Paris Day 4: Celebrating people with way too much money!

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Hi Everybody!
Today I went to visit the Palace of Versailles. Built by King Louis the XIV, the Sun King. Apparently he turned his old hunting lodge into a palace and used it to entertain the French Nobility with games and parties in order to distract them from politics. So he could run the country however he wanted. Louis the XIV reigned for 72 years and then Versailles became home to Louis the XV and then King Louis the XVI who got his head chopped off. After seeing Versailles, I can see how the excesses of its royalty could have lead the people to boiling resentment. At the peak of the revolution the people stormed Versailles and abducted the King and Queen because they were tired of them hiding out in their palace.
The palace itself as an attraction leaves something to be desired. There were WAY too many people. And I didn't even go on a free day! The line was huge and once you get into the palace you are surrounded by mobs.
And there weren't any furnishings. The ceiling paintings were cool, and I enjoyed the Hall of mirrors but the real beauty of Versailles is the gardens. They are 8 miles long. The man made lake is one mile long all by itself and is shaped like a cross. It takes an hour just to walk to the main points of interest.
There is an Orangery, and the garden has smaller palace-like houses spaced around it. The fountains were beautiful. I had a picnic lunch on the bench near the Orangery.
The fountains were also beautiful. The two major ones are right in the center of the garden. The first one features Apollo and Diana as children with their mother surrounded by reptiles and amphibians who used to be peasents. The second fountain is of Apollo himself, and is called appropriatly: the Apollo fountain.
After Versailles I came back to Paris and walked around Notre-dame. I found an english bookstore! I hung out there for a while. I went down in the crypts beneath Notre-dame to see the roman ruins.
Then I walked to Sainte-Chappelle, which is a beautiful 12 century church, filled top to bottom with original stain glass windows. I actually wasn't expecting it. I went there because the guide book said it was a great place and I figured you can't go wrong with churches since they are bound to be pretty. (Plus it was on the way to my metro stop and covered by my museum pass.) So I walked in and was completely blown away. Its only one room (and a gift shop downstairs) but what a room! Beautiful! I can't believe that those windows are hundreds of years old. Amazing.

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Photos

Hall of Mirrors
There are 27 windows opposite 27 matching mirrors. the windows look out over the garden.

Latona Basin
The statue is of Apollo, Diana, and their mother. The reptiles represent the peasants that ridiculed her for having Zeus's children. He turned them into frogs and turtles for her.

Sainte-Chapelle
This is pretty much the whole room. Each window represents a book of the bible. Behind me was the giant round rose window that represented the book of Revelations.

Sainte-Chappelle from the outside
Built from 1242 to 1248, most of the windows are original.