An American Girl's Travels in Europe: Versailles

Versailles

Versailles was probably the one place I was looking forward to seeing more than anything the entire trip. I had heard only amazing things about it. The palace and the gardens did not disappoint. If you've ever been to Hearst Castle and thought it was amazing, you haven't even scratched the surface of the enormity and grandeur of Versailles.

They are doing some construction on the train stations, and so my plan to be there not too long after opening was set back by about an hour as I waited on trains, and took bus detours. Around 11 I finally reached my destination. I stopped in and picked up my Paris Museum Pass from the local tourist office. Like in the other cities, this gives you all access to the museums of Paris and in most cases the ability to cut the line. Such a great investment! I walked up to the Palace and after recovering from the size of it, I examined the size of the line (almost as large lol). I heard some people talking in English and they said they'd been told the line was 2 hours long. I'd read and been told by a few people that if you got there late, you should tour the gardens and Marie Antoinette's estate and THEN go back and do the palace when the crowds have migrated to the grounds. So this was what I planned to do. As I was trying to determine where I was going to go first I (almost literally bumped into Natalia and Juliana. They were just exiting the palace and heading into the gardens. We decided to tour the estate together. I was glad to have bumped into them. I can only describe that as a God thing, because the of the size of the estate and the crowds there. We walked through the gardens and then found a shady spot by the grand canal to sit, eat lunch, and watch the people in the row boats on the grand canal.

Versailles was originally the creation of Louis XIV who didn't want to live in Paris anymore. He moved his entire court and family outside of Paris about a 1/2 hour. The main palace housed the court and their families, the meeting areas for the government, royal housing apartments, dining rooms, ballrooms, meeting rooms for government work, an opera house and much more. Louis and his 2 namesake successors felt that this space was rather too crowded for their tastes, so the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon were built as summer retreats for the royal family. Marie Antoinette even contributed to the estate by having an English hamlet reproduced complete with farm, sheep and a small pond. Walking into the hamlet is like stepping into a fairytale land. It is so quiet and cute and peaceful. The landscape looks as Dave Contreras said "This would make the perfect jigsaw puzzle scene." After wandering the gardens and the outer estates I split from the sisters to go see the main palace. They were going to hang out in the gardens. We had by no means seen all of the estate as it is 160+ acres!

I got to the main palace and found a 20 min line ahead of me! SCORE!!! :)

I walked through the large palace marvelling at what the walls would say if they could talk about the many years of history and events of importance that occurred there. My favorite room in the palace was the Hall of Mirrors. Standing in the room filled with people I took a minute to think of the conference that took place in 1918-1920 in this very room where the fate of Germany was decided forever changing the world. In technicality the signing of the treaty there ended WWI, but many would (I think justifiably) argue that it was here that the road to WWII began. Knowing that I was in a room where one leaders who at one time represented over 3/4 of the world's population made that decision was very powerful. When I teach about this treaty we talk about the "what ifs" of that treaty. What if Germany had had a say, What if Europe had been more forgiving and also What IF Woodrow Wilson had agreed to meet with a young Ho Chi Minh who was seeking answers about democracy? What would our world look like? Fast forward to the end of WWII, and we look at some of those what ifs again. IF some of those things had happened, Hitler would've probably not had the control and support from the people that he did. While many would argue that a good thing, it also means the Holocaust wouldn't have happened (another good thing) but it also means the Jewish people wouldn't have scattered all over the world, and then desired to have their own place, their own land. Israel would probably not be the same as it is today. It's just another example of how God has perfectly orchestrated the events of history even when we don't see His hand at work, and feel like He has abandoned us.

The grandeur is almost too great for words in describing the palace. It was probably one of my favorite places of the trip so far. I loved the peaceful serenity of the gardens, and if I lived there I would frequent the free gardens on a regular basis.

After Versailles, I headed back to meet up with the 4 girls at the Eiffel Tower again at 10pm. We got some of our communication lines crossed as we waited for each other at different carousels near the tower, but I had a much better view of the other side of the tower and the fountains on the trocadero.

It was another late night as I watched the sunset and the tower light up again. So beautiful!