Louis XIV would have been horrified. His beloved palace, a place where royalty and the members of the nobility could retire and rule the masses, has become ruled by the latter and abandoned by the former. Let me explain.
Le Palais de Versailles is a place replete with history. It is where the Sun King ruled his vast kingdom. Where innumerable plots and decisions where born. It is where Louis XVI drove the final nail into the notion of absolute monarchy in France. It is where the Revolution was born. Just as an aside, the cost of maintaining the palace, in the 17th century, was more than the entire expense of maintaining the colony of Nouvelle France (Canada)! I will deal with this some other time.
With this history, comes interest. Interest in seeing it. And I do say, seeing it. Not experiencing it. More on this later. Millions of people from all over the world (10 million according to the Versailles website) flock to see it. When we arrived at Versailles, I was astounded as to the number of people arriving every minute. As we walked up to the grandiose entrance to the grounds, we were surrounded by hundreds of people doing the same. In fact, the wait to get in the palace, was approximately two hours. There were probably close to a thousand people waiting in line to get in, in the blazing hot sun (it was 35 degrees).
Luckily for us, the gardens were open that day, thus into the gardens we went. These were lovely to behold. Hectares of land (800 in fact) devoted to manicured gardens, woods and fountains. It was truly unbelievable to see. After two hours walking the gardens, we had only seen a minuscule part. But we had to return to the palace. It was, after all, why we had come to Versailles. Back in line we went. Luckily, the line had thinned considerably, and after 30 minutes, we were inside the palace. With hundreds of other people. Perhaps thousands.
We went through hallways and through rooms, herded along with hundreds of people all at once, all striving to take photos and avoiding each other’s elbows and photo ops. All those grandiose rooms, all those historical moments to experience and learn about, lost in a sea of humanity. There was no time to look, to ponder, to feel, to experience. It was as though everyone wanted to get as many photos as they could, say they had been there, and move on to the next tourist trap.
I say tourist trap deliberately as that is what Versailles is now. And why should it not be? It would be foolish in the extreme for the French government to not raise as much money as they can from what is arguably a wonder of the world. Yet…yet I had this naïve notion that I could see Versailles and feel that I was walking in the footsteps of the kings of France. That I could try to understand why they felt the need to build such an opulent abode. That I could experience the history of the place, to soak it up and gain knowledge. I was most thoroughly rebuked in this notion. I was left with a bitter aftertaste. Yes, I had been there. Yes I could say that I walked where history was made. But I could not say that I felt anything, that I learned anything that a book could have told me, without having to run the gauntlet of the crowds.
Would I recommend Versailles? In regards to the palace, with all my heart no. In regards to the gardens, absolutely. Would I return?Absolutely not. Unless it was on a private tour of the palace (I am aware that this makes me elitist – but also aware that this will never happen).