Day 4: 13 October 2009, Tuesday
For our third day in Paris, we made a trip to Château de Versailles, or the Palace of Versailles. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most-visited monuments in Paris, coming only behind the Louvre, according to 2017 visitorship numbers. The Palace is located about 20 kilometres southwest of the centre of Paris. We took the RER line C train and alighted at Versailles Château Rive Gauche station.
After a quick meal at McDonald’s, we walked for about 10 minutes and reached the Palace entrance. There was already a very long queue waiting to enter the grounds. We should have expected that since it was already so crowded on the train earlier. Apparently, Tuesday is always the busiest day. This is likely because the Palace is closed on Mondays, so everybody rushes to come on Tuesday. We queued for about an hour before we reached the ticket office and bought our admission tickets (€13.50/S$27.95).
The Palace of Versailles originated as a hunting lodge and private retreat for Louis XIII. His son, Louis XIV, then transformed it into a palace and installed the Royal Court and government here in 1682. The Palace continued to be the royal residence of France until the French Revolution in 1789, when Louis XVI was forced to leave Versailles for Paris.
From that point on, the Palace ceased to be a royal residence and it became the Museum of the History of France in 1837. The rooms of the Palace were used to house new collections of paintings and sculptures up till the early 20th century, when the Palace was reverted to its historical role. The central part of the Palace was restored to the appearance it had as a royal residence.
The term “chateau” is used to refer to the rural location of a luxurious residence, as opposed to an urban palace. Therefore, the Louvre is commonly referred to as a “Palais” in the heart of Paris, while Versailles is described as a “Château” in the countryside. The Versailles of today is no longer a village or rural area but the west side of the estate is still largely surrounded by woodland or agricultural pastures.
We first visited the Royal Chapel, which was completed in 1710 at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. The building’s overall design, large glass windows and buttresses were inspired by Gothic architecture. The chapel has two levels. The King and his family worshipped at the Royal Gallery on the upper level while ordinary members of the public were seated in the nave on the ground floor.
Next up was the King’s State Apartment, which comprises seven rooms used for hosting the sovereign’s official acts. To impress the guests, the rooms were lavishly decorated with marbled walls, huge paintings, richly-detailed frescoes, impressive sculptures and ornate chandeliers. Moving from room to room, KP and I were just awed by the amount of grandeur on display.
We next visited the Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace. The Hall of Mirrors is 73 metres long and it pays tribute to the political, economic and artistic success of France. The 30 painted compositions on the ceiling depict the glorious history of Louis XIV during the first 18 years of his reign. The 357 mirrors within the 17 arches represent economic prosperity, signifying that the French could compete against the dominant Venetians in mirror making.
Lastly, artistic success is represented by the new French style design of the Rouge de Rance pilasters, red marble pieces capped by gilded bronze. The Hall of Mirrors was so packed it was hard to appreciate the true beauty of the gallery as we jostled for space with the crowds.
We also saw the King’s and Queen’s Bedchambers, which were equally extravagant and decked out from floor to ceiling with over-the-top furnishings. There was so much gold everywhere it was frankly, ludicrous. I guess this was the way they lived three hundred years ago.
The last part of our Palace visit was to the Gallery of Great Battles. Established by the king Louis-Philippe in 1837, the Gallery is the largest room in the Palace, spanning 120 metres long and 13 metres wide. Through 33 paintings, the Gallery depicts nearly 15 centuries of French military successes, from Clovis to Napoleon. The huge paintings and the grand setting made the experience of walking through the Gallery highly memorable.
After touring the Palace, we went outdoors to see the gardens. The gardens had a symmetrical layout, dominated by the east-west axis known as the Royal Way. It was huge and it stretched as far as the eye could see. After squeezing with the hordes of tourists inside the Palace building, it was nice to be out in the wide, open space.
We walked around the grounds and took many photos, entertaining ourselves silly by posing with the numerous statues and sculptures. I have only posted the less embarrassing ones here. We then took a coffee break at La Flottille restaurant next to the Grand Canal.
At about 4pm, we made our way back to Paris. We went to Champs-Élysées again and I opened my shopping account at Fnac, a huge music and electronics retailer. CDs are expensive in France but I couldn’t resist any longer, incurring some heavy damage here as a result.
We met QM for dinner after he finished work. Since we were in Paris, we wanted to try some fine dining to pamper ourselves. KP and QM are quite into food so they managed to find a nice restaurant called La Gauloise, located at 59 Avenue de la Motte-Picquet. The restaurant was listed in the Michelin guide so we had high expectations.
Thankfully, the food was up to par and it was a satisfying meal. However, when we went back to QM’s apartment, we were still hungry. QM had a packet of frozen escargot with garlic butter in his fridge so we heated it up for our supper. The garden snails were quite hard and not as nice as the ones we had at the restaurant the day before, but that was to be expected.
And that brings us to the end of Day 4. We absolutely enjoyed our visit to the Palace of Versailles, which was seriously impressive. The display of extravagance there was unlike anything we had ever seen before. Tomorrow will be an exciting day because another friend will be joining us in Paris. Can’t wait!