Hanging with the Sun King and His Descendants in Versailles (Day 32 - GToE)

When you are a royal subject and your king says "I liked your hat." You respond, "Thank you, sire." The king then replies "I really like your hat." Again, you thank the king. The king says (meaningfully): "I LIKE YOUR HAT." You thank him and then remove the hat from your head and hand it to the king. That's pretty much what happened in Versailles. 

In 1575, a Florentine noble, Albert de Gondi, purchased the land called Versailles. He then invited Louis XIII on several hunting trips in the forests around Versailles. Louis XIII liked the area so much that he eventually gained the land and had a hunting lodge built on the location. He eventually made enlargements to the chateau. His son, Louix XIV, expanded the chateau until it became one of the largest palaces in the world and eventually became the official location of the French court. Louis XV and Louis XVI also added their touches to the palace. Additionally, Louis XIV, fed up with crowding of Versailles by the French court, built the Grand Trianon palace as a small get away palace on the grounds of Versailles (which is still pretty palatial). During the reign of Louis XV the smaller Petit Trianon palace was built, which was often used by Marie Antoinette as her refuge to get away from palace life. Additionally, Marie Antoinette in the 1780s created the Hamlet, a fake peasant village, where the Queen would spend her days under a bonnet, tending to perfumed sheep and manicured laws in a thatched roof wonderland.

Fourteen years ago, I visited Versailles when I vacationed in Paris, but I did not get a chance to see as much of it as I wanted. I only saw the Chateau and part of the beautiful grounds. I missed seeing the Trianon palaces and the Hamlet. While I could take or leave seeing the Trianon palaces (because, seriously, how much more overly luxurious palaces can one see?). No, I wanted to return to Versailles to see the Hamlet! For fourteen years, I've been kicking myself that I didn't get a chance to see this village. Well, today I got the chance and I was not disappointed. 

I want to live here!

I arrived with my fellow tour group around 8:40am, just before the palace gates opened. I did the usual tour around the chateau - seeing the state apartments, the king's wing, the queen's wing, the Hall of Mirrors, and madames' apartments (the daughters of the king). Then I tooled around the gardens for a bit. While during the spring and summer, these gardens are stunningly gorgeous; they are much less so in November. I then toured the Grand and Petit Trianon palaces and their gardens. But the pièce de résistance was touring the Hamlet. It is adorable and makes me wish that I had the power that Marie-Antoinette had in order to create my own fake peasant village. I even found the perfect little house in that village. Alas, I do not have that power.

Check out all of my Versailles tour photos (there are a ton!) on my GToE photo site.

Originally, tomorrow I was supposed to head to northern France in order to tour Mont Saint Michel, but alas the tour was cancelled. I was the only person who had signed up for the tour. Instead, on Monday, I will be touring the Loire Valley Castles, which is equally cool. Now my museum hopping days will be tomorrow and Sunday. I'm starting with the Louvre tomorrow.

Versailles' green carpet and grand canal