We signed up for a day trip to Versailles, France to see the historic palace that has been a French treasure for centuries. The weather was soggy to start with, but improved steadily throughout the day. We even managed to find and have lunch at a ‘Tex-Mex’ restaurant, and though it was a pretty good meal, the folks in France have a lot to learn about what ‘Tex- Mex’ actually consists of. Below is a picture of the double-decker bus that brought us to Versailles from Mons.

We arrived at the palace complex around 10:45 and were given free rein to view the sights as we wished. We promptly bought a couple of one- day ‘passports’ and started strolling the grounds…

The palace area is enormous…the gardens extend for several kilometers from the main ‘apartments’ that the king, queen, princes, and other assorted royalty used to live in. Everything you see in this picture (almost to the horizon) is considered to be palace property…which is now simply a proud national monument.

This area about one kilometer from the palace (the term ‘chateau’ is used…but that’s not a good enough description) was part of the royal gardens, and now is a rest area and park for the citizens.

Intricate carvings and statues are the rule rather than the exception. This pool is between the main palace ‘apartments’ and the country estates of Triannon and the petite Triannon, which were retreats for Marie Antoinette back in her day…

This is the road that leads to the Triannon area…do you think the peasants appreciated this beautiful area being kept from them when they could barely feed themselves?

But enough of the grounds… let’s go inside and see what the French royalty spent their money on…

This is the view from the King’s balcony. Below is the cathedral where services were conducted, with the royal court and the invited subjects worshipped their God…

French royalty was resplendent with thoughts of itself, and liked to commission statues and busts and display them throughout their estates. And in the true gesture of selfishness, they often fashioned and directly compared themselves to the Greek gods of old. Side note: What do you suppose the young lady at the center of the photo is doing… and why did she choose to face my way just as this photo went off?

Here’s a shot from the King’s Bedchamber…you can see that there are a ‘few’ carvings, inscriptions, and paintings throughout the royal bedroom. The royal bed is at the lower left…oh yes, nice chandelier, huh?

This is the entrance to the Hall of Mirrors, which unfortunately for us, was under renovation. It was designed as a royal passage way from the King’s apartments to the meeting chambers for matters of state. Originally, the entire hall was decked out in mirrors, and there were seventeen outside windows to ensure that enough light was refracted and reflected throughout…oh, and there was also the seventeen chandeliers for those pesky night conferences…

And everyone needs carvings on the ceiling, right? Here’s an example of some ceiling work just outside the King’s guardroom.

This photo kind of speaks for itself. As Mel Brooks noted centuries later, it is good to be the king.

If you think that Greek gods had an influence here, you would be correct.

Another great place for the royal wife to hang out…

And the final shot… the Eiffel Tower, from a distance. See, I told you we were in France…