A G: Paris Day 4 by Aaron, Palace of Versailles

Paris Day 4, Palace of Versailles 凡尔赛宫

~ Aaron

Garden of Versailles

At the entrance of Palace of Versailles

Off the train, walking towards Versailles

walking towards Versailles

Louis XIV statue at the front

At the entrance of Versailles

This final day in Paris was all spent in wonderful Versailles. Versailles has a very deep history. The interior of the palace is filled with many things about the royal family of France, especially dedicate to Louis XIV, his queen and his family. The musical fountain show is on some special days in the year. Versailles made this day impossible to forget about.

State Apartments

Today’s glamorous palace was once not so glamorous. It was first built by Louis XIII in 1623 as a small hunting lodge, and the building was enlarged into a royal palace by Louis XIV. The first step of the expansion was designed and supervised by the architect Louis Le Vau. It involved the addition of three new wings for the building. After Vau died in 1670, the work was completed by his assistant Francois d'Orbay. Charles Le Brun designed and watched over the fancy interior decoration, and Andre Le Notre made the gardens. Brun and Notre worked together on the many fountains. The cost of the silver furniture at the palace was very high. The cost of just a single silver staircase railing was over $5,600,000 in today’s currency! Over time, the palace just grew bigger and better, until the royal family of France collapsed. Versailles began to fall apart until people began to conserve it in the late 1800s.

Hallway

Royal Chapel

State Apartments

Hercules Room

Venus Room

Mars Room

Apollo Room

Hall of Mirrors

Louis XIV Rooms

King's bedroom

Bull-Eye Room

King's guard room

Stairs

At the stairs

1792 Room

only room dedicated to

wars of the French Revolution

Gallery of Battles

Battle of Tolbiac, 496

The Siege of Yorktown

October 1781

Mesdame's Apartments

Garden of Mesdame's Apartments

Le Vau's design for the state apartments was similar to Italian models of the time, as shown by the placement of the apartments on the 2nd floor, a style the architect had gotten from the 16th and 17th century Italian palace designs. The museum that Versailles currently is was intended to provide historical and iconic insight to the people and events which shaped France as it is now. A wall in the museum shows important French victories. The collections are mostly sculptures and paintings from the 1500s to 1800s. They include original pieces, copies, special artwork, and purchases from places in France. Since the late 1800s, new interest in the home of the French kings have made efforts to restore the palace to its state before the French Revolution made the royal family crash and the palace fall into ruin.

The Palace of Versailles has many rooms and exhibits currently, and ever more are added each year. The Hall of Mirrors is one of the most famous room in the palace. The king had many rooms for himself, and no one was let in without permission. The king's state apartments were a special area used for holding the monarchy's official acts. The queen had some small rooms for her own use and her servants' use too. The Mesdames of France (the daughters of Louis XV) lived in the Mesdames' apartments, but only 2 lived until the Revolution; Adelaide and Victoire. The Gallery of Great Battles is the most important of the historic galleries in Versailles. It shows about 1500 years of French military wins, through approximately 30 drawings.

Grand Trianon

Interior of Grand Trianon

Garden of Grand Trianon

Petit Trianon

King Louis XVI's queen, Marie Antoinette, created an area for herself near the Grand Trianon. She became owner of a building called the Petit Trianon and building many structures nearby. As the French government moved into Versailles, King Louis XVI built the Grand Trianon for himself. It is a very small marble building, roughly a mile from the actual Palace of Versailles. This was used as a private place where he could relax from all his daily work.

North Parterre

Latona's fountain

Ceres fountain, Latona's fountain, Bacchus fountain

Latona's fountain

Apollo's Fountain

Apollo's fountain

Swan at Apollo's fountain

Swan at Apollo's Fountain

Apollo's music fountain

music fountain

Three Fountains Grove

Garden

Latona's fountain & Parterre

Garden

Water features of many kinds are a crucial part of French gardens, even more than plant designs and groves. At Versailles, they include waterfalls, spurts of water, and the surface of the water reflecting the sun and sky. The most famous of the water features in Versailles is the musical fountain show. All the fountains and groves have both Baroque period music and water jets. Several routes can help you enjoy the many masterpieces in the gardens. The grand finale for these shows is at the Neptune Fountain, which lasts about 10 minutes or 3 songs with 99 water spouts. We walked through many lovely fountains with tall jets of water and great music playing. Swans swam freely in the fountains and on the ground.

Neptune fountain

Neptune music fountain show 1

Neptune music fountain show 2

At the entrance to Versailles

Versailles is a very amazing palace. It has a rich history, full of many things. The interior of the palace can help someone learn plenty new about France then and now. The musical fountain shows are a very pretty show that sadly, can’t be put on every day of the year. I wish I could go through this day a couple more times.