The Palace of Versailles

When my family and I visited Paris in February of this year (2020), we did get a chance to visit the beautiful Palace of Versailles. It was a very windy and cold day, so we were limited to the main entrance and the inside and could not go out into the garden. Still, the palace is very beautiful.

My family at the entrance to the Palace of Versailles.

This was a trip with all our kids, all of whom are in this photo.

A street near the Palace of Versailles.

Of course to get to the Palace of Versailles you have to take public transportation which can mean a train, Uber or other. This is a street near palace.

An imposing building, built by a king.

Everything at the Palace of Versailles seems to be excess, but that was the era of Louis XIV.

I don’t know the name of this statue.

One can see that the sculptor tried to inject some kind of political statement about “on the backs of others” in my opinion of this statue at the Palace.

The Palace of Versailles has a very large entrance.

One can just imagine the various ladies in their large dresses and the gentlemen in their overstate outfits walking up these steps to visit the king.

A special place to worship.

If you’re the king you get to build your own place to worship, complete with organ. No, they did not play it for us while there.

Pretty good detail in this wall sculpture.

When walking the halls of the palace you can expect to see art of various forms everywhere.

Long hallways evoke the line from Jack Lemmon after walking one like it, “That was exhausting!”

Statues line most of the long hallways of the palace.

Statues everywhere you look in the halls.

All the statues were of various people or more. I couldn’t begin to list them and didn’t try to keep track during my short visit.

I guess he’s no longer with us.

I don’t remember it being a tomb, but I think it was meant as a way to honor a valiant knight.

The gardens of the Palace of Versailles.

The fountains were not running in the gardens because the winds were blowing very, very hard. The trams tours of the garden were also cancelled. This photo was taken from a window on the side of the palace facing the gardens. I wonder what it’s like to mow those lawns and trim those hedges?

Ceiling art.

Not just satisfied with paintings on the walls of the many rooms, the king had paintings done on the ceilings of many of the large rooms.

Very large paintings everywhere.

As you can see, the paintings hanging in many of the large rooms are not small at all.

One wall of paintings in one very large room at the Palace of Versailles.

When the room is larger, have even more paintings commissioned. Empty spaces are not something the king wanted in his palace.

Pondering the paintings is something many do.

The gold leaf above the huge “walk-in” fireplace and the huge painting caused this lady to stop and ponder her ideas for decorating her house, I am sure.

I hope you enjoyed this visit to the Palace of Versailles.

You can click on this link to see the photos and read about the visit to the Eiffel Tower.

There are more photos from the Eades’ family tour of the Palace of Versailles and you can click on this link to see them.