Versailles

The size isn’t the only grandiose thing about the Palace of Versailles.  I’m quite glad that Andrea and I went today, but I have never been around that many tourists ANYWHERE!  It makes the worst day at Disneyland you can think of seem like a walk in the park.  Sadly, we got there at the absolute worst time.  Of course, we left out place at 9am, thinking this would afford us plenty of time to get there “before the crowds.”  HA!  As if!  For starters, it took two and a half hours to arrive on the train, not really because it’s so far away, (although it completely on the other side of Paris), but one of the transfer stations we were planning on taking was inexplicably closed, and all other trains seemed to stop every 200 feet for another station.  Needless to say, we arrived at Versailles at approximately the same time as 10,000 tour buses.  The line to get simply buy the tickets was incredible.

It took an hour and a half simply to BUY tickets!  Afterwards, the line to enter the palace was probably two blocks long.  It was the day of mind-boggling lines.  Bathrooms, trams, tickets, entrance, you name it, it had a killer line.  With that off of my chest, let me actually comment on Versailles.  It’s enormous.  In it’s heyday the palace housed 20,000 people!  The grounds are also spectacular.  Back in the day it occupied nearly 8,000 acres, but not it’s down to 700 or 800 acres.  No matter, it’s still gigantic.

The interior is somewhat disappointing because the rooms are not complete.  I have a feeling the palace was likely ransacked and seiged during the war, so little of how it actually was remains today.  It’s merely more of a gallery for various pieces of furniture and several paintings that have survived the years.  It’s also poorly maintained.  The furniture is gray with dust.  I know it is old and fragile but please, the Getty Museum manages to keep their 17th and 18th century furniture looking clean and fresh.  I’m sure they could too.  Basically, the place is abused to a certain degree: it’s exploited as a total tourist cash cow money maker, while the interior isn’t properly maintained.  There were definitely some highlights, however.  The Royal Chapel was gorgeous, as was the Hall of Mirrors, where the 1919 Treaty of Versailles was signed ending World War I.

The gardens were very beautiful, and the houses of Marie Antoinette, which were just opened to the public for the first time last year, were also very interesting.

I’m very glad I went since the rich history makes it all worthwhile.  I  simply would have enjoyed it more with less people and less standing in line for hours in the blazing midday sun.  Tomorrow’s plans?  At the moment I haven’t a clue, other than a much needed trip to the grocery store.

This entry was posted on July 19, 2007 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.