Visiting Versailles
Visiting VersaillesThe Palace
The richness of the palace and the perfection of the gardens became a model for lots of palaces all over Europe, but none beats the original.
There’s no chance to see in a glance an entire salon because there will always dozens of persons everywhere you go. It’s impossible to make a picture different from some bodies or heads, at least, with a palace in the background.
It’s impossible to analyze many of the details, because everything is so immense, and there are so many people behind you, that you have to rush, but it is a hell of experience.
I suggest that you make several visits, each time focusing in a different angle. To start, the building. It’s huge marvelous and rich. And with thousand of beautiful details that you are unable to see, unless you repeat, and repeat, and repeat…
Address: Place d’Armes, 78000 Versailles
Website: Versailles
The Art
Now, let’s concentrate on art.
Forget for a while the palace and gardens, and look at the paintings, statues, frescoes and carvings.
Where?
Everywhere! Each salon or corridor is a tremendously rich gallery of art that could keep you busy for hours, and if, not being a French, you had to study french culture and history, you are going to meet lots of names and faces familiar to your memories
Ceilings
I repeat – One visit is not enough to appreciate all the beauty of this palace.
From my first visit I didn’t remember the ceilings, dominated by the look of everything at eyes’ level.
I had to come twice, prepared to look for details, to really enjoy the diversity and beauty of the painted ceilings.
Chandeliers
Maybe the most beautiful room in the palace (if it is possible to choose one) is the Hall of Mirrors where glass is dominant.
Seventeen large mirrors face seventeen windows, with sparkling chandeliers enhancing light and colors.
The chandeliers opened a market to lead crystal, with “Versailles” style challenging Murano or Bohemia.
PS – A few years later I found a serious challenger – In Istambul, the Dolmabahce palace
Trianon
Adjacent to the big palace, a wing with the name of Grand Trianon was built in 1687 to replace the “Trianon de porcelaine” used by Louis XIV in his unofficial loving affairs.
The building has an Italian look, and it is famous mainly for its gardens.
Website: Versailles
The Gardens
A world around the Palace, the gardens are a wide collection of fountains and lakes, surrounded by flowers carefully arranged.
Being so wide, you may use a small train to follow it, stopping in several of its more distinctive areas.
Funny, the way they use irregular measures, to compensate the errors of perspective caused by the size of the longest lake.
Perspective
It is not an example of “trompe l’oeil” art, but we may be confused by the garden’s size and proportions in Versailles.
The lake named “Grand canal” that is the axis of the gardens, is almost 1700 meters long, and it is larger at the end to reduce the perspective.
It was used to several nautical exhibitions, even with large boats, but don’t ask me how did they move them into the lake.
Louis XIV
In the huge, rich and magnificent complex of Versailles the statue of Louis XIV seems… poor and discreet.
The ambitious and vainglorious king would cut some heads if he could return and judge his successors.
