Day 9 - Palace & Gardens of Versailles

This is the famous palace just outside the city of Paris where King Louis XIV (known as the Sun King) built as he wanted something lavish and LAVISH it is!!! Sad to say, when it came to time of his grandson, King Louis XVI, the revolution rioted and King Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette were captured and later dragged out to this area called Concorde to be guillotined.

When you see the palace and the gardens , you can understand why the people of France then were so angry with them. There was a story about Marie-Antoinette being told the plight of the

people of the kingdom hungry with

out bread, she retorted,"Then let them eat cake."

In the big Big BIG gardens of Versailles, there is this smaller (compared to the Chateau but it's still at least 10 times my 5-room flat lor) palace called the Grand Trianon. It was built because King Louise XIV wanted somewhere to escape the rigour of court life and to enjoy the company of his mistress, Madame de Maintenon.

Somewhere down the gardens, there's a Petit Trianon Palace. It's called Petit (small) but it's not the idea of small like you and I know it. My house, oui, it's small but the Petit Trianon is still about 4 times my flat lor. :P It was given to Marie-Antoinette by King Louis XVI in these terms: "Since you love flowers, I am offering you a bouquet, it is the Petit Trianon". Win lor...like this chase girls, how to lose?

We walked the gardens first when there was still sun and still it was blinkingly cold. The weather forecasted a high of 5 degree C and low of 1 degree C. We had our hot sandwiches sitting on a bench by the Grand Canal with our 2 hot drinks and that cost us about S$30 just like that. I am eating myself broke in Paris!!!!!!! At that moment, I craved for Henderson Mee Pok dry with big bowl of soup... sigh... my Singapore stomach is revolting...

We walked back (a very Very VERY long walk by the way, in the cold no less) to the Chateau to view the rooms. The grandeur and lavishness is really breath-taking. EVERY corner of all the rooms decorated with something - it could be a painting, carvings, gold plated something, fabric, something lah... very decadent indeed...

Darth Binky by the end of trip wanted to sit down (bad sign, which meant he was sick again) and so we "mounted our high horses and trotted down" the main entrance of Versailles and waved goodbye. Farewell to too-much-decoration and lavishness...