Versailles!

Ever since I took a university paper on 17th century France, I have always been so excited to go and see the real Versailles, where Louis XIV lived and created an amazing Palace! And even though it took over an hour to get there, partly because we couldn't work out the right way to go, it was most definitely worth it! Even as you arrive, you can see the golden tops from very far away, as I'm sure that was the point!

Sorry about the weird woman behind me!
It was a freezing day actually, but amazingly enough, even after all the warnings that I had had from friends and guidebooks about the queues, we managed to stroll straight in, and even got in free thanks to my current European residency! So that was a great saving of an hour and 15 euros!
I had planned on buying an audio guide once I got there, as this was the one place that I really wanted to know everything about, so we walked up to the counter.. but before I could even get my money out one was just handed to me! I was very pleased, as this was the once time that I decided I needed an audioguide.
It was very useful too, as I know exactly what happened in which room, instead of wandering aimlessly like I seemed to in the massive Vatican museums.

This is the palace chapel, which was well used by the whole court. Yet more gold! You can see the organ right in the middle, at the time we were there there was a student practising on it, which made for a nice atmosphere. Louis XIV was an incredibly extravagant king, and this shows in all of the architecture and artwork he commissioned throughout the palace.

This is a painting of the first Versailles, before the many additions to the castle, but much of it remains the same. You will see in upcoming pictures that the massive man made lakes and gardens that are painted here are all still there today!

This is the man himself! Apparently he was painted in a much more complimentary way than he actually looked, and about a foot was added to his height in each likeness made of him!

This is one of the many highly decorated rooms in his expansive château, I've noticed a trend with old European important places; they love to cover every square inch of the entire room with some sort of artwork. 

This is the famous hall of mirrors, with us getting a photo in them! They reflect the view out to the lakes and gardens, and the whole hall is just covered in mirrors.. it's really quite nice to walk along, with a view on each side.

As I was just saying, every spare centimetre of wall spaced is used up with artwork, and this is nowhere more true than in the bedrooms! These are the King’s and Queen’s bed chambers, and with all that luxurious gold and painting everywhere I don’t know how I would be able to sleep!

As you can see I've taken full advantage of the panorama feature on my phone! The top photo is the king's bedroom, and the bottom is the queen's.

This is the view of Versailles from the gardens side of it, with my back against the lakes and gardens. It actually stretches a lot wider than this, with two wings out to the side that were added on after it was built. I would love to live in such a grand place! At least for a while anyway.

And this is the magnificent view out to the gardens and lakes! They are absolutely massive, this area is actually relatively urban but you feel like you're in the middle of the wilderness with all these plants and trees everywhere! This is what I was talking about earlier in the painting, and also the view that the hall of mirrors reflects. The king's bedroom also looks out onto this, which is how he designed it. I can imagine it would be amazing in the summer, further down the paths there are houses for the courtiers, functioning restaurants, and even boat hire for the lakes! Unfortunately it was a bit too cold for that while we were there.

After a stroll (or more of a long trek) down to see the lakes close up, we decided to go warm up in a café with something to eat. Even though we went to one of the first little cafes we got to, which is apparently a terrible idea in such a touristy area, we had one of the best lunches that I have had so far in France! I decided to get a savoury crepe, with my choice of toppings for a set price. So naturally I got all of them. My crepe with cheese, onion, tomato, ham, salami, chicken, plus much more was the most amazing that I have ever had, I couldn't have asked for a nicer birthday lunch!

And after that, it was time to make the hour long journey back to Paris, to commence my 6 hour long journey in the car back to Grenoble. That part of my birthday wasn’t so exciting, with my birthday dinner ending up being a baguette spread with Nutella along the way. So finally I arrived home at 9.30pm, feeling mildly ill from so much bread and chocolate, and exhausted after such a big day ending in a 20min walk up a steep hill to our own personal castle, Rabot. As I was walking down the hall towards my room, I was sad that my birthday was over for the year, until I looked up at my doorway, and saw this!! What an amazing surprise to come home to, and some happy friends to greet me as I arrived home!

I am very lucky to have such thoughtful friends, and believe it or not the (majority) of the balloons are still up, over a week later! So I get to see this every day :)

Later on in the week I had a special birthday dinner where I invited a few people over for a French speciality, Raclette, which I absolutely loved! I will update about that very soon, so keep watching :D