Travelling with Maveling: Chateau de Versailles.

Chateau de Versailles.

The Chateaux of Versailles is a grand palace started by Louis XIV in 1668 which grew around the original hunting lodge of Louis XIII and it is now a palace on a massive scale. The Chateaux also has extensive and very well planned gardens which include formal laid out gardens with geometric paths and shrubberies and many formal areas with grand fountains as well as large expanses of forested areas.

Out in the gardens and quite a way away from the palace are two other major buildings - one is the Grand Trianon - a small palace of stone and pink marble built by Louis XIV and a smaller but very charming Petit Trianon - a chateau that was a favourite with Marie-Antoinette.

We have planned to spend a full day at Versailles and caught the 8.45am train from Paris to travel the 45mins to Versailles. Unfortunately it started raining just as we arrived at Versailles Station and did not let up till late in the afternoon.8

The Main Entrance to the Chateau de Versailles.

Through the Palace Gates and in the grounds of the Chateau.

After spending some time in line we finally gained entrance to this magnificent building. There are thousands of others doing the same thing we are, so in every room you are sharing it with a huge crowd.

The main rooms we saw were:

1. Hall of Mirrors where great state occasions were held. This magnificent room stretches 70mts and it has windows overlooking the gardens on one side and mirrors down the full length of the other side. It also has many crystal chandeliers and elaborate gold candelabras placed either side and down the full length of the hall. This is the room in which the 1919 Treaty of Versailles was ratified, ending the First World War.

2. Chappell Royale. The first floor of this beautiful chapel was reserved for the Royal Family. The interior is decorated in Corinthian columns and white marble, gilding and Baroque murals

3. Queen’s Bedroom.

4. Kings Bedroom.

There are many, many rooms in the massive chateau and we spent over 3 hours looking around.

The Chappell Royal - The Church in the Chateau.

One of the Bedrooms in the Palace.

Views of the beautiful Hall of Mirrors. The mirror side.

One of the many Candelabras

The windows overlooking the Palace Gardens.

One of the main reasons we had come back to Versailles was that we really wanted to spend time walking the huge gardens, seeing the fountains and also the smaller palaces in the gardens so we had to venture out into the inclement weather – so we put on our spray jackets and started walking. It was very cold and wet and I don’t know if it was because of the bad weather - but none of the main fountains were operating. But what we saw was very grand and we really enjoyed the gardens.

Marie-Antoinette and two of her children.

One of the bed-rooms.

The Water Parterre at the start of the Gardens.

One of the statues at the Water Parterre.

The fountain at the start of The Grand Canal. This is about 1.5klms from the Chateau and where Louis XIV held boating parties.

We stopped for a coffee to warm us up at one of the restaurants/cafes situated in the gardens and then headed for Grand Trianon which is a small palace built in 1687 by Louis XIV of stone and pink marble. A little further along was the Petit Trianon, which is more the size of a country chateau and was built in 1762 by Louis XV. Both these building were very grand and they had a very nice feeling about them and both had beautiful country gardens and magnificent views.