It's good when the King is a lazy bum

Hey guys! Welcome to the next installment of Adventures in Paris! On Saturday I went to Versaille with my Fren 362 class. It was really cool! But also really cold and rainy. Anywho, to start off we went through the garden. Luckily every Saturday they turn on the fountains for a few hours, and we just happened to get there right before that started. So it was really cool! They also played music-fun fact: Louis XIV would tell the gardeners in advance where he was going to walk so they set up hidden orchestras, so he would always have continuous music as he walked. Anyways, we walked through the gardens, and it was really magical and pretty.

Beginning of the gardens

View from the Chateau of the gardens and grand canal

 Statue of Perseus saving Andromeda

 View from the gardens back to the Chateau

The Enceladus Grove

Enceladus.
The giant who tried to topple Mt. Olympus so Zeus dropped a mountain on him and his twin brother.

This is the Apollo Fountain, even though it looks like it should be Poseidon

Then we made it to Le Petit Venise, next to the Grand Canal

At Le Petit Venise, we rented a boat and rowed out on to the Grand Canal. It was really cool, to do it and very inexpensive too;)

A birthday present for my roommate

Me and Mckenna with the Chateau in the background

Anyhow after that little venture we ate and then decided to walk back up to the Chateau by way of the gardens.

 The Colonnade

Statue of Hades capturing Persephone

 A cool vase, I saw one that was the story of how dolphins came to be. It's not this one, but this one's pretty cool too.

Looking down on the Orangerie

Once inside we took the audio tour, which took us through the apartment of the King, his many staterooms and the hall of mirrors. It was all very lush and extravagant.

Yet more stairs,
However because the King had to climb them, there weren't tons of them.

This is a tromp l'oeil, because the painting looks like it goes up into the sky even though we all know it's the ceiling.

 The Throne where the King met with petitioners

The Hall of Mirrors

 Mirrors were very expensive so this was showing how powerful and wealthy France was.

What most of the furniture looked like

After that, we walked over to the Paris temple which is under construction, supposedly it's right next to the Chateau but it's about a 36 minutes walk from the Chateau.

Anywho, so that was my day. It was pretty sweet and I'm really glad I got to go.