The Palace of Versailles
Paris Solo Diaries — XIX (A)
My trip was coming to an end. On my second last day in Paris, I was visiting a very famous monument, the Palace of Versailles. Many of you may have heard or read about it or seen it when watching the movie Marie Antoinette or the series Versailles. While I had already learnt in Berlin that European palaces are not as grand as the Indian ones, but they definitely have much better gardens, so much so that gardens surpass the grandness of the palaces. I was particularly looking forward to seeing the gardens of this Palace of Versailles for that is what it was famous for. Hence, I decided to plan my visit on the day of the water fountain show.
Before planning this trip to a place 25kms away, I had done my fair share of research where I had come to the conclusion of going to this palace through a tour. While I don’t like tours as they work on their own schedules and since I liked spending my own time at places I like, I was sceptical. I had chosen the audio tour so as not having to follow the guide around. But that didn’t ease my worries about getting enough time. As I reached Versailles at 9.30 am, I realized what a wise decision I had made for there was a line as long as a kilometre. Luckily they had a separate line for groups which had us in the palace within 15 minutes, saving the precious hours.
While on our way to Versailles, we were warned about the Chinese tourists. I had no idea how rowdy it could get until I was in the palace and was being pushed around. All my dreams of standing in the various rooms, recounting and imagining various events that occurred there, were all thrown out of the window as I didn’t even get enough space to read the audio guide number to listen to the commentary. Every room I went into was more crowded than the last. For a moment I was reminded of the crowded Mumbai Colaba Causeway streets. It looked like the Asians had overtaken the palace and were ready to take over the world.
Finding my space in each one, I realized that while most Indian palaces have carvings and precious stones on their walls as a form of art, this palace used various coloured marbles and stones, heavy brocade fabrics, sculptures, paintings and gold paints to beautify their walls, ceilings and rooms. Beautiful crystal chandeliers hung at close distances from the painted ceilings depicting wars, crowning ceremonies and scenes from the holy books. Though I loved the standing lamps where human sculptures in gold held the white lamps, the red walls of the Mercury salon (king’s grand apartment) reminded me of the numerous bloody wars that were fought to protect the monarchy. The Queen’s bedchambers were tastefully done in pastel green, reminding me of how old colour schemes and fabrics come back in fashion every few decades.
On my tour, I came across ideograms of various kings. There was also a Room of battles. While they didn’t have artefacts from the wars, this room proudly displayed 20ft and longer paintings depicting scenes of various wars and coronations thereafter.
When I finally made it to the ‘famous’ Hall of mirrors, I was disappointed. Very recently I had been to the Sheesh Mahal in Jaipur. While this was better maintained, conceptually this hall of mirrors held no torch in front of the Sheesh Mahal. While this was a long hall with mirrors on one side and windows on another, I had loved the concept of the Sheesh Mahal of changing colours of the room, multiple images of a dancing queen, etc.
Owing to the heavy crowds, I finished the palace much faster than anticipated. I had read that the musical fountain show was going to be on from 11 am to 12 pm. So, finishing the palace, without having lunch, I rushed outside into the gardens to see the musical fountain show, only to be disappointed. French music played and normal fountains stood outside in a small garden. I wondered did I pay the extra euros for this!
I was surprised that this small garden, which was simply a terrace with bushes and plants, was so famous. There had to be something more, I just couldn’t find what. There was no help desk or a guide that I could find. So in search of greener pastures, I moved towards the end of the terrace, to find a forest underneath. Deciding to discover what was going on in between those tall trees, I forayed down, only to be on the receiving end of a big surprise!
Continued here — The Gardens of Versailles [Paris Solo Diaries XIX(B)]
