Verdant Versailles

Salutations Readers!

Backside of Versailles

Versailles turned into 2 posts, I hope you don't mind.  There was just so much to see there - I highly recommend clearing an entire day to explore Versailles, its grounds and gardens, and the surrounding town.

As I mentioned before, Louis XIV wanted Versailles to intimidate all of its visitors.  And while he understood the prestige of a giant palace made with the finest materials around, he also knew that extensive grounds were even more impressive.  In what way?  Well, you see, gardens require constant up-keep in order to look perfect all the time.  When I really saw just how far the grounds stretched, I didn't even want to fathom how many people it took to help keep it in pristine shape.  Of course, it would have been more when the monarch of France was around because a few, especially Louis XVI, took things very personally if anything was out of its rightful place; Louis XVI seemed to think that if you didn't do exactly what he wanted (whether specific instructions were conveyed to you or not), then you must either have designs against him or do not respect his high-ness as King of France.

The Grounds

For example, and I really do find this quite amusing, there are so many fountains on the grounds that there's simply not enough water pressure to run all of them simultaneously.  The solution: grounds-people were stationed around the gardens to turn the fountains on and off as the king passed.  For this reason, there are only a few fountains visible from the palace - the rest are shielded by bushes and trees.  But, as far as the king knew, all the fountains were running all the time!

Everything you see in the picture entitled "The Grounds" is part of Versailles, and there is a beautiful symmetry about it all.

Self Reflection

The Bowler goes to Versailles

Gold at the Crossroads

As you can see from over my right shoulder in "Self Reflection," the grounds just stretch for miles in all directions.  I also really like this picture because Ben snapped it right after I took the "Gold at the Crossroads."  It's fun to turn the camera around every once in a while!  That is the camera responsible for all the pictures you see on this blog.

Not only are there hundreds of fountains, but many of them were fashioned with real gold!  The luxury just never seems to end at Versailles, but, then again, that was the point.  If Louis XIV had it his way, those sculptures probably would have been solid gold!

Thanks for reading!  There may be one more Paris post, but then it's onto those Italian adventure stories.

Vaunting about Versailles

Greetings, Readers!

Louis XIV Equestrian Statue

It is time to reveal those photos I know you've all been waiting for ... Versailles!  Because this palace is so magnificent, my commentary in this post may be a bit sparse, but I will do my best to not state the obvious.

Who better to welcome you to the incredible estate of the palace of Versailles than the man himself, Louis XIV.  In case you can't exactly recall your high school history courses, here's a refresher: Louis XIV was a beloved French monarch and thereby often referred to as the Sun King (makes you wonder about Abbey Road, doesn't it?).  Under him, Versailles began to take shape.  It was the official royal residence as well as the seat of French government.  The hall that was built under Louis XV for official government sessions doubles as the palace's Opera House, which still functions today.  What most people don't know is that it is also an incredible engineering feat, even by today's standards!  Part of the floor of the Opera House is built on a series of supports that can be raised or lowered depending on the current function of the room.  Performance nights required a raised floor for a stage, and concave shape for government meetings.  I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I think it is a complex network of pulleys and counterweights.  How cool is that!

Today, Versailles is absolutely MASSIVE!  But how it looks now is not how Louis XIV left it.  His successors, namely Louis XV and especially Louis XVI, continued construction and expansion of the grounds.  Because the palace was essentially under construction for over a century, there are many distinct architectural styles.

Front exterior of Versailles

Louis XV was, generally speaking, a popular monarch, but it is the wrath and greed of Louis XVI that most people remember learning about.  Louis XVI was the king who claimed absolute monarchy shortly after being crowned at 19, married Marie Antoinette of Austria (and we know how well that turned out), and was eventually beheaded (thanks to Madam Guillotine) during the French Revolution of 1789.  He was obsessed with having the best of everything, which probably stemmed from his pathological paranoia and distrust of everyone around him.  As a result, millions of tourists flock to the Château de Versailles every year to see the finest 18th century silks, gilded walls, and chandeliers dripping in crystal.

Entrance Gate to Versailles

Obviously, no expense was spared on this 18-carat gold plated gate.

If you are starting to feel intimidated or need to retrieve your jaw from the floor, then Versailles is doing its job!  With the growing power and threat of the rapidly expanding British Empire, the various Louis's* did their best to keep France on top.

