Paris #4 - Versailles

I don't really know if I have one overriding highlight of this trip, but this stop is definitely in contention for the spot. The Chateau de Versailles began its life as Louis XIV's hunting lodge, a little ways west of Paris; just far enough that messengers could reach it quickly but far enough that you couldn't commute. By expanding the facility into a massive pleasure palace of gardens, banquets and Neo-classical opulence, Louis XIV effectively made the irritable and dangerous French nobility his personal housepets. 

The building itself is a gaudy, ostentatious, even obscene monument to Louis XIV's greatness. The man who fancied himself the "Sun King" has his face in every gold-dripping room. I can't imagine how his descendants managed to get over the inferiority complex of living in the man's gilded shadow. 

Now, it's overrun nearly every day by a small army of tourists. Something about being in the place where international treaties have been signed (ex: the one that ended WWI) and legendary personalities have walked gave the place a really powerful sense of significance.

The Big Man himself, in all his self-aggrandizing glory

The front gates positively glowed! The myth is that the place is somehow a testament to the glory of all of France,  but since Louis himself was the one to coin the phrase "l'etat, c'est moi", I'm not surprised that the glory of France and the glory of Louis were often quite heavily cross-fertilised

There was a bit of a lineup. 

Louis' real bed chambers are the three windows on the first floor. He could wake up and see all the way down the massive open square and the town of Versailles beyond. It points East, to the rising sun, naturally

There was a big hall of famous French kings, courtiers and generals.

The chateau's chapel. According to Rick, the congregation sat downstairs and their chairs didn't face the altar but Louis' balcony seat. They essentially worshipped Louis worshipping God. Classy.

Every ceiling in the place, and I mean pretty much *every* ceiling, is covered in master-quality paintings of mythic figures, often allegorical of Louis's virtues and successes

Marble, also, has a special place in Versailles. Or rather, every place. 'Cause it's everywhere.

Here's Louis as a Roman Caesar. Very unsubtle abs

The Hall of Mirrors. The Piece de Resistance, as it were

Looking out the windows, you can peer at the hundreds of acres of pristine, immaculate gardens. We didn't really bother with them this time of year, mostly because we were only interested in spending half a day there.

The individual detail on things never failed to impress me.

Picture of Louis and one of his successful states-craft episodes. I think this one if accepting someone's surrender

This statue of Diana, goddess of the hunt, is a drop in the neo-classical bucket that is Versailles. Louis loved his Greco-Roman mythology

After the palace, we went hunting for food in this quaint little street and found a lovely little Chinese place.

An English Canadian ordering Dutch beer in a Chinese restaurant in France.  Vive la globalisation!