Visit Date: September 27, 2026
First things first: you should know that we didn’t have a solo tour of Versailles as the exterior pictures would suggest. I used the LightRoom Generative Remove tool to remove people. I’ve done that in many of the photos of this trip and have tried to point it out when/where.
Our group took a tour bus out of Paris to Versailles on Sunday September 27. Versailles is one of the few places I have clear memories of visiting back in 1973. It is impressive to say the least but I get uncomfortable visiting palaces and cathedrals. The rich extracted so much money from the poor to fund enormous buildings to their own grandeur. Same as today; only the rich are mostly private citizens who have molded the government to give them benefits. That’s enough editorializing.
Louis XIII established the summer getaway as a modest hunting lodge. Louis XIV (The Sun King) made the improvements. He was all about being king. And more than a little vain; he would not be seen after taking off his helmet because of helmet hair. Our tour guide helped set the order of the Louis succession. She said think of them as Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter with King Louis XIV the summer king and poor King Louis XVI the winter king. A bit more on him later.
The front of the palace is gated. I’ve included probably more pictures than are needed; but dang it is something to see.
We started our tour in the back along the gardens.
To the right of the picture above is a long reflection pool with Apollo at the far end arising out of the sea to pull the sun.
That struck a memory within me. Back in 1973 I took a picture of it.
Carla and I headed down to get a closer picture but before we could get as close as I did back in the day because we were called back up to the palace to start our tour of the interior. I got this close… It looks better today than it did 53 years ago.
One of the many great things about Roads Scholar tours is the expert guides they provide for the various places we visit. Next tour I’ll get better pictures – and the names – of our guides. She also led us through Montmartre. (See the post on Paris)
Here is the famous Hall of Mirrors. The picture does not do it justice.
And here is a view of the ceiling of another wing.
I could have paid more attention to the details of the two wings (I think one was for the king and the other for the queen) and the various rooms but I was too busy being irritated by the ostentatiousness of it all.
Louis the XVI wasn’t a great candidate to be king of France. He was a quiet, nerdy guy who enjoyed things like fixing broken door locks more than ruling France. Our tour guide suggested that as the French Revolution bloomed he might have saved himself from the guillotine if he renounced his power. I don’t agree with that. First Louis was from a long line of monarchs that claimed the divine right to be king; it was drilled into him from the time he was born and would be hard to give up. Second, the Revolution – like most revolutions – was infamous for moving further and further in one political direction. While Robespierre did try, unsuccessfully, to intervene to keep the King’s sister, Madame Elisabeth from losing her head, he – along with the other eleven members of the Committee of Public Safety – consistently denounced as traitors anyone not deemed to be radical enough. Seeing how the royals lived would be sufficient grounds for the guillotine whether or not Louis XVI abdicated. It wasn’t called the Reign of Terror for nothing. For the authoritative book on the subject check out Twelve Who Ruled by R.R. Palmer. [Link opens in a new tab]. This book was require reading in Franklin Specht’s History of Western Civilization course at the College of Idaho back in the day. A group of us loved this book so much we named our intramural softball team Twelve Who Ruled. Good times
Next post: Monet’s garden.