Unfortunately for Louis XVI (and George III of GB), but quite fortunately for everyone else, the monarchy stood zero chance once the American colonies signed their letter of resignation in 1776.  French revolutionaries were inspired and followed suit.  In fact, Versailles sustained significant damages when mobs of people marched on those precious gates to riot against the monarchy or because of food shortages ... "give them cake," she cried.**  But, those areas of the palace have been rebuilt.  There are sections of the palace that are under restoration even today.

Hall of Mirrors, 1690

Louis XIV's personal chapel

The Galerie de Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), part of the Louis XIV construction project, is probably the most famous room in Versailles, and has actually been used as a set for a number of films, including Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst.  It was used for royal functions, dinners, and balls.  It's a bit of a sensory overload - there is so much to see!  The ceiling is covered with magnificent artwork, and the refracted sunlight from the chandeliers is accentuated and thrown in all directions by the mirrors that give this space its name.

The Blue Drafting Room

From here, we were led through many state rooms and bed chambers, each more lavish than the previous one.  But, the most significant room is relatively unassuming in comparison.  I don't remember the official name of this room, but it was made famous during the first half of the 20th century.  Any guesses?  That's okay - I had not thought of it before my visit.  Around that very table is where the most powerful world leaders gathered to sign the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War (the peace treaty at the end of WWII was signed in Paris).  However, the "official" ceremony took place in the Hall of Mirrors.

[Oh, man, so much for sparse commentary!  I do this every time! I originally meant to do Versailles in one post, but there a few more rooms I want to cover, so the gardens will have to have their own post (though probably not as long as this one ... I hope!).]

Marble Stairs

Illustrated Martial History of France room

Ben's favorite room at Versailles was the HUGE art gallery.  This football-field-sized room housed giant paintings depicting the history of France's military and its military heroes.  We both really liked this room because it told a story as you progressed down the hall.

It almost felt like we may never get to the end of that hall!  But we did, and found ourselves in the "plainest" part of the palace: the area I call the "Marble Stairs."  It is beautiful in its monochrome of white marble.  The artistry of the marble adds an incredible amount of grand texture.

You must must must visit Versailles!  I simply don't know enough adjectives to do it justice here, but I hoped you enjoyed reading!


* I'm afraid I don't know the proper way to punctuate that ... one does not simply put an "s" on the end of Louis to denote more than one
** Famously attributed to Marie Antoinette, but it is unclear whether or not she actually uttered those words.

Parading Through Paris

Hi, again!

I realize that these Paris posts will be full of familiar places, but be on the look out for those more obscure locations.  In fact, I like to think that these "regular" places make travelling and blog-reading worth doing.  But first for the familiar.

Shakespeare and Company

Our first whole day in Paris was full of walking.  We walked from the Ile de la Cite, along the Siene, until we finally made it to the Eiffel Tower.  I've already told you about Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame, so our next stop is a tiny place that is best known by word of mouth: Shakespeare and Company.  It is not a playhouse, but rather two bookstores under one name.  The one on the left is the biggest attraction for visitors, even though it occupies the least square footage, because it houses the store's rare and valuable book collection.  The space is so small, in fact, that only 5 patrons are allowed inside at the same time.  The store on the right hand side is a larger space and sells many of the popular books you'd find at a Barnes & Noble or a Waterstones (British equivalent).  But, if you do buy a book, the cashier will stamp  the inside front cover with the official Shakespeare and Company crest.  The second floor of this side is a very quiet reading room with small nooks and crannies and newspaper clippings on every available wall space (areas not covered by bookshelves).  All the books up there are for reading only (not for purchase).

Assemblée Nationale

Grand Palais on the Siene

As we continued along the Siene, we saw lots of street artists, one of whom told us all about the layout of buildings along the river as he painted a vibrant watercolor.  His broken English was, well, very broken, but he was quite enthusiastic and determined to tell us about his hometown.  It was at this point that I realized that the picture that he was working on was of the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly) building, located just around the corner from where we were; he knew the city so well that he could paint all the details from his head!  And the one he had just finished was of the Grand Palais (no translation necessary here, I hope), even further down the Siene, and another of Invalides, a beautiful church by the Musée Rodin.  I was very impressed.  We had a number of encounters like this, but I wanted to tell you about this man because of how genuine he seemed.

