week seven: let them eat cake? if i can in versailles!!!

28 October 2009

Versailles… okay… so honestly, all I really knew about Versailles before going there was what I had learned in my AP Euro class sophomore year of high school… between that and a Marie Antoinette movie, I was sorely lacking in knowledge… I know a whole lot about Lully and Couperin… I know, that so does not count…

Okay… so, K and I woke up pretty early, took the metro to the commuter rail (yes, I missed Boston, felt like I should be looking for the Haverhill/Reading line heading out of the Garden… sigh…) to Versailles… When we got off the train, it was a rather brisk sunny day, and the town of Versailles was absolutely beautiful… It reminded me of a French Newburyport… until we rounded the corner and saw this… Please, Menotti, stop running through my head, “All that gold…” okay… sorry… back to reality (wow, my reality certainly has become colourful…)

Once inside… K and I bought our wonderfully touristy audio guides, and headed off into the Château… the size and grandeur of the whole place shocked me… from the outside view I knew I was in for more than I had expected, but even this blew my mind… the colour of the rooms, the paintings, the furniture… and finally, the hall of mirrors… talk about vanity… and beauty… wow…

Paintings of battle scenes, busts of poets, philosophers, and musicians… and then… the gardens…

The gardens of Versailles were even more spectacular than the inside, and K and I wandered around until night fell… normally, I’d be all for exploring at night, but seeing as no electric lights had been set up for easy wandering purposes, we were forced to head back to the palace… and get food!

We found a little café that was closing (just in time) and had some delicious sandwiches… after which we headed back to the train station… full, in awe, and still slightly overwhelmed… on our walk back, we were peering into the darkened tourist shops, when I saw this… and basically freaked out… Le Petit Prince holds a dear, dear place in my heart, and finding an entire (if tiny) shop dedicated to Saint-Exupéry’s hero was like striking gold… I only cursed at few times, wishing the shop was open, but mollified myself by letting Rachel Portman’s music lull me to sleep on the train ride home... everything essential is invisible to the eye...