Mr NYC in Paris: Versailles

During our time in Paris, we took the train out of the city to visit the Palace of Versailles. The brainchild of the Sun King, Louis XIV, it was originally a hunting lodge that was built into a massive, ornate structure that has stunned the world to this day and is arguably the world's most famous palace. 

Ironically, Versailles was only a working palace for less than two hundred years  -- for most of its existence it has a been a museum to itself, also serving as a reminder of the greatness of monarchy (i.e. the Sun King) and its fall (mostly due to the ghastly end of the last queen to live there, Marie Antoinette). 

To be honest, as gorgeous as Versailles is, its legend outstrips its reality. Yes, it's huge and gorgeous but there's something kind of cold about it. The palace doesn't really give you a sense of what it was like to live there, its domesticity has been taken out of it -- it's basically just a museum to a bygone, feudal time (except you do see les royal bedrooms where they had le royal sex to make les royal babies). Also, it's not the biggest palace I've ever been to - the Forbidden City in Beijing, China makes Versailles look like a shed.

Still, it's gorgeous, and we greatly enjoyed visiting it. Just so you know, the "gardens" of Versailles are vast, and it requires a seperate entrance and you can really spend an entire day walking around just them. 

Here's our pictures of it: