Versailles

Day Two

After breakfast at the hotel, my colleagues and I proceeded with our hotel check out. We then boarded the train back to Gare de Lyon station along with our luggage. Reason was to deposit our luggage at the train station before visiting the next destination: Palace of Versailles.

Versailles is located in the western suburbs 17.1-km from centre of Paris. The nearest train station to the Palace is RER Versailles Rive Gauche station. Do note that there is a station with similar name 'Viroflay Rive Gauche', which is just few stations before the actual one. Therefore it is advisable for visitors to be aware of the difference to avoid alighting at wrong station. Once we got out from the train station, we then turned right along the main road until a cross junction where we took a left turn, and walked towards the palace.

Before reaching, we already could see the palace (left photo below) from far and the majestic statue of Louis XIV (right photo below) stands in the Ministers' Courtyard.



Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles, also known as Château de Versailles in French, began its construction in 1668 by the Sun King – Louis XIV. Starting from a modest hunting lodge, it became the largest palace in Europe and able to house 20,000 people at a time. It is a privileged place both of residence and the exercise of power of the French monarchy from Louis XIV to Louis XVI. The Palace gardens are formally styled into regular patterns of paths and groves, hedges and flowerbeds, pools of water and fountains.

The Palace and Gardens of Versailles is listed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979.

The architectural planning and the majestic composition of the landscape form a close symbiosis, serving as a setting for the magnificence of the interior decorations of the apartments.

Palace Courtyards

The Main Palace Gate is a gateway grille, surrounded by Royal Arms, marks the entrance to the Ministers' Courtyard (left photo below). At end of the courtyards lies the elevated Marble Courtyard which is decorated with beautiful marble paving (right photo below).



The clock (left photo below) on top of the building is flanked by sculptures of Hercules and Mars. The glided roofs (right photo below) added exquisiteness and elegance to the building façade.

Royal Chapel

The two-storey Baroque style Chapel (left photo below) was Louis XIV's last addition to the palace. Completed in 1707 by Robert de Cotte, the intricate detailing of the chapel's ceiling (right photo below and bottom left photo) contains paintings by the artists Jouvet, Coypel, and La Fosse. The front altar is sculpted out of marble which is decorated with gilded bronze (bottom right photo); the spot where many royal events occurred.

Seventeenth Century Rooms

In the North Wing between the chapel and the opera, the 17th century rooms are an essential addition to the royal residence as they explained the creation of Versailles in terms of its historic and artistic context. They also portray the characters, events and scenes from the life of the court within the château throughout the long reign of Louis XIV (photos below).





Besides paintings, marble Sculptures are arranged along the corridors of the palace (photos below).

The King's Grand Apartment

Part of the State Apartments, the King's Grand Apartment consists of seven salons (or drawing rooms) with novelty in the 1670s. Hercules Salon was the first salon we visited in the King's Grand Apartment where the painting Eliezer and Rebecca by Paul Veronese (left photo below) hang above the fireplace. The next salon was The Abundance Salon that was meant to serve refreshments to distinguished guests (right photo below).



Just beside Abundance Salon is The Venus Salon (left photo below). On state evenings, tables were set out with baskets of flowers and pyramids of fresh fruits. This salon has the most baroque décor, where the sculpture (right photo below) and the paintings are sometimes real and sometimes false.



The Diana Salon served as a vestibule to the State Apartment. The ceiling panels are adorned with hunting scenes (left photo below) involving heroes from Antiquity, while The Mars Salon (right photo below) was used as a ballroom for music and dancing on state evenings.



The Mercury Salon was the ceremonial bedchamber of the State Apartment, although the bed in question was taken away during the winter to make room for more games tables. Do look up as the vaulted ceiling panels are decorated with beautiful paintings (photos below).

The Hall of Mirrors and its Salons

The Salon of War (left photo below) is the connecting room that leads to the famous Hall of Mirrors. In the hall, thirty compositions of the vaulted ceilings (right photo below) illustrated the glorious story of Louis XIV during the first 18 years of his personal government.



The principal feature of this renowned Hall of Mirrors is the 17 mirror-clad arches that reflect the 17 arcaded windows that overlook the gardens. Each arch contains 21 mirrors with a total complement of 357 used in the decoration (photos below). Construction on the hall and its two salons continued until 1684, at which time it was pressed into use for court and state functions. Sadly many attributes of the Hall of Mirrors were lost to war for financial purposes, such as the silver table pieces and guéridons were melted by order of Louis XIV in 1689 to finance the War of the League of Augsburg. Nevertheless this hall still remains the most splendid and renowned room in the Palace of Versailles.

The Coronation Room

The Coronation Room was completely transformed in the 19th century when King Louis-Philippe turned Versailles into a museum. The paintings displayed in this room thus refer to the Napoleonic era. The large painting "Distribution of The Eagles on the Champs De Mars in 1804" was painted by Jacques-Louis David (left photo below). The other famous painting "The Coronation of Napoleon I and Josephine" (right photo below) is a replica painted by original painter Jacques-Louis David from the first version now displayed in Louvre Museum.

