Palace of Versailles

A continuation of our Paris travelogue.

For half day, we went outside of Paris to see the Palace of Versailles.

The shuttle to Versailles. I got to sit in front! Wooot!

Versailles is located some twenty kilometers southwest of Paris. Louis XIV moved from Paris to here in 1682, until after the beginning of French Revolution.



This is Jonathan, our guide. He was nice and funny although I find his goatee weird. Afraid! He speaks English and French very well. Of course I can't understand his French but it sounded very good...

He is telling us where we would meet him after

The palace looks so grand from the outside doesn't? Jonathan said Louis XIV considers himself the sun king, thus the golden palace.

Long queue

When we got there, the palace was initially closed because the staff were on strike. Apparently, they do strikes very often. So we strolled around the gardens first because Jonathan was confident that they will open the palace before 11am. He said that though they like going on strikes, they would also like to get their full day's pay so they have to open before 11am to get paid.

So here are some garden views:













There is like a collection of gardens -- and all round were fountains and sculptures. Some nights there are fountain shows but we were only there in the morning so we don't get to see it.













We were let with only a few minutes to go around inside the palace coz we spent so much time in the gardens...

Hall of Mirrors

Queen's bedrooom

grand staircase

time to go home!

I have seen (and loved) the Buckingham Palace in London and Holyroodrose Palace in Edinburgh but I must say this Palace in Versailles is the grandest from its gold tipped architecture to its gardens of more than 800 acres! I like it!!! :)