Hey, Francophiles, we’re baaccckkkkk! This was Tuesday, June 17. This was Versailles day. The palace and grounds are 12 miles outside of Paris, about a 20-minute train ride. But we had concerns because some of the trains were on strike. When we arrived at our station that morning, the ticket office was closed and there were no signs that anything was running. Undaunted, the supervisor climbed over the ticket turnstile – I did not take photos of that lest I be called as a material witness. Then suddenly someone in the group decided to try our subway tickets – they worked! So off we went . . .
[On the walk to the train station, we passed this building a few blocks from “home.” It’s an embassy, though I can’t remember whose? Unique design that’s tucked back off the street.]
[We’ve arrived – the palace is about a 1/2 mile walk from the train station.]
[We were greeted at the entrance by Louis XIV. Contrary to some published reports at the time, we did not stand in front of his statue singing, “Louie, Louie!”]
[A representative sampling of American tourists.]
[Would not sell in our neighborhood . . . like so many things of some degree of antiquity, undergoing renovation.]
[Inside, shooting back outside, in line waiting to get inside inside. This was our one mostly gray day in Paris.]
[The vestibule?]
[Where we were by architectural model . . .]
[Where we were by oil painting.]
[A Louis?]
[I don’t know what it is, but it looks complicated?]
[Reetz, what are you doing way up there?]
[A statuary hall.]
[Across a crowded room . . . an organ player.]
[Are you starting to get the idea this place is just a tad pretentious? And this is just the guest bedroom! 😉 ]
[I believe this may be called the red room – but that’s just a guess?]
[So, this is where the “selfie” thing started? Here, and in the following photos, we’re in the Hall of Mirrors.]
[The super and I shoot at cross purposes.]
[Check any list of the most delightful things on Earth, a cherub’s butt is gonna rank right up there!]
[A view of the gardens. Thankful for open windows as it was a rather tight squeeze going through the living quarters.]
[Bill checks with his broker to determine whether Versailles is for sale?]
[The supervisor accidentally “captures” a guy who prefers to remain anonymous!]
[Yet another grand display of ostentatiousness! 😉 ]
[The lady of the house.]
[It’s like the media covering a breaking news story.]
[Well, the grandness of the place is magnificent. Anne and The Biddies soak it all in.]
[Keep looking at the floor and you’ll get seasick!]
[And now we’ve reached the hall of busts you read about in your history books . . . well, not about the busts, but about the people who became the busts . . . well, you know what I mean. Voltaire leads off (he has good speed and will take a walk).]
[Charlemagne]
[Descartes]
[Dag Obert? I knew it! We’re French?]
[There were more, but I’ve been accused of overexposure in the past.]
[We’ll end Part 1 with The Biddies on the tram ready for a tour of the gardens (Part 2). Did I mention we ran into a couple we met on our river cruise here? Amazing! As I recall, they were a part of the fun-loving French-Canadian group. There were times I felt a tad hot and claustrophobic on the palace tour – it’s basically wall-to-wall people and I presume that is just the standard way it is. If I had to do it again, less time inside the palace and more time out in the gardens.]
I don’t know what it is about the french language, it seems to be scared of coming out of the mouth so it comes out the nose instead. ~ P.D.Q. Bach
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