Versailles

I don't know a whole lot about French history pre-1914, so to appreciate The Palace of Versailles fully, I did some research. I'll summarise it here for you.

Once upon a time, a young boy named Louis XIV (odd parents) became the king of France at the age of 5. He was king for a very, very long time - so long in fact that he outlived his son and grandson.

While he was king he apparently gained a pretty high opinion of himself and started calling himself "Le roi soleil", which translates to "the Sun King", or "the Circus King" depending on your translation.

He spent a very, very large amount of money on paintings of himself, haircuts that made him look like a poodle in a robe and a big palace in Versailles. The palace was so big that Louis had all of his friends move in there too. He also moved the capital of France to Versailles, I assume because he didn't like to commute.

After seventy-something years on the throne, Louis XIV died, and his great grandson Louis VX (unimaginative parents) became the king.

Nothing particularly interesting happened until Louis XVI (very unimaginative parents) married an Austrian Princess called Marie Antoinette. She was a kinky young lass, so Louis XVI built her a place to "play milk maid" (I'm quoting the guide book there) in the grounds of the palace.

One day, a bunch of people who didn't like Louis XVI very much killed all his guards, ran into the palace at Versailles and dragged Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (possibly dressed as milk maids) off to have a very, very, very short haircut.

About 80 years later the state of Germany began in the Hall of Mirrors inside the palace. Apparently they liked looking at themselves and there weren't enough mirrors in Germany.

In 1919, World War I officially ended in the very same hall with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

I'm glad I researched all that before going to the Palace, because otherwise I wouldn't have known any of it at all.

The audio guides primarily focussed on the paintings on the walls and ceiling - not on the people in them, or even the people who painted them. Also, all the furniture was removed and sold off in the 18th century (or the XVIII century as it was called in the palace, because everybody loves Roman numerals) which gives the place a very empty feel.

On top of that, only a very small amount of the palace is open to the public, so after only about an hour or so in there, we left to see the gardens, and that's where the fun started.

The gardens are free, but for the price of €30/hour, visitors can hire golf carts to ride around the enormous complex in. After initially hesitating at the expense, we bit the bullet and got one.

It was fantastic. The golf cart has built in speakers which give an audio commentary on what you're seeing as you proceed around the garden, and when it's not talking, it plays lovely classical music. It was a perfect selection of music for the gardens, and the experience was certainly worth the money.

Don't get me wrong, we had some fun with the golf cart. The company limits the driving age to 24, but as Rachel is turning 24 in less than 2 weeks and looks very trustworthy, they let her drive. The age limit is a little unnecessary. The golf cart doesn't really have speed demon capabilities:

After being a little disappointed with our tour of the palace itself, we left feeling great about our experience after having a 59 minute tour of the gardens (we floored it towards the end).

Our ride on that very exciting golf cart was also great preparation for what was to come the next day...