Versailles Details

 

I visited the Palace of Versailles long ago as a college student and don't remember much except for the pictures we took in the Hall of Mirrors. The photos came out really nice because of the natural lighting and I even used one of them for my casual photo in the yearbook.

 

Much older now and with an observant eye for interior details, I wanted to see it again. We had a late start from Bea's apartment on the 15th--but we also googled directions how to get there and while we were at it, downloaded the Rick Steves' audioguide to Versailles on our phone. Now we could nerd-out and listen to the history of Versailles on the train going there.

The websites we looked at even gave us tips on how to avoid the long lines, but we were lucky that there weren't any lines that day.

It was a nice quiet weekday. Too bad the sun wasn't out so my photos don't look too impressive.

The entrance fee to the palace includes a free audio guide which was a nice touch (some other places in Europe charge 3-5 euro for the use of their audio guides!) but I think the Rick Steves' guide is so much better.

I snapped a photo of this lady below wearing her Speedy with a strap. Nice idea!

There are too many things to observe in Versailles. I loved the chandeliers of course.

And look at these beautiful cremone bolts.

I love the look of distressed mirror tiles with brass trim. Antonio's has this in his Tagaytay restaurant sans the brass trim. I want to put a small touch of this in my house too.

Beautiful brass trim.

Here is the Hall of Mirrors.

Look at the detail of the hanging chandeliers. They are suspended with what looks like a rope and is topped off by a tassel.

There are gazillion painting all over the palace, each one with a story, or a symbolism of something important. I was just looking at the form of things, not really the substance.

And the famous gigantic painting, The Coronation of Napoleon. This blog I found talks about everything Napoleonic. Apparently, the original of this painting is in the Louvre.

Time to head to the gardens... oooh, nice black and white floor.

The gardens are so vast and beautiful but it was way too cold to stroll around.

We walked down until the Fountain of Apollo, but we were freezing and it wasn't fun anymore.

So we headed back and decided to train back to the city. 

The Palace of Versailles is so opulent that just one visit to the palace and you know why there was a revolution in France.  (Enter soundtrack of Les Miserables: Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men....")