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Published: August 12th 2014
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Louis xiv who built the chateau, referred to himself as the 'sun' emperor because he was insistent on being the centre of attention. Day 2:
We were picked up by a driver at 8am and were joined by another 2 couples from America to go to Versailles.
After all of half an hour - we arrived. The driver - Serge said to meet him in half an hour as he had to go and get everything ready for us so have a look around or have coffee but meet him in half an hour - don't be late! So we had a coffee - exclusive coffee house which specialises in poor coffee and exorbitant prices. Must think about having tea instead although it costs just as much.
We met Serge and like the Eiffel Tower, it was a Skip the Queue deal, so we expected that he had everything ready and in we would go inside the Palace of Versailles. ( Chateau de Versailles). However, Serge hadn't got all the necessary documents/audios etc and we waited for him for almost another half an hour - not happy Jan! He blamed it on a computer glitch ..... anyway, we eventually got in to the Chateau.
The palace was occupied by all the Louis' except for Louis Vuitton!! Three French kings have
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Hall of Mirrors which was the first introduction of mirrors in Europe. occupied the Chateau and made improvements to it, each in their own way. Interesting to hear about Marie-Antoinette, and am sure the history buffs amongst you would know all about it.
The Palace/chateau has an interesting history and tells the story of the King Louis's over the centuries, Hall of Mirrors, Marie-Antoinette and how many nobles rent apartments within the Chateau. It includes some beautiful 18th Century French art and has extensive gardens surrounding a man made lake which is now used for rowing and other water sports. The rooms were huge, massive chandeliers and furnishings, although sparse, were quite opulent, many with gold somewhere in each room. Mind you they had feathers on top of the bedframes which were very dusty.
Many of the paintings - like the chateau itself, has had many repairs done to it over the centuries - apparently paint flakes onto the floors over time and must be redone and maintained.
Anyone interested in reading the history can go online -
www.en.chateauversailles.fr Arriving back from Versailles we decided to walk to Musee des Invalides and Dome des Invalides - just a few kilometres away - quite a nice walk along the
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Wing of the Chateau and a small section of the gardens which overall comprised of many acres incorporating a few lakes and fountains. banks of the Seine with so much activity going on you just don't notice how far you've actually walked. The Dome des Invalides is one of the most sacred monuments as it contains the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte in his tomb of sculptured red quartzite set on a green granite base. Napoleon was rumoured to have had his bone removed after death by an abbott and later it was sold for $38,000. So Bonaparte has a whole new meaning.
The building was built for the wounded soldiers and now houses a trillion artefacts which would blow the socks off war historians. It contains hundreds of statues with armory, weapons and for the true die hards, there are numerous electronic tables with accompanying audio revealing the total battle fought by the French over the centuries. A battle strategy enthusiast would have loved it there and would spend days checking it out. Further info -
www.muusee-armee.fr Too tired to walk home we were fortunate enough to find a free bus which took us close to home. While walking along we saw a horse and cart and a bride and groom - the bride was wearing a pink frothy gown. By
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Life size presentation in full armor of a French knights and horse. time we got home we had to have a nanny nap - it was a long day!
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