I spent this past Saturday at Versailles. I still cannot believe how utterly massive it is. The palace itself is monstrous in size, but what really amazed me was how as far as my eye could see, the property was part of Versailles. The gardens and the forests that stretched on for miles, wilderness unbroken by city or street, my line of sight completely unbroken by anything, once belonged to one person. To then consider that something of that proportion didn't even compare to the size of our planet... I think that may have been the first time that I truly considered how large Earth really is, and how small I truly am. Of course, I've seen the grand canyon, and the immense size is not anything to take lightly, but the Grand Canyon never belonged to one person. Walking through Versailles with the hall of mirrors, the seemingly endless gardens, room after room after room all furnished and decorated with the best money could buy, I can start to understand why Marie Antoinette let it all go to her head. How can anyone live like that, with more than she could ever possibly need, and not get carried away? To have so much money, so much space, so much land that you can build a little village for yourself away from court... it's so incomprehensible.
I think Versailles may be one of my favorite things that I've seen in France, just because it is so different. The trip itself was also lovely, and free! With our Navigo passes, we can take the TGV all the way to Versailles and back. The city itself is adorable, and I want to go back just to wander through the brightly colored streets of the little tourist town.
We arrived in Versailles around 10 in the morning and had to wait in line for about an hour and an hour and a half to get in, thankfully having already bought tickets online. I'm not sure if it's any better if you arrive earlier, but we figured that we'd have to wait regardless, so why not take our time? Versailles wasn't going anywhere. And of course, as soon as we saw the Starbucks across the street from the train station we had to stop. I mean, we were about to wait in line for an hour and needed the caffeine, right?
We only got through about half of the palace itself. We saw the side with the bedrooms of Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV and XVI, as well of the hall of mirrors before we decided we were too hungry to keep going. I'm still glad that we did, because once we got to the gardens, there was no going back and forth. The gardens themselves took about five hours. I think we saw everything there though, except for a few fountains and grottos and things. I still can't wrap my head around how much land can belong to someone.
We were there on a day they were doing fountain shows, so our tickets cost about 7 euros more, but it was completely worth it. All in all, the day was amazing. We were all exhausted by the time we got on the train back to Paris, as we'd walked about 11 miles over the course of the day. I could see myself spending several days in Versailles, one day for the palace, one day for the gardens, and one day in the city itself. And I do know that you can buy a several day pass, so definitely something I would recommend if you really want to see everything.
It's hard to describe in words what Versailles was like, so I'll just leave you to scroll through the photos above and with the encouragement to go see it for yourself. It's magnificent.
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