Versailles

Yesterday, I took a little hop on over to a modest little (ha!) chateau in the town of Versailles: 

 They were such scholars, with their big globe!

 I believe I have heard of this lady...

 The chapel

 Some old French Kings:

 And a queen:

 And Jeanne d'Arc, of course.

 Getting ready for a party!

 Oh, what a dandy.

 The chapel, as seen from the second story

 The construction throws off the ambiance a bit:

 Un coeur:

 The Hall of Mirrors

 The King's bed

 Louis XIV

 View from the King's bedroom: so he could watch out for the angry mob of peasants coming toward the front door, I suppose. Or just his other King visitors.

 The study room (don't know how I would have done any real work in here either):

 La Chambre de la Reine (Marie Antoinette):

 The door that led to her secret room, and how she escaped from the angry mob of peasants:

 Zee famous portrait of Marie Antoinette and the kids:

 Oh hey, Napoleon, didn't see you there! What are you doing at Versailles?

  This guy was known as Louis the Desired??? I'd hate to see what the ugly guys looked like...

And for this part of the tour, we see the perfectly manicured gardens:

 Le Lac des Cygnes:

 Moutons!

 A baby carriage, that is nicer, even after several hundred years, than any car I will ever own, I'm sure.

 NATURE!

 chuppah?

 perhaps not...

 Le Petit Hameau! Marie Antoinette's pretend peasant hamlet

 It looked like where the Hobbits lived. Very much like how I imagine the angry peasants lived...

 Un vache!

 Un chèvre!

 Mulets!

 The sky was so apocalyptic, it even made the pretend Hamlet look foreboding

 And Louis again, in his usual humble style

The entrance/exit...gold, of course

 The front door:

 Humility was not one of the strong points of the French Monarchy:

Twas not a bad place to call home, I imagine. The castle itself is beautiful, and ridiculously lavish, but the grounds are so big that once you actually get to Petite Trianon (Marie Antoinette's "escape from the terribly stressful life at the chateau" chateau) or her little Hamlet, it feels like an entirely different world.