A Day in Versailles

By Tammy Martin and Fiorella Torrejon 

The  Palace

Versailles is a golden opulent palace with ornate paintings and beautiful marble structures, created by King Louis XlV, or the “Sun King”, as he called himself. He viewed himself as sovereign by divine right - the King was God's representative on earth. Therefore, he felt he needed a place befitting someone of such prestige. The sun he chose as his calling card because in heliocentrism everything revolves around the sun, and he believed all of France revolved around him. The golden colors, large windows, and Lutetian cream stone all helped create a palace of light. The construction took 40 years.

But the sun could not make him smell better! He was the stinkiest king - rumored to only have taken 3 baths in his lifetime and encouraged his court not to take them either. This is why the French took to wearing lots of perfume. Also, the halls of Versailles did not have proper restrooms, so well-to-do men and women relieved themselves in chamber pot buckets in the corners, making the palace also get the nickname of the smelliest palace. It’s a good thing the palace was built with sturdy stone materials that could handle this and stay intact. The excrement was thrown out the windows and no doubt helped fertilize the many gardens. The people prided themselves on clean clothing though. For instance, Marie-Antoinette was once hit by human waste as she walked through the inner courtyard, so her maids had to quickly run inside to get her a clean dress. King Louie changed his white shirt 3-4 times a day. That is a lot of laundry!

--TM

**********************************************************

The Gardens

On our visit to Versailles, we were all excited to walk through the gardens of palace which have been swaying people’s imagination for years due to their architectural grandeur and political history.

The gardens of Versailles were planned by André Le Nôtre in 1624, one of the most famous and influential landscape architect in French history. Currently, the Palace of Versailles is a museum that has been run as a public establishment supervised by the French Ministry of Culture since 1995.

One of my highlights besides walking around the Gardens was the famous hall of mirrors which was filled with the most amazing paintings I have ever seen in person. This marvelous room was due to King Louis XIV wanting a "power" room which was established by using a total of luxurious 357 mirrors, topping it with astonishing sculptures, furniture, and other works of art that make it the room that is today since back on the day was only used for special ceremonies such as weddings and balls.

After that beautiful historical tour, we had a great afternoon cooking some french appetizers and desserts such as Croque Monsieur, Tarte aux fraises, and many more while always making friends along the way 😊.

--FT

COLLAPSE