The Battle Gallery

The Battle Gallery was created in 1837 with a length of 120-meters. It occupies most of south wing that was built much earlier in 1681 to house the princes of the royal families. Five beautiful apartments on the first floor and fourteen quarters for courtiers in the attic were destroyed to make way for this gallery. In 35 large paintings and 82 busts, the Hall of Battles illustrates the exploits of the major military figures of France (photos below).

The Private Apartments

The King's Bedchamber is part of the King's Private Apartment (photos below). It came to be located in the centre of the château in 1701. The bedchamber was also where individual audiences were held – or ceremonial audiences for ambassadors – and swearing-in ceremonies for highest offices. The room retained its original décor after the Revolution and in particular the paintings.

Garden of Versailles

To enter the gardens, valid entry tickets are required and it's not surprising to see long queues at the ticket offices (left photo below) on weekends. Luckily my colleague and I bought our online tickets that included the garden entry. So we just showed our printed tickets and got our access granted without having to wait in the line.

The gardens of Versailles occupy part of the royal demesne of the palace, covering some 800-hectares of land landscaped in the classic French gardens style. The water parterre which composed of two ornamental pools ended with Grand Canal (right photo below) can be clearly seen.



Garden of Versailles is a huge place; even visitor like me took 25 to 30 minutes to walk from Château to Petit Trianon. Therefore it's good to have Petit Train (left photo below) for visitors who are rushing for time or don't want to walk long distances. Sounds familiar with the word Petit? It means 'small' or 'little' in French. However the price per ride is not petit, it costs EUR 3.50 just for a single trip (right photo below).

Petit Trianon

Due to the limited time, we could only visit the Petit Trianon (photos below). Located at the north-west of the Château de Versailles, this small château was built between 1762 and 1768 by orders of Louis XV for his long-term mistress. Upon accession to the throne in 1774, the 20 year old King Louis XVI gave the château and its surrounding park to his 19 year old Queen Marie Antoinette for her exclusive use and enjoyment. The château of the Petit Trianon is a celebrated example of the transition from the Rococo style of the earlier part of the 18th century, to the more sober and refined, Neoclassical style of the 1760s and onward.





The Rock (left photo below) together with the octagonal Music Pavilion (right photo below) were built in 1777, stands beside a lake.

The Queen's Hamlet

The Queen's Hamlet (left photo below) is a village created between 1783 and 1785. It consists of 12 houses with thatched roofs, which is inspired by the hamlets of Normandy. The Malborough tower (right photo below) overlooks the fishing weir as well as the milking dairy used for cheese making.



Five of the houses were reserved for the use of the Queen and her guests: the Queen's House, Billiard Room, Boudoir, Mill and Refreshments Dairy. While four houses were reserved for the occupancy of the peasants: the Farm and its annexes, the Barn, the Dovecote and Preparation Dairy (photos below).

Fountains of Versailles

The Water Parterre, or Parterre d'Eau in French, has two pools and each pool is ringed with four reclining bronze statues representing the rivers of France as well as four nymphs and four groups of children, such as The Seine (left photo below). The water parterre cannot be viewed separately from the fountain known as Animals in Combat or Combats des Animaux in French, finished in 1687 (right photo below).



The Latona Basin illustrates the legend of Apollo's mother and Diana protecting her children from insults of the peasants of Lycia and asking Jupiter to avenge her, which he did by turning them into frogs and lizards (photos below).



The Apollo Fountain represented by impressive and celebrated group of statues of Apollo and his horse chariot, made between 1668 and 1670 (photos below).





Fountain of Neptune (photos below) is built between 1679 and 1681 and was then called the 'Pool below the Dragon' or the 'Fir Tree Pool'. It consists of three groups of sculptures: Neptune and Amphitrite, Proteus and the Ocean God with variety of water jets that compose an extraordinary aquatic spectacle.



Dragon Fountain depicts one of the episodes of the legend of Apollo: the Python snake killed by an arrow shot by young Apollo (photos below). The reptile is surrounded by dolphins and Cupids armed with bows and arrows riding on swans (bottom left photo). The fountain's centerpiece is the winged monster capable of jetting water up to 27-meters into the air (bottom right photo).

We left the palace at about 3 pm for our train back to Switzerland.

Day Pass to Versailles

One-Day Pass (all inclusive) is available for EUR 20 on weekdays / EUR 25 on weekends (Apr – Oct) or EUR 16 (Nov – Mar). Individual ticket is also available to Château-only, Marie-Antoinette's Estate and Grand Trianon-only or The Grandes Eaux Musicales-only. My advice is to get the tickets online (left photo below) as the price is the same and best of all, avoids queuing up for the tickets at the counters.

Palace of Versailles opens daily (except Mondays when the château is closed) from 0900 to 1730 hours (Nov – Mar) or 0900 to 1830 hours (Apr – Oct).

Dinner Onboard

We meet up with another colleague at the Gare de Lyon station. Just before we boarded the train, we got our packed Chinese dinner (right photo below) and had it during our train ride. After a long train ride, we reached Neuchâtel at 2107 hours.



With this, it ended my final visit to Paris.