Versailles by day and night

Once upon a time there lived a king called Louis XIV who became king when he was four. Louis hated two things; the system of feudalism that was prevalent throughout France whereby dukes rules their “duke-doms” and pledged some loyalty to the king, and he hated Paris.

On account of this Louis centralized government in a small country town called Versailles and turned what was a country chateau into a palace. Thus, this village 20km out of France became the French seat of parliament and also the home of Louis.

Some interesting facts about Versailles:

• The hall of mirrors within Versailles is where the peace treaty that ended WWII was signed
• It is decorated with gold gilding, plush velvet and miles and miles of marble
• It’s opulent
• It’s over the top
• It’s no wonder the French people revolted
• The gardens are for walking in and viewing they are strictly not for sitting in, even when there is grass!

We took a walking tour around the castle armed with audio guides. They are like phones that you plug in the location and it gives you a little snippet about where you are.

Did you know that Louis XVI had eight daughters all situated in rooms adjacent to one another. Louis would often wander down in the morning with his coffee to see his eldest daughter who would then notify his younger daughters in turn. Sometimes the youngest only got to say a brief hello before papa went off to go hunting.

He also kept track of his daughters by giving them names based on their attributes:

e.g. Daughter 1 – I dub thee bosom

Daughter 2 – I dub thee thighs etc

After a brief tour of the truly amazing garden we split for a meal. We headed to Maccas first to satisfy Matt’s craving for French fries (when in France right…). At Maccas here (Pabs take note) there are little ATM-like machines where you can order and pay, then you line up at the counter to pick up your meal. Tres awesome, especially as you can do the whole transaction in your language of choice.

We then headed to a typical French restaurant for dinner. We shared some snails over an aperitif and ate a selection of traditionally French things like duck (confit du canard) and scallops with a provencale sauce.

At 9pm we headed back to the gardens where they had undergone a bit of a transformation. All the fountains had a unique light display. There were colourful fountains, fountains that had what looked like the Death Mark hanging over them and even fountains with dry ice to give it that hazy effect.

There were also people who had dressed up for the occasion in period costumes. There were rumours of a ball afterwards but no-one could ever get a straight answer from them.

We walked around for another couple of hours taking in the sights, eating delicious sorbet and finally catching some fireworks at 11:05.

Exhausted and thoroughly awed by Versailles we headed back to Chez Rudd for a well earned sleep in!