Chateau de Versailles

On our last day in Paris we went to Chateau de Versailles.  Versailles was the palace of all the Louis Kings and where Marie Antoinette lived.  Lots of movies were filmed here including Marie-Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst.  

It is unbelievably enormous.  There are hundreds of acres of gardens.  The palace itself is enormous too.  It is still adorned with most of the furniture and decor as it was left before the royal family was guillotined during the French Revolution.  When we were there you could tell they were preparing the gardens for flowers but there were none planted yet.  It would be great to see Versailles in May I think.  I do recommend buying tickets in advance, we waited an obscene amount of time in line.  The train ride to Versailles is very nice though as well as the town it is connected too.  

Approaching the front entrance.

The ridiculous line.

The gardens directly behind the palace, still gorgeous even with out the flowers.

The gold front gate.

The front of the palace.

The Dauphine de France bed chamber.  A lot of kings were born in this room.  In Versailles there were apartments for the Dauphin and Dauphine who were next to inherit the throne.  Dauphine literally means dolphin but also means Prince to inherit the throne.

Dauphin's office

When the Dauphin is young this was there learning rooms.  The globe was designed by one of the kings for the Dauphin to learn geography and terrain.

Dauphin's bed chamber.

A princess

Library

The first floor of the royal chapel.  It is the tallest part of the palace because the Kings believed it should be the closest thing to God.

The 2nd floor of the royal chapel

The painting on the left is of Marie-Antoinette and her children.

The famous Hall of Mirrors.

I definitely couldn't do my make up in those mirrors.

Marie-Antoinette Bust in the Queens Bed Chambers

The Queens bedroom.  

The door Marie-Antoinette escaped through during the start of the French Revolution when the Parisians raided the palace.  She and her family were eventually captured and guillotined.  She was beheaded 9 months after her husband. 

The King's bedroom.

Where the King met with his advisors

The gardens and fountains.

They had a very random and huge sheep farm

Marie-Antoinette's private house that we unfortunately didn't have time to go into :(

Versailles is really amazing I really recommend seeing it.  Be sure to have an entire day, get there early.  We got there late morning so the line was really long.  The train to Versailles from Paris is 20-30 minutes.  I would also recommend seeing Marie-Antoinette's house and the gardens early because they close earlier in the day.  Next time I will do that.  

Next posts will be Vienna and Budapest!