Day 13
Tuesday morning began cold and rainy and ended cold and rainy--an ironic twist on our visit to the renowned palace of the Sun King. However, there was one bright ray of sunlight--we didn't have to meet to catch the train until 11:30, which means we could SLEEP IN!! Hallelujah! We took the metro to Versailles around noon and then had about an hour to kill before our group had to meet at the palace to begin our tour. Professor Erickson gave us directions to the chateau and then left us to our own devices. Since no one really listens to directions no one was exactly sure about what we were supposed to be doing or where to go, so after a few minutes of aimless discussion we milled out of the train station into the freezing rain and walked down the street in hopes of finding a cafe or boulangerie, as they are so prevalent in France. Luckily we found a bakery that offered a good lunch deal so we got food there. I had a fougasse, which is basically a French style calzone and therefore fulfilled two needs--warmth and the comfort of American-tasting food. I also got a dessert with the deal so I got three pastry things that were basically sugared fried dough--yum. Once we left the bakery we stood out on the sidewalk like a a group of ducklings without a mother. We didn't know what we were supposed to do, or where we were meeting for our tour, so we just walked back to the train station and ate there. Once we had our fill we decided that it would be best to try and find the palace and hope that that was where Professor Erickson had told us to meet. Luckily as the enormous palace that it is, Versailles was actually quite easy to locate, and we ran into Professor Erickson in the courtyard where we were all able to assemble with relative ease. Unfortunately even once we were all there we still had to wait in line for about twenty minutes, perhaps longer, before we could go inside, and it was not pleasant.
Although the weather was truly miserable, once we got inside the palace definitely helped make up for it. First of all, it is huge. One room could fit my house inside it. Second, it is huge. Third, it is beautiful. Fourth, it is huge. Do you see a pattern here? My favorite part, of course, was the hall of mirrors. Walking through it made me feel like I was a princess and I almost regretted not having an old-fashioned gown to wear so I could dance through the hall with some French chevalier. I think I will write to the palace administration to add music to the hall, I think it would really add to the experience and people would totally appreciate it....okay, I would appreciate it...but still. I went through that hall twice, partially because the tour sent me in a circle anyways, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
This is probably blasphemy what I am going to say next, but please don't judge me. The rest of the palace was of course incredible, but I think the grandeur is so great and the size so overwhelming that it became almost same old same old. Every room and every corridor is laced with gold trim and extravagant paneling, covered with expansive tableaux or punctuated by sculptures. The immensity of the building is truly overwhelming to such a point that every room begins to blend into another. It was in this state that I attempted to take in not only the optical grandeur of the monument, but also the historical grandeur of the famous chateau. Needless to say it was difficult for to sift through the images and audio tour information to make sense of it all in a comprehensive manner. What I do remember is that I saw the Hall of Mirrors, the Sun King's chambers, his wife, Marie Antoinette's bed chamber and ante-chamber, and a room where the King held his meetings with advisors and the court. One small fact I do remember was that I saw the small door that is somewhat disguised into the paneling of the wall, through which Marie Antoinette escaped the mobs. That's pretty cool to imagine that I was standing in the same room as an angry mob and a narcissistic queen. Hmmm, she and her husband had a lot in common...
Anyways, after the tour of the palace we met back outside for people to pick up their bags and head home. It was still freezing outside so we tried to leave as soon as possible. Unfortunately because of the weather we opted out of going through the gardens, but we will return again on a sunny day because its just a ride on the metro luckily.
After Versailles, due to the time and the weather, we all just headed home. Marissa and I had dinner with Frederique during which I had trouble paying attention to the French and was therefore very quiet. I was so unresponsive that Frederique even commented and said, "Brittney est morte la-bas!" (Brittney is dead over here!) Haha, oui, exactement. Thankfully she understood that I was tired and didn't press me to answer a lot of questions. It was actually pretty funny because I had to have her repeat her questions for me several times, and more than once I thought we were on a different topic of conversation, but we had been on a new subject for the past few minutes. In any case, the food was delicious, as usual, and Frederique was kind enough to let me go straight to bed after dinner and we didn't linger to chat like we sometimes do after finishing a course.
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