We visited Versailles today, about 45 minutes by train southwest of Paris. The town is famous for its Palace, which housed the French royalty for hundreds of years and is now a major museum.
I had read that The Louvre, which I visited yesterday, has the longest lines of any museum in the world. I can attest to the fact that they were massive, but the crowding at Versailles today was much worse! It took us about an hour in line before we could even enter!
The royal apartments were beautiful, but look at those crowds! Here’s another idea of the sea of humanity we were stuck in as we walked through the palace interior:
Yes it was as unpleasant at it seems, but I’m not sure how the museum could do a better job of managing the experience for all (save limiting tour group access). Here’s the famous Hall of Mirrors:
Thankfully the museum is more than just the palace, having extensive gardens and a separate estate that was once the home of Marie Antoinette. Most of our time at the museum was spent at these.
The gardens contain many artificial groves, each hiding fountains or statues. It would take more than one trip to fully explore these – so large are the gardens – and it’s quite romantic imagining what they must have been like when they were owned by kings.
Mum and daughter! Both were very tired when this was taken. Like for me, travel exhaustion has set in 🙂
Marie Antoinettes home was much smaller and simpler than the main palace, but it was also much more charming and seemed more like somewhere one could actually live. It also had its own separate and beautiful gardens:
While the main palace was just too full of tourists, I loved the gardens, the other home and the ham roll I bought for lunch…
I therefore proclaim ‘Operation Even the Greatest Stars’ a complete success 😉
I got the Kraftwerk reference! What do I win? 🙂