Today we take the RER (regional train) for the first time. It’s about a 25-minute trip out of the city to Versailles, but really you are in the suburbs of Paris most of the time. The train stops in the centre of the ancient town of Versailles and you walk a block, turn the corner, and there is the Chateau taking up the whole horizon.
I’ve mentioned HUGE before, and this place needs a new word for HUGER than HUGE, not to mention “ornater” than ornate. It is built onto in various sections that favour different architectural styles then tied together with lots of gold on the fence tops, and eaves! It is interesting that in some places the walls are mostly marble wainscoting with silk tapestries stretched over the walls. The drapes match the tapestries, but no room matches each other. There are all the colours on the wheel, I am sure. And in the Grand Palace of Louis XIV basically anything that doesn’t move is painted, gilded, mirrored, covered with silk, or carved, or any combination of these.
The gardens are awesome, filled with and lakes and canals with boats and fountains and sculptures and topiaries and ducks and swans and fish and forests…and more of it all again. Until we get to the Petit Trianon that some books say Marie Antoinette preferred. It is actually a reasonable size and very pretty with carved walls and doors. It is all very old and painted white…perhaps the beginning of the shabby chic look. It has a secret passage to sneak in and out of the house and what appears to be a number of indoor wells off the kitchen. It too has lovely gardens of a smaller scale that separate it from the Grand Trianon: a one level, pink marble party place or guesthouse we guess. We would know more if we rented an audio guide, but we are finding that there is so much to see that we would be in complete overwhelm if we had any more sensory stimulation. We do observe that audio guide people behave differently, schooling like fish in different places and not relating to the people they came with, but to the “guide” in their ears.
We are walking, on average about six miles a day, according to Dennis’ pedometer. Versailles stretches that to about 10…and miles not kilometres. We are sore and understand the people who rented bicycles or golf carts to see the grounds, but we persist.
Outside the gates, there is a swarm of Segways with the option to just try them out for 10 minutes. Dennis hops on one and has a go. He gets the hang of it really quickly and is whizzing around the area with a big grin on his face. He stays on for less than 10 minutes though and when I ask why, he says, “My legs are too sore!”
We think that a beer at an outdoor café would be in order and ask to have a Tango and a Monaco from their menu, thinking they are local brews. We really should ask. The beer arrives and they are both PINK! Seriously, a bright neon pink because they have had lemonade and grenadine added to them. Put this in the “not recommended” list. They are truly awful; beer should not be sweet.
As we head home with my souvenir “Dancing Eifel Tower in a Can” that was just too happy making to pass up, we realize that opulence is exhausting on so many levels, and gardens are just great.
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