French Royal Palaces

[Rearden]

Palace of Versailles

[Rearden]

From: www.all-free-photos.com.

[Rearden]

[Rearden]

[Rearden]

Hall of Mirrors

[Rearden]

Source

[Rearden]

Rearden, thank you so much,  back to you...

and something for your Versailles collection:

(above the mantel is a round portrait of MA's brother Josef, and on the opposite side is a twin portrait of Maria Thersia)

[Rearden]

a doc about Versailles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G93EhIGlVS0

http://www.youtube.com/wa...Rszkk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/wa...CCBo8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/wa...pTZzg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/wa...20zH4&feature=related

[Rearden]

odette maybe you will like this video is about MA's room but it's in french

la galerie des Glaces

[Odette]

Merci Rearden,

I have taken some private tours of the Chateau and our guide was as knowledgeable as the narrator.  My French is tolerable enough to understand
his narration.

Aussi Etoile des dents

[PeDe]

beautiful pics Rearden, 

I just always wonder, looking at or visiting these palaces, WTH did they do all day long in these huge compounds?

Playing hide and seek. They possibly couldn't have had used all the rooms.....strange concept.

[Elissa]

I never took a guided tour in Versailles (lucky you Odette! )
but many of the rooms were also for royal children.
Louis XV had 10 kids, including 7 daughters and only the eldest one got married, the others stayed in Versailles. He also had 7 grandkids by his son, who became orphans quite early.
And other rooms were also reserved for the mistresses  .

[Odette]

I never took a guided tour in Versailles (lucky you Odette! )
but many of the rooms were also for royal children.
Louis XV had 10 kids, including 7 daughters and only the eldest one got married, the others stayed in Versailles. He also had 7 grandkids by his son, who became orphans quite early.
And other rooms were also reserved for the mistresses  .

Elissa, also the various nobles who lived in the Palace.  It was Louis XIV who instituted having the nobility close at hand, 'keep your friends close but your enemies closer."  So rooms were being used, often multiple occupants in one room.  According to accounts of life at Versailles,
the memories of Saint-Simon, it was a filthy place, crowded and miserable in the summer.  Sophia Coppela's film Marie Antoinette touches on some of the idiosyncrasies  of palace life. 

[Rearden]

Odette I'm dieing of envy now  I'm sure that those private tours must be amazing

[Odette]

Rearden, don't die
If you have the time try to do this.  What was great was the tours were back to back, so for 3 glorious hours we wandered the halls, staircases, backrooms, state rooms of the Chateau.  it was in November, so the number of tourists was a a minimum.  this was a while ago, and when i was back two years ago it was so crowded that it was impossible.!!!
   to my castle colleague.


MA salon Doré - her private apartments in Versailles




Count Axel Fersen