Versailles

If one is looking for a good definition for the overblown expenses of royal families in Europe during the 17th century, Versailles might be the best place to start. After all, it didn’t become the model for every royal’s residence on the continent by chance.

Of course, one knows all this about Versailles, but actually going there is still breath-taking. One could stare at the different frescos on the ceilings for just one day and not look at anything else. Or the paintings. Or the draperies and tapestries in the king’s and queen’s bedchambers. Or wait for the change of light in the famous Galerie des glaces.
            But at the same time, Versailles is slightly nauseating if you remember that this was someone’s home, and that for them this was just what was just their due. No wonder you’d think you’re the center of the universe if you are surrounded by gold and marble, and paintings of yourself as any number of Greek gods surround you all day.

            And while the splendor of the rooms one gets access to (and even the rooms for the Ladies in Waiting, while more modest than the royal chambers, are luxurious is you think about how normal people lived in the 17^th and 18^th century) is nice on the eyes, one keeps wondering what the chambers that are closed to visitors look like. Also, what I personally would find really interesting are the servants’ quarters and the kitchen, and everything needed to run such a vast household. However, this does not seem to be a thing in Versailles. Might destroy the myth, I guess. But then, wouldn’t that be even more fascinating than looking at Marie Antoinette’s carpet?

            While walking through the castle, one will again and again get a glimpse at the sprawling gardens. Just as the palace itself, they are large, and stretch almost as far as the eye can see. Here, just like in the castle, one could spend an entire day just promenading around in the different sections, or renting a boat to row on the big central pond, or just looking at the different statues in the smaller water basins. Some of them look as if they are just about to move and leave the water. It’s fascinating. And a little unsettling.

            Maybe ‘fascinating’ and ‘unsettling’ are good adjectives to describe Versailles as a whole. Touring the palace was absolutely fascinating, and it would be possible for me to go back, and see a hundred things I was too overwhelmed to notice the first time around. But it was also unsettling to imagine the ideology that made this building possible.