It seems very tourist-y to say, and perhaps I should keep this to myself, but once I saw the National Assembly building with the French flag flapping in the wind, all I could think about was the French Revolution.  (And, just as an aside, I LOVE studying about the French Revolution because even though it happened in 1789, it has shaped France and the French people in a fundamental way that it still affects the current French national sentiment!).  And when that happens, I can't seem to get that song from Les Miserables out of my head.  You know, the one that goes "do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again ..."

Invalides

Well, now I know which song will be stuck in my head for the remainder of this post.

And since I am on this tangent, I might as well keep going.  Last winter Boston was buried under feet of snow, which meant cancelled classes and lots of students between the ages 18 and 22 with cabin fever.  Solution? A snowball fight, of course!  In any case, I was studying for a postponed exam when I hear a bunch of people outside my window singing the aforementioned song.  When I peeked out the window to see what was going on, I saw that there were two groups of people on either side of the street, each having made their own snow fort.  Atop the fort across the street was a large French flag!! I offer no explanation, but will say that that was probably the best laugh I had all semester.

"Dancing" Eiffel Tower

Anyway ... back to Paris: our last stop on this grand tour along the Siene was, of course, the Eiffel Tower.  Unlike my reaction to Notre Dame, I could not get over how HUMUNGOUS the Eiffel Tower was; I practically had to lay on the ground to get this shot (you're welcome)!  It is approapriate that this was next after the National Assembly because the Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution (you see?! My tangents aren't for nothing!).  The architect, you guessed it, was monsiuer Gustave Eiffel.  The original plan was to dismantle it a few years after the Fair, but I guess people really liked it.  To be honest, I am surprised that it survived the First and Second World Wars, not only because of the bombings, but also because that is a whole lot of iron just waiting to be melted down and made into munitions.  It may have happened had Paris not been taken so soon after the start of those wars, but, then again, may be not.  Either way, I think the Eiffel Tower is really quite beautiful, though there are many who disagree.  The really spectacular thing about it during the holiday season is the way it lights up on the top of the hour (after the sun goes down).  It almost looks like the Tower is dancing - it looks as if thousands of camera flashes are going off one after another ... and it lasts for 4 or 5 minutes!  Sigh ... it was so pretty!

Arc de Triomphe

The last landmark I want to mention is the Arc de Triomphe.  It was built to celebrate and commemorate those who fought and/or died in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.  This is an interesting comparison to London's many arches dedicated to Arthur, Duke of Wellington, defeater of Napoleon Bonaparte.  Just below the Arch is France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI.  The Arch is really really big (50 meters / 164 feet to the top) and sits in the middle of probably the largest round-about / traffic circle in Paris, and perhaps all of France.




Look out for my next post about our trip to opulent palace of Versailles.  Thanks for reading!

Pleasantly Paris

Hello All!

The Louvre

Just like that, London came and went, and we found ourselves in the heart of Paris!  That's right: the city of love, the city of great art (though the Tate in London is the most visited art gallery in the world), and lots of croissants.  By the end, I think there were croissants coming out of my ears ... between those and baguettes, I don't know how anyone has room for a balanced diet in France.

Of course, there were many baffling things about Paris, but that is likely because I don't speak more than 10 words of French.  I took Spanish, comprende?  But, because we hit many of the tourist spots, our English-only, American-ness didn't seem to slow us down.  Surprisingly, though, the Louvre only had plaques in French.  Fortunately, words are seldom necessary to explicate the beauty of art.  I had no idea just how large the Louvre really was, and the museum is only a small part of the entire complex (do you see how far the wing extends down on the right side of the picture?!).  

