Versailles, Paris

The palace here is amazing, of course. It was a great day trip, and I came home ready to re-learn some of the French history I'd forgotten since high school. I was glad we'd walked with a guide - there really is so much in the palace to see. It may be well worth hiring the hand held guides that are usually available.

But, remember, the palace isn't the only thing in the town. Wander some of the side streets and enjoy the amazing food and atmosphere that's easy to find.

It is by entrance of the "Cour Royale" to the northern wing with the 17th c. galleries that the traditional visit of the castle of Versailles starts. The visit begins at the ground floor with a succession of decorated rooms and continues on the first floor.
On crowded days (4 million visitors/year) the visit is rather chaotic because the thousands of visitors pass from one room to another by relatively narrow doors. Moreover groups listening to the explanations of their guides slow down the visitors flow.
If you are interested by the furniture, the decoration, the paintings of this part of the castle it is better to come in low season i.e. in winter.
The nicest and spectacular part of this northern wing is in my opinion the Royal Chapel which can only bee seen from the entrance or inside on special guided visits.

The visit of the “Grands Appartments du Roi” begins with this splendid and large "Hercules drawing-room" at the junction of the central body and the northern wing.
This room built between 1712 and 1736 by Robert de Cotte occupies the site of a former chapel. It is remarkable by the decoration of the walls with marble of various colours, the many pilasters with the Corinthian style capitals of gilded bronze and especially by its marble chimney decorated with splendid bronzes of Antoine Vassé evoking Hercules. On top of the chimney hangs a painting of Veronese “Rebecca and Eliézer”.
On the wall opposite the chimney hangs another large Veronese “the Meal at Simon the Pharisee” offered to Louis XIV by the Republic of Venice in 1664.

Still more remarkable is the ceiling painted by François Moyne representing the Apotheosis of Hercules. This immense painting painted with oil on strengthened canvas was extremely admired in its time but the painter exhausted by his work committed suicide whereas he had received the title of “First Painter of the King”.

It is in this room that took place the ball given by Louis XV for the marriage of his eldest daughter Elisabeth with the Infant of Spain in 1739.
The festivities, there were many in this room, were lit by candles what fouled up the vault and the painting of Le Moyne whose restoration of 480 m2 at a height of 15 m was finished in 2001.

The Hercules Drawing-Room is one of the most remarkable parts of the Royal apartments and deserves a somewhat lengthier visit. The light is very beautiful as the "Salon d'Hercule" is exposed to the east and the west.

In the time of King Louis XIV till Louis XVI an 80 m length monumental gate separated the Main courtyard from the Royal Court. The gate was created by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart about 1680 and was destroyed by the revolutionaries in 1789.
The reconstitution of this Royal Gate started in 2006 and was ended in July 2008. It required 15 tons of iron and the cooperation of the best craftsmen of this art. The gilders patiently applied by hand 100.000 gold sheets. These gold leaves measure 8 X 8 cm and have only 2 microns thickness!

The courtyard of the Château de Versailles appears like it was prior to the French Revolution but there have been a number of critics in France about this reconstitution.

The bronze equestrian statue of Louis XIV set up at this spot in 1836 by king Louis-Philippe has been removed and is being restored. The famous statue, so often photographed by tourists, will not return to its original site now occupied by the restored gate but will be located on the Place d'Armes directly in the axis of the castle.

The interesting part of the northern wing - Galleries du XVIIe siècle - by which starts the visit of the castle is certainly the chapel (inaugurated in 1710) devoted to Saint Louis the patron of the French monarchy.
It comprises two vertical spaces:
1° the centre of the nave which one sees from the ground floor of the circuit of the 17th c. galleries where the courtiers would stand, the ladies of the royal court occupied the lateral galleries. They would stand with their back to the altar in order to look at the king.
2° the tribune overlooking the nave located on the same floor as the royal apartments.
It is from there that Louis XIV and his successors attended the daily mass at 10 am. The mass lasted approximately a half hour. Each day a new work composed by Lully, Lalande and others is sung by the chorus of the chapel.

The architecture is an original creation of Jules Hardouin-Mansart who combines Gothic and Baroque art characteristics. The decoration is exceptional by the extent of carved work.

There is a striking similarity with the Sainte-Chapelle in the Cité of Paris: an upper level for the king and a lower level for his subjects.

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The Chapel royal at Versailles is consecrated to Saint Louis (that is to say Louis IX of France, the French monarchy's crusader king). The chapel features a tribune on the same level as the royal apartments, overlooking the nave. That is where Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI attended daily mass, an important moment in a king's day. They only descended to the center of the nave for major liturgical ceremonies. Normally, the nave was occupied by the courtiers, who remained standing while the ladies of the Court filled the lateral galleries. Members of the Chapel music, renowned throughout Europe, occupied the steps surrounding the organ.

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The Grand Apartment (Grand Appartement du Roi)
'And since the Sun is the emblem of the King, seven planets were taken to serve as the subject of the paintings of the seven salons of this apartment' (Félibien des Avaux, 1674). The Grand Apartment glorified the Sun King. A room known as the Abundance Salon led to other salons_Venus, Diana, Mars, Mercury, and Apollo_each dedicated to a heavenly body. That is why they were originally called the Apartment of the Planets when the New Chateau was being built. In 1710, another salon was added, this time dedicated to the mythological hero

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The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles, France.

In French, it is known as the Château de Versailles. When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris. From 1682, when King Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in 1789, the Court of Versailles was the centre of power in Ancien Régime France. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy that Louis XIV espoused