Thursday, November 5, 2009

THURSDAY-Versailles





The first thing you need to understand about Versailles is it's frickin' enormous. The second is that no expense was spared in its construction. The place is fully loaded with all the options.




I tried to imagine as we approached what even a nobleman would have been thinking in the 1600s of what we saw before us. It's pretty jaw-dropping for our time; the person of the 1600s must have been absolutely convinced of the divine selection of the king and the immense power that came with it.




After a while though, one gilded room with crystal chandeliers starts to look like another, and your mind starts to wonder.

Mine wondered to the map of Paris and the location of the Bastille northeast of Notre Dame that the revolutionaries broke into to steal arms. They then trekked their tired hungry asses to the far southwest outskirts of Paris to storm Versailles, then trekked north to the guillotines at the far end of the Champs Elysees to chop the king's and queen's collective heads off.

As I sit here considering how sore my feet are from wandering the cobblestones and halls of Versailles, I reflect on the _miles_ these tired hungry people went to seize the king and queen. Those dudes were seriously angry.










1 comment:

  1. Like you said, one room looks like another after awhile. I was impressed by the Hall of Mirrors (I think that's what it's called) and the entry way, from way back like you have in the pic.

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