On to Versailles
Posted 06-23-2013 at 01:15 PM by Fortoggie
No one wants to travel to France and to Paris without also visiting The Chateau de Versailles.
I must have been standing behind the door in history class, when the famous chateau was mentioned. Actually I'm pretty sure that it was never mentioned, at any rate I came upon Versailles as a complete greenhorn, I never knew that it existed.
So from downtown Paris we took the Metro and travelled under the city for most of the way, with the last few miles being above ground. It's easy now to pull up the famous chateau on the web but I never had. Wow! What an eye opener. It was here that King Louis XIV put together the largest government complex up to that time. What extravagance, what opulence!
But then I read that he had brought in his Nobles and Lords from all over France, first so that he could keep an eye on them and secondly so that he could administer the kingdom, from a central location. He used the large complex as a hotel and as a demonstration of his power. It was here that he impressed leaders from all over Europe.
The grounds had some beautiful gardens and the larger rooms were for giant dinners, plays and other entertainment.This happened in the late 1600's, and it's hard to imagine, but America had no cities bigger than a small village at that time, no organized government and no one with a grand vision.
Later we came back into the city to tour the world renowned church; Notre Dame. Here we learned that the church had been started in AD 1163 and that work had gone on for some seven hundred years. To my knowledge no history goes back that far in America.
At best it was a whirlwind tour, to much to absorb and far too much to remember, still there are photos and brochures, books and websites that help fill in the blanks of a city that goes all the way back to before Christ, when the Romans ruled the area.
I must have been standing behind the door in history class, when the famous chateau was mentioned. Actually I'm pretty sure that it was never mentioned, at any rate I came upon Versailles as a complete greenhorn, I never knew that it existed.
So from downtown Paris we took the Metro and travelled under the city for most of the way, with the last few miles being above ground. It's easy now to pull up the famous chateau on the web but I never had. Wow! What an eye opener. It was here that King Louis XIV put together the largest government complex up to that time. What extravagance, what opulence!
But then I read that he had brought in his Nobles and Lords from all over France, first so that he could keep an eye on them and secondly so that he could administer the kingdom, from a central location. He used the large complex as a hotel and as a demonstration of his power. It was here that he impressed leaders from all over Europe.
The grounds had some beautiful gardens and the larger rooms were for giant dinners, plays and other entertainment.This happened in the late 1600's, and it's hard to imagine, but America had no cities bigger than a small village at that time, no organized government and no one with a grand vision.
Later we came back into the city to tour the world renowned church; Notre Dame. Here we learned that the church had been started in AD 1163 and that work had gone on for some seven hundred years. To my knowledge no history goes back that far in America.
At best it was a whirlwind tour, to much to absorb and far too much to remember, still there are photos and brochures, books and websites that help fill in the blanks of a city that goes all the way back to before Christ, when the Romans ruled the area.
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Comments
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You have described The Chateau de Versailles very beautifully, now I also want to go there. Thanks for sharing this information with us.Posted 06-24-2013 at 05:26 AM by Claudia Barajas
