Versailles!
Elyssa: “Why is that ….shining down there?” (pointing down the street last night as we got off the train from Paris in Versailles at the end of our day).
Lisa: “Uh…that’s the palace. It’s gilded and shines at night with the lights on the gold part.”
“Oh…wow.”
Only those who travel to places where they speak another language can fully understand the kind of fatigue the feels like one is asleep the whole afternoon and evening each day. Trying to maneuver within the culture and the language, and be savily aware of one’s surroundings in dangerous settings in such a state can be daunting as well as exhausting. I think that is why we have things like the palace of Versailles. One glimpse of it peeking through the walkways keeps us aware of why we came.
Since getting ourselves together for the next day has been requiring about three hours each evening (sounds impossible but trust me), and since the Bistro Romain incident put us out of commission (obtaining an international phone to be able to contact people for such matters as cancelling service of the stolen I phone, finding and filing a report with the Commissariat de Police, etc. etc.) for about a full day of our stay, we have never switched our body clocks to France time, and have been crunching our short winter days with rapid fire sight-seeing until we drop at night. In true form, therefore, today was a blitz starting with brunch at Marie-Helenes house (lovely pastry, great coffee made by our beloved Aurelien, Marie-H’s son, and a therapeutic bonding with their new chat ‘Tommie” and their five singing finches. Sweet!
After brunch, we scurried across the street and down to the Chateau……
Elyssa here: What amazed me about the Chateau was the sheer opulence of the lifestyle that every detail inside it stood for. Also it seems to me that King Louis XIV was the first example, if not the best, of brilliant successful personal branding. Everything detail in the castle was about him: right down to the door handles made in the likeness of his face as the sun. He called himself the “Sun King” and he and all those around him proceeded as though he were the one in control of even the daylight. He created a culture where he was so revered that his nobles even fought over which of them got to accompany him for ‘sa toilette’ in the mornings! (Leaving it up to your imagination what that was like) It was considered a rare honor. Right.
Seriously, if you have people fighting over that, you have really pulled one over on the world. Non?
Each room in the Chateau has some purpose surrounding his greatness and his condescension to his subjects. He was the true original experience designer, crafting every moment spent in the castle to cause reverence of him and satisfaction of earthly desires with pleasure – a perfect example is the Hall of Mirrors (which, though mirrors had not been made by the French before, he insisted they learn how and make a whole reception hall of them, floor to ceiling-the first gig of St. Gobain, by the way). Upon entering the Chateau, a person was received through an awe inspiring giant hall of these mirrors, reflecting the light from the tall windows across from them, and slowly made his or her way to the Sun King at the opposite end.
His plan (nearly perfectly executed) was to cater to every desire of his nobles (hence the opulent lifestyle he encouraged in his castle) in order to keep everyone under his spell. But it couldn’t last. Just to build the Chateau in Versailles, he used one half of all the income of France for a year. It’s no wonder that the French Revolution happened under the watch of Louis XIV’s grandson, Louis XVI. Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette were the two that lost their heads when the people rose up against the royal family and the nobility.
I also find it fascinating that what Marie Antoinette seems to be most known for around the Chateau was….her redecoration of many of the main rooms. I’m pretty sure that she did not actually say “Let them eat cake” but learning about her and examining the bust (of herself) that she put in her own bedroom, I’d say that’s likely the kind of lady she was…
If I ever commission someone to sculpt a bust of me…someone - pleas stop me.
Lisa here…yeah, I am with you on that. Secret doorways for night time activities (again, imagination here), lavish silk wallpaper changed every season back in the day, rich colors ranging from the deep burgundy velvets, to very pastel roses in minute detail, an in-house opera for dance, plays, concerts (Louis supported richly such masters as Moliere and Lully, and even fancied himself as a dancer), not to mention the multitudes of art masterpieces that he was constantly buying from all over the world, and always gold…gold everywhere….light reflection, motion, massive lively fountains that reflected in the halls of the interior-Versailles was a place of extremes, and a truly monumental experience for all who were fortunate enough to have been invited there. A mélange of the good, the bad and the ugly, it still is.
There was enough time to stop at the fleurist for a gorgeous Christmas rose and pine bouquet fit for Marie-Helene’s father, who had invited us to dinner this evening. We were received by a gracious host, who was also our chef for the evening. We dined on beef roast, dauphinois, of course des fromages, une baguette, and for dessert four different kinds of pastries from the local patisserie ranging from meringues to baba au rhum. During the course of the evening, it became evident that he was, in that grandfatherly French way, especially impressed with Elyssa, as he directed certain questions to her with apparent delight at her attempts to answer in French. As expected, the conversation was interesting and ranged from the various ways that French guys woo their women, to the various differences between religion in France and religion in America, (if that can be approached in any setting at all, it would be with a Frenchman in his home over wine and dinner). Impeccable! Let’s do it again soon.
