Paris Day Five: Palace of Versailles

"The Château de Versailles began as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge before his son Louis XIV transformed and expanded it, moving the court and government of France to Versailles in 1682. Each of the three French kings who lived there until the French Revolution added improvements to make it the most beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art."

The negatives: 

• It was, again, ridiculously busy at the Palace of Versailles. When we were visiting the King's Grand Apartments, I was quite disgusted by the body odour of some of the other tourists that I was squished up against. 
• Luckily the weather was lush, but it was too sunny! The sun was really strong and since the grounds and palace were mostly all white, it was all reflecting into my eyes. Furthermore, I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses, so my eyes were killing. 

The positives: 

• Everything else! The palace was beautiful, so excessive and extravagant. 

From the outside.

Th famous hall of mirrors

There were many marble statues.

The gardens were nice, but nowhere near as good as ones in England. In France, there is too much sandy white gravel, not enough green!

I think they are planning on planting more plants here, as outlines are marked out with chalk.

The elaborate ceiling of one room.

A water fountain of some people on horses drowning

This sign in front of Musee d'Orsay is funny. 

• Today I had the chance to try out some snails, or escargot for the first time and I loved it! They taste pretty much the same as other shellfish and mollescus, which I love anyway, so they were great. They had a lovely garlic, herbs and olive oil sauce drizzled over them and it was delish.

Last half day tomorrow!


Rebecca x

P.S. Replying to Wendy's comment on yesterday's post about the scariness of Montmarte: I know it's crazy! I just read something online about these guys who were at the bottom of the hill carrying threads of string. Apparently they ask you for your wrist to try out the string for length, and they quickly braid it into a bracelet and tie it around your wrist, which can't be untied by yourself. Then they demand an extortionate price for the rope bracelet, which you can't refuse to pay, as you can't take the bracelet off and they'll keep holding on to both you and the bracelet until you cough up the money. I'm so glad that I quickly walked past these people and didn't make any eye contact with the creepy men, as I was concerned that I might get attacked or stabbed or something worse...