Today we caught the train out Palace of Versailles. It took about 30 minutes. What an amazing and enormous palace. I'll give you a brief history lesson:
Versailles was built in 1624 by Louis XIV’s father, Louis XV. When Louis came of age in 1661, he set about building a palace worthy of his power and image as the Sun King. Like the Sun, his court, nobles, and government officials would all revolve around him. For the next 60 years Louis continued to expand on the original structure. In the 1680s 36,000 bricklayers were employed, adding on new wings and outbuildings. In 1682 the seat of French government was officially moved to Versailles.
The gardens were huge and as opulent as the palace itself.
When I did my Dress Design course back in the early 1980's part of our course was to learn about the history of costume through the ages and when we learnt about the fashion of the Louis XIV era I was fascinated by this time in history and thought if ever I get a chance I would love to visit the Palace of Versailles ....... Well, I can tick that off the bucket list!
We then took the train back to Paris to visit the Musee d'Orsay. Another bit of history.....did you know that the Musee d'Orsay used to be a railway station which was then converted into a museum for artwork? It features paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec and more. A really fascinating museum.
We then had a look through St Germain and the Latin Quarter area which both are very vibrant and very busy with people and traffic.
We have 2 days left in Paris so we will do some more exploring the St Germain and Latin Quarter area and have an easy day tomorrow as poor Tonys cold is getting worse.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Versailles was built in 1624 by Louis XIV’s father, Louis XV. When Louis came of age in 1661, he set about building a palace worthy of his power and image as the Sun King. Like the Sun, his court, nobles, and government officials would all revolve around him. For the next 60 years Louis continued to expand on the original structure. In the 1680s 36,000 bricklayers were employed, adding on new wings and outbuildings. In 1682 the seat of French government was officially moved to Versailles.
The gardens were huge and as opulent as the palace itself.
When I did my Dress Design course back in the early 1980's part of our course was to learn about the history of costume through the ages and when we learnt about the fashion of the Louis XIV era I was fascinated by this time in history and thought if ever I get a chance I would love to visit the Palace of Versailles ....... Well, I can tick that off the bucket list!
We then took the train back to Paris to visit the Musee d'Orsay. Another bit of history.....did you know that the Musee d'Orsay used to be a railway station which was then converted into a museum for artwork? It features paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec and more. A really fascinating museum.
We then had a look through St Germain and the Latin Quarter area which both are very vibrant and very busy with people and traffic.
We have 2 days left in Paris so we will do some more exploring the St Germain and Latin Quarter area and have an easy day tomorrow as poor Tonys cold is getting worse.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment