I had been to Versailles before (back in 2000). But it is huge, overwhelming, and usually terribly crowded. Also, on this trip in 2021, we would be able to see the private apartments as well as the Opera. Those areas had not been available to Mom and me before. I felt it was worth going a second time.
I had read that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of visitors had dropped from eight million in 2019 to two million in 2020. It seemed to me that either visitorship was up in 2021 or everybody decided to show up the same day we were there. Versailles had the most visitors of any of the places we had been to on our entire Grand France River Cruise.
Since I had been having difficulty with my back (having had surgery just two months earlier for cancer next to my spine), I was using my cane and trying to sit down whenever we needed to stand for any length of time. It wasn’t the walking that was a problem, but the standing still.
At most places we had visited, either there were empty spots to sit or people would rise and make room for me. Not at Versailles. All benches and other seating were full of mostly younger people with no visible signs of a disability. Not a soul was going to get up and allow me to sit. Most looked away and pointedly ignored me. Interesting. This was in the State Rooms. In the Private Apartments, there were much fewer people, but no spaces provided to sit down.
We began our tour with the Private Apartments, entering through the private entrance. The Private Apartments were in the original red brick chateau that Louis XIII built to replace the 1623 hunting lodge in 1631-34. Louis XIV expanded the chateau into a palace and moved the seat of his court and government there in 1682.
The oldest part of the building, with the Private Apartments, had what they called an Enveloppe built around the outside of it starting in the 1660s. This mainly contained the State Apartments and the Hall of Mirrors. Both the South and North wings were also added. All of this was mostly completed by the time of Louis XIV’s death in 1715.
From the Private Entrance, we passed through the Room of the King’s Guard before climbing the King’s Staircase. Once we were upstairs in the Private Apartments, the first room we entered was the Antichambre des Chiens. This was where the King’s dogs would sleep at night. The first interior photo with this post shows the entrance to the Clock Room as seen from the Dog’s Room.
The Clock Room has an amazing astronomical clock. The small equestrian statue in the middle of the room is of Louis XV.
The next room we entered was the King’s Private Chamber. This room had a very beautiful and ornate desk (quite different from the one at which I am currently seated). It was the first desk of its type, allowing the King to leave his papers on his desk but keep them away from prying eyes. It was from the balcony of this room where Louis XV (with tears in his eyes) watched Madame de Pompadour’s funeral procession depart from Versailles in 1764.
We passed through a few more rooms and took a look inside of the Bathchamber before entering Louis XVI’s private library. Although these rooms are considered to be small and intimate compared to the State Rooms, this library is still much larger and more ornate than the libraries of most people other than the very wealthy.
The last rooms we visited before heading back downstairs were the Porcelain Dining Room and the Buffet Room. These rooms were for more intimate suppers than the formal dining room. If there were more people than the Porcelain Dining Room could comfortably hold, the men would retreat to the Buffet Room.
Once back downstairs (down the Ambassador’s Staircase), we crossed over to where the Opera was located in the North Wing, passing through the Vestibule of the Chapel (closed for restoration) and the Stone Gallery. Built for the celebration of the 1770 marriage of the future Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette, the Opera had been built almost entirely out of wood (which has better acoustics than other materials) and painted to look like marble. This was the first time I had been able to see it. I thought it was quite beautiful. We were able to sit in the seats while we looked around and listened to our guide.
After our nice leisurely visit to the Opera, we climbed the stairs to the State Apartments. The first one we entered was the Salon of Hercules, followed by the Salon of Abundance, the Salons of Venus, Diana, Mars, Mercury, and Apollo.
At the time, I figured that they just liked naming very large, ornate rooms after Roman gods as I didn’t notice anything in particular in most of these rooms to connect with the particular deity after it was named. But I was also beginning to realize that I wasn’t going to be able to sit down again until I reached the gardens and I was getting a little testy.
The Salon of Hercules had originally been a chapel. It did have a painting involving Hercules on the ceiling, so it was appropriately named. So too was the Salon of Abundance. It had a painting with the title Abundance and Liberality. This room had once been the antechamber for the Cabinet of Curios next door. That room later became a Games Room for Louis XVI.
Actually it turned out that they all had something that did showcase the name of the room. I had to look at the photos later, when I wasn’t so cranky, to see them. The Salon of Venus, which was used for light meals during evening receptions, had a painting with Venus in it.
The main thing that I had noticed in the Salon of Diana, was a bust of Louis XIV by the great Italian sculptor Bernini. I guess I had been blind to the paintings as there were several on the walls and ceiling from the life of the Roman goddess Diana. This room had been used as a billiards room.
The Salon of Mars had a military theme and had been used mainly by the Royal Guards until it was turned into a concert room with platforms on either side of the fireplace for the musicians. The platforms are no longer there.
The Salon of Mercury was the original State Bedchamber of Louis XIV and has a replica of the original bed in it now. The ceiling paintings depict the god Mercury. The original throne room under Louis XIV was the Salon of Apollo with a painting of the Sun Chariot of Apollo in the center of the ceiling.
It is interesting to note that the apartments of Madame de Pompadour (in her days as Louis XV’s mistress) were directly above this line of salons. The King had a private staircase from his private apartments that he could take to reach her rooms. Later in life, when she was no longer the official Chief Royal Mistress, she was still a court favorite and occupied rooms on the ground floor that I believe were in the south wing.
The Salon of War is the last room before the Hall of Mirrors. It celebrates the French victories in the Franco-Dutch War during the time of Louis XIV.
The previous time I had been to Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors had been wall-to-wall people. This time it was possible to see the actual room. It was great to be able to take it all in slowly. On the right were the windows to the gardens, to the left were hidden doors to the King’s Apartments.
Built between 1678 and 1681 on the site of a terrace between the King and Queen’s apartments, the Hall of Mirrors was built to impress. Weddings, balls and diplomatic receptions took place here. This was the room where, during a masked ball, Louis XV met Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson d’Étiolles (who later became Madame de Pompadour). Both the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I, were signed in the Hall of Mirrors.
At the other end of the Hall of Mirrors is the Salon of Peace. After zipping through that room as quickly as one could zip while navigating their way around other tourists, we entered Marie Antoinette’s State Bedchamber. This was followed by the Salon des Nobles, the Antechamber of the Grand Couvert (which had a lovely portrait of the Queen and her children), and the Guard Room.
From there we took the Queen’s Staircase down to the ground floor and exited the chateau to visit the gardens. On our previous visit, Mom and I had a fair amount of free time to spend exploring. Instead of the gardens, we walked down to the Grand Trianon, the Petite Trianon, and the Hamlet, spending our time touring all of them. This time with a much shorter period of free time and an included ticket to the gardens, I did that.
Looking at the ground and first floor plans of Versailles, I realize that there is still so much that I haven’t seen. There are the Dauphin (Crown Prince) and Dauphine (Crown Princess) apartments as well as the Queen’s Private Apartments, the Hall of Battles, the 1792 Room, the Old Wing, the Gilded Cabinet, apartments of various courtiers and the Captain of the Guard, plus numerous other chambers and salons. I wonder how much of that could be seen with the right tour or pass.
Next time — Paris
