Yesterday was the trip to Versailles. We took the train out of Paris and arrived at the palace. We joined the enormous queue to enter the building. It was not very well organized; thousands of people shuffling through one small door, single file. We waited in the cold wind for our turn, sure that the wait would be worthwhile. It wasn’t.
The palace is lovely – it is a palace after all, and perhaps if I had never seen such grandeur before I would have been awe stricken, but having been to palaces in Vienna and Russia, this really wasn’t anything new. Additionally, it was SO crowded. Rooms packed with tour groups wearing audio guide headsets and video taping every gilded nook and cranny…it was not the most pleasant environment for viewing. There was, however, a lovely display of portraits by a single artist (the name escapes me) that we enjoyed viewing. Also the hall of mirrors really was beautiful.
We had planned to stroll about the gardens and fountains at a leisurely pace, but there were two problems: the fountains were not turned on and the wind was blowing cold rain at an angle that made umbrellas inoperable.
Agreeing that we had seen elaborate palace grounds and fountains before, at Peterhof, we decided to bid Versailles Adieu and returned to Paris.