Versailles Versailles Versailles

Day 3 was completely spent at The Château de Versailles. My Uncle Rich asked me to make sure I pop in there to see a true spectacle of wasted wealth and extreme riches unlike anything that could ever be recreated in present day (Excluding the Wine Rack P and I built).

Located about a 40 minute train ride southwest of Paris, Versailles was once the home of King Louis XIV during a VERY prosperous French Regime. An Absolutist by nature, Louie decided to make an old hunting lodge, well outside of Paris at the time, his new home. Of course he thought he might spruce the joint up a bit. He also made the court of the Royal advisors and ministers live close to him so they were less likely to revolt(A little history lesson: They did anyway). He even named himself the Prime Minister after the previous one died. Nice.

As you walk about 15 minutes from the train station to the Palace, you can see the immense grandeur that is the Chateau. Other than obvious Sky Scrapers, one would be hard pressed to find buildings that big even in modern day. The fact that it was constructed in the 15th century is beyond me.

Unfortunately most of the facade is under construction/renovation. Between the scaffolding, yellow tape and the monstrous dirt parking lot directly in front, the initial view was not glorious. The inside was almost unexplainable. Not a single INCH of the walls, floors, celings, doorways was left un-decorated. Lots of gold leaf, meticulous moldings, many Asians (although I'm not sure they were part of the decor). Although there were no lines anywhere, the tour was WAY too crowded. It was hard to get around and I was constantly in the way of someones photo. By the end of the tour, I was ready to leave. I will say the hall of mirrors was pretty cool though.

I could've never imagined the joy I would experience in the so called "gardens". On the train ride to the Palace, Rick Steve's readings told me that golf carts could be rented (for a small fortune) to tour the gardens and I thought that kinda laziness was ridiculous....that is until I saw the size of this dudes backyard. Perfectly manicured lawns as far as the eye could see. Pools and fountains everywhere, marble staircases to every terrace. Hell, even the WALK to the nearest place to rent a bicycle was about 20 minutes!

I bought a panini and a huge water and set off on my journey to find a place to eat lunch. Luckily I dressed appropriately 'cause it was really hot. I rode about a mile to what I thought was toward the back of the grounds. I found an old table and bench where I iPod'd and grubbed until I fell asleep under an awesome tree. There was nobody to be seen or heard. Solitude to the max. Marie Antionette's private quarters could be seen in the distance.

I woke up and continued my bike ride. Planning to ride along the complete perimeter, I headed to what I thought was a "corner". I was wrong. It was just the corner of one side of Marie's fake peasant villages where she would live to escape the craziness of the palace life and royalty in general. The vast span of this property inspired me to ride even further (this became an issue later as my bike was kind of a "piece"). I continued down tree lined paths lasting 1000's of yards before dumping me into a different path of the same character. The only thing differing was the variety of trees to the left and right that were intentionally planted and evenly spaced so many years ago. I must have rode 15-20 miles, most with no other humans in sight.

I finally grew tired of the loneliness and hopped back onto the main ro-ads where I could see some pretty hot tourists jogging along the trail. This would be a great place to exercise, if I believed in such things. In order to add a little level of excitement to my overly quiet day, i decided to ride most of the way back toward the Chateau on the 14-20" wide strip of marble that directly bordered the huge pools. I'm quite sure that I wasn't supposed to be doing this, but I couldn't resist. It was quite intense. One wrong move and I would for sure have ended up in the drink. Upon first thought, that wouldn't have been such a bad idea due to the heat, but I for sure would've ruined my iPhone and possibly even been thrown in the "gallows" for disgracing the Royal Grounds. Luckily, I emerged victorious.

Went home exhausted. Got to sleep early. Big day tomorrow. Louvre.