Profuse Palace

This is my final post on the palace and I call it "profuse" because this place truly is over the top.

This picture is taken just outside one of the most famous rooms in the world.

The Hall of Mirrors  

There are 17 mirrored arches that reflect the windows on the opposite side.  Mirrors were one of the most expensive possessions in that day - the 17th century.  

Us in the Hall of Mirrors.

This is a very small portion of the ceiling in the Hall of Mirrors.  Unbelievable, really. This room is 40 feet high and over 2 football fields long.

We just liked these windows :)

This is the King's bedroom.

Many of the columns, flooring, and statues were from various types of marble rather than just one.

Frankly, I'm not sure who slept here.

I do know that this is Marie Antoinette with her three children: Marie Thérèse Charlotte, Louis Charles (baby), and Louis Joseph.  There was a fourth child, Sophie Hélène Béatrice, who died just before her first birthday.  Only one, Marie Thérèse Charlotte, lived to adulthood.  The boys died at ages 7 and 10.

This surely looks like the room of a little girl.  The rug alone is stunning and this picture shows only about half of it!  I'm wondering what the RF stands for, but I still don't know.  Oh, now I know . . . Republique Francaise.  Merci, Ross :) 

This was one of the most interesting rooms.  It is completely lined on both sides with huge paintings.  You can see the scale compared to those two people on the right.  The ceiling is like one at the Louvre in Paris.

Galerie des Batailles (Gallery of Battles)

Each of the 33 painting depicts a French battle ranging from 496 AD to 1809.  The French were involved in hundreds, maybe thousands, of battles in this period.

Each painting is labeled with a marker like this one.  This one says "Battle of Marsaglia" (that's in Italy) and was won by the French.  It also says "Won by Marshall Catinat".  It's not particularly special - it's just the one I happened to take a photo of.

This is the center ceiling of this nearly 400 foot long room.  Yes, 400 feet.

Speaking of huge paintings . . . this depicts Napoleon's Josephine's coronation and Napoleon's consecration painted by his official painter, Jacques Louis-David.  (add'l. correction:  actually this is a replica of the original which is hanging in Le Louvre in Paris). Merci, Ross! That's Jim in the foreground.  You can get a sense of the size and scale of this one painting.  It's 20 ft x 32 ft.

I just love this picture.  This was taken during that minute when we nearly had the place to ourselves.

I read that to maintain the palace, its staff, the royal family, etc. (about 3,000 people) took as much as 25% of the entire French government income.  That figure is often disputed, but I would imagine it took a small fortune either way. 

Finally!  The sun came out!

The grand scale of everything about this palace is indicative of the extravagance by the royals in this day despite the financial crisis at the time.  The common people of France finally got fed up with the incompetence and aristocracy.  The march on Versailles was pretty much the beginning of the end for this royal family.  The French Revolution began in 1789 and King Louis XVI was executed in 1792 followed by Queen Marie Antoinette the next year.  

Château de Versailles

Versailles, France