The Faces of Versailles

Wednesday July 5 - Versailles

Versailles is incomprehensibly huge. Even standing in front of the building, it's hard to wrap your mind around the size of the estate - it apparently stretches some eight miles. When my friend, Linda, said that it took her a couple of hours to walk the gardens I thought she was dawdling - now I understand that she was probably motoring at a decent clip.

Louis XIV's reign was long, but it still seems like it would never be enough time to build something like this. The small opera house inside took two years alone to construct. Much of the art is pure
propaganda, designed to stress the absolute rule of the monarchy, and the supreme power of France at the time. There is so much gilt, marble, and ornamentation that it soon becomes overwhelming. The face in the picture is one of many I found in the garden's endless sculpture. It pretty much expresses how I felt at the end of the chateau tour!

Paris wore many faces too, last night. In case you don't follow soccer (and I usually don't) France advanced to the finals of the World Cup. The streets were a delirious party of fire eaters, flags,
fireworks, and frenetic celebration. It didn't quiet down until the sun came up. I wonder what the traditional French cure is for hangovers!