yet appreciating just how big the palace and the grounds were. Lining up to go through the second checkpoint I was caught unawares with my bag being re-locked after the first check. If I knew the French for “stupid Australian holding us up” I’m sure I’d have heard it muttered.
Walking through the palace from room to room we were given a sense of the privilege enjoyed by the occupants. Hamish sensed this too and unprompted was heard to say, “Power makes people crazy!” Each room is now adorned with artwork, but the size and decoration of the rooms told a clear story. I soon tired, but my interest was piqued with a number of rooms where animations of the construction and multiple extensions were projected on the wall. These were supplemented by scale models which showed excellent detail.
We finished the first part of the tour, being the men’s side, and headed outside in search of somewhere to eat our picnic lunch. The weather and facilities were not kind however and we found ourselves standing under the entry portico dodging the roaming security vehicles. Despite the cold weather I stood there in shirtsleeves, grateful for the cool air after being in the overheated palace.
We re-entered the palace, once again going through a security check, to check out the far smaller but no less extravagant women’s side of the palace.
Exiting to the rear we were keen to examine some of the extensive gardens and woods. Covering around 800 hectares today, this area was once something like 6400 hectares. With the weather still threatening we purchased tickets on the “Petit” train for a brief tour. This was a hop-on/hop-off affair and would normally afford a great opportunity to get out and wander about. Instead, we chose to stay aboard for the cook’s tour. I’m not sure if it is allowed, but I reckon this would be a magnificent place to explore on bicycle in Spring or Summer when the gardens would be in full bloom.
We returned to Paris to get ready for the night-time adventure that awaited us.