The Thinker, Rodin

But, my favorite art galleries were the Musée D'orsay and the Musée Rodin.  The Musée D'orsay is housed in a former grand train station.  The interior is huge and also very pretty.  The museum itself houses more contemporary works, most notably from Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Rodin, just to name a few.  It has a great collection of sculpture, one of my favorite mediums.  In fact, you may recall from my Edinburgh posts that I am a huge Rodin fan and actually got to see his marble "The Kiss" sculpture in  Scotland.  The Musée Rodin in Paris was really fantastic, and easily my favorite place in this city!  It's a bold statement, but his works are truly amazing to circumnavigate.  Ben made the observation that many of Rodin's works play around with perspective - that some sculptures look strange when they are on the ground level.  "The Thinker," for example, looks like a proportionate man atop his high pedestal, but if he were lowered to the ground, some of his features would look comically large or small.  The museum is inside an old house/hotel, but Rodin's sculptures are also spread across a well-groomed garden.  For those of you who have seen the movie Midnight in Paris, the scene in front of Rodin's "The Thinker" takes place in these very gardens.

Sainte-Chapelle

In a close second for my favorite Parisian sites is the Sainte-Chapelle.  It was built in the 13th century for King Louis IX, and is a must-see because of its incredibly detailed architecture and HUGE stained glass windows - there is more window than wall!  I will let my pictures speak for themselves.  Because the Sainte-Chapelle is by the court buildings, we had to pass through metal detectors.  Ben was the last to pass through, and when he got to the other side, the security officer took one look at him and exclaimed, "trés classique!" (very classy!).  The culprit: the bowler!  I was beginning to think that that hat was the best and worst investment made to date.  So far we were 2 for 2 cities in which complete strangers gaped and loudly expounded about how fantastic Ben looked in that bowler.

Interior of Notre Dame

Just around the corner from the Sainte-Chapelle is famous Notre Dame, literally "Our Lady."  Notre Dame is located on an island in the middle of the Siene River (pronounced Sen), called the Île de la Cité.  My first thought was, wow, this isn't as large as I anticipated, but in reality Notre Dame is more massive than it first appears.  Construction began somewhere around the mid-12th century and was completed in 1345, which is why you can see both Gothic and Romanesque styles of architecture.  Since most of my excursions during the semester were within the UK, I did not encounter a lot of Catholic churches and cathedrals, but France is as Catholic are you're going to get .... other than Rome, of course (a Rome post is coming soon, I promise!).  In my opinion, the coolest history of any cathedral lies in the story of its bells.  When France was fighting its many wars, bells were often stolen from parish churches all over the countryside in order to be melted down and repurposed as cannon or musket balls.  As a result, some of the bells of Notre Dame were hidden away, though I'm not sure why because I suspect it would be quite difficult to steal a bell from a huge cathedral like Notre Dame.  The originals were replaced with cheaper copies.  In any case, either because they weren't stored properly or because they got damaged, the bells were not exactly in tune with one another when they were reinstalled.  In 2012, the plan was to simply recast the original bells - melt them down and, using that same metal, make "new" bells.  Unfortunately, they are still sitting in some storage facility awaiting a final decision.  Just a few months ago, 9 brand new bells were cast and rehung in the north tower.  The last fun fact about the bells of Notre Dame is this: when they were rung manually (pull the string ... ding dong), the vibrations would ripple through the whole building and occassionally cause structural damage.  When this happened, the bells were rung in groups at different assigned times.  The largest bell, for example, is rung by itself on the hour and zero seconds, and the smaller bells would follow.  Today, the bells are struck by hammers and controlled electronically.

Lock Bridge and  Notre Dame, Île de la Cité

A bit further down the Île de la Cité is a memorial to the deported Jews of France during WWII, which was really nice to see, especially since it sits right next to Notre Dame ... a redeeming quality of the French, I suppose.  Just by that is one of Paris's two "lock bridges."  It is tradition for couples to attach a lock to the fencing of the bridge and to throw the keys in the Siene, symbolizing endouring love.  Just think of how many keys must be down there!  The lock bridge we often see in the movies is further up the Siene, closer the to the Louvre, but Ben and I liked the one next to the memorial for the deported Jews.  We did not have a sharpie to mark our locks, but it'll be fun to try and find them when we return to Paris! (Our locks: find the red ribbon, look to the left at the medium-sized lock just above the white ribbon ... just above that medium-sized lock are two very small locks - those are ours).

The "other" Lock Bridge, overlooking the Île de la Cité

There is so much more to say about Paris, we were there for an entire week, after all!  I hope you enjoyed this first taste, and hopefully another post will appear in the next day or so.  And if you are inspired to do so, please leave a comment below.  Thanks for reading!