The title is a quote from Mariella Cantando, a friend of ours, on a post Kim made on Facebook about a visit to Versailles we did a few days ago. I had the same thought as Mariella while visiting, the lifestyle of the King and his entourage was so different from the public at large you had to wonder why they did not rebel sooner.
The origins of Versailles reminded me of the origin of Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, William Randolph Hearst (WRH) build his castle at a favorite family camping site, Versailles got its start as a lodge built by Louis XIII at his favorite hunting ground. Both were expanded upon to the impressive locations we see today, the biggest difference being that WRH built his in just under 3 decades while Versailles was a multi-generational effort. Louis XIV greatly expanded Versailles making it a palace and moving his court and government to Versailles, making the palace essentially the capital of France. To support the palace the area around it greatly expanded as well. One interesting thing I learned on this visit is that there were public sections of the grounds, it was not exclusively for the royals. It was possible to see the King and leave notes for him.
Kings after Louis XIV also favored the palace, mostly focusing on the palace’s interiors, but a few new builds such as the palace theater were built with construction taking a long time due to wars and funding issues. The Revolution swept the royal family from power and with it Versailles was looted. Some items that were too big to take or not as valuable broken up survived but for the most part the little furniture you see in the palace is reproductions based on paintings or descriptions in text. Like Hearst Castle, Versailles is now a museum, although a much larger and more interesting one. We arrived as the grounds were opening and our guide took us to the gardens first saying the crowds usually go inside first so lets see the grounds while they are empty. He was right, we had a great visit with 17K steps involved. I will let the picture speak from here, there are many of them…
