last weekend some friends and i made the journey out to versailles, something i’d meant to do for a while now. despite the rain at the end of the day, i definitely saw why louis xiv wanted an estate there. it’s beyond impressive - it’s the definition of decadence, grandeur, and classicism. the sheer size of the chateau is overwhelming, but walking through it is a whole other experience (and not just because i’d never imagined so many tourists could congregate at one spot in the universe it once). rooms upon rooms of velvet, gold, paintings, mirrors, and the world’s largest windows.
potentially the king’s chamber? it all sort of ran together at one point.
a detail shot of some beautiful ceiling molding.
one of my favorite rooms. it’s closed off, and i loved it just because it was so much simpler than everything else we saw. it also looked particularly elegant, empty in the sunlight like that.
once we’d decided we had taken in all the marble and cherubs we could, we ventured out into the gardens. i can’t explain to you how big these gardens are. when kant wrote about the concept of the sublime, i think he might have been thinking about the gardens of versailles (i don’t actually think that, though). they’re huge. actually, there isn’t a word for how big they are. to put it in perspective for all new yorkers out there, central park is 341 hectares large. the gardens at versailles are 800 hectares large. obviously, one could spend days just wandering the gardens and never see the same part. there’s a fantastic play on perspective when you’re looking down the grand canal from the chateau side - it looks like a fake vista ahead of you, projected onto a screen, it’s so unbelievable.
looking toward the grand canal having already walked past gardens on the side of the chateau.
from the beginning of the grand canal. you can’t even comprehend how large it truly is.
we walked around the gardens for a few hours, saw the fountain show, and ultimately found ourselves at the queen’s side estate sort of thing, where there was an exhibition on 19th century fashion and modern fashion inspired by that period. there weren’t many garments from the time period, but there were some beautiful contemporary pieces from the likes of chanel, balenciaga, dior, alexander mcqueen, thierry mugler, and yohji yamamoto, among others. unfortunately pictures weren’t allowed.
i have to recommend going to versailles to any visitor to paris who’s going for more than 3 or so days. versailles is fantastic and well worth the trip/waiting, but i wouldn’t put it before seeing paris proper if you’re only here for so much time.
that all said, i will leave you with my conquering of versailles;
