When I grew up in Indonesia, I read a Japanese comic book (manga) about French royalties that live Versailles Palace. Sounds random? Yes. It wasn't until I was adult that I learnt that the comic had a lot of lesbian elements in it. Sexual orientations aside, visiting Versailles felt like jumping into the fairy tale.
The Palace of Versailles is a symbol of absolute monarchy, which was experienced by the nation in the 1600s. It was the residence of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI (which can be differentiated by their wigs' shape and color) until the French Revolution began and people thought enough is enough and forced the royal family to move back to Paris, which is about 12.5 miles away from the palace.
It was raining a lot that day but we got lucky and got nothing but a bit drizzles when we toured the palace. I came with my University of Wisconsin/Novancia classmates as Versailles was one of the trips arranged by the school. For some reason, the program coordinators always managed to find the best tourist guide for us (or were all tourist guides in France that awesome?). For easy communication between the guide and the group, the tour guide provided us with radio receivers and earphones. She would then whisper to her radio and that way we won't confuse her with other tour groups, and the noise level in the palace was kept under control.
After 5 minutes, I decided that I really loved our tour guide! She was pretty and fun and schooled us about the history of the palace without being annoying, and every few minutes she would quizzed us.
"Who was being crowned in the "Coronation of Napoleon" painting?" Josephine.
"This Greek deity had a sun symbol on top how him. Who is he?" Appolo.
"What time does the king wake up everyday?" 7.30 am.
"What time does the public would come to his bedroom and watch the King pretend to wake up and get ready?" 8.00 am.
I wish my history teacher in school was this awesome.
The most awesome part of the Palace itself is, of course, the gardens.
The downside of being on a guided tour is that you have to follow their schedule. We were given only 30 minutes to roam around the gardens. Had it been a sunny day and no schedule, I would have spent maybe close to two hours in the gardens alone! To say that the gardens were big was an understatement. I wonder how much time the Louises spent in their gardens?
Here are some pictures of the exterior of the palace. I will update this post with pictures of the king's and queen's bedrooms, the Hall of Mirrors, and the ornate details on various parts of the palace.
0 comments:
Post a Comment