Versailles

For our excursion to Versailles we booked a tour so as to avoid the extensive queues that we'd come to expect in Paris. Wise choice. The weather was bitter. About 5 degrees and rather windy so our pre-purchased tickets enabled us to join those entering the main building with relative ease. Opulence greets the unwary traveller from the moment they step into the halls and rooms. Paintings, wall hangings, fittings, candelabras adorned every corner or wall. Gilt or gold in embarrassing quantities. Lavish lifestyles evident for those who dwelt within. Peasants were starving and royalty seemed oblivious to their plight. Revolution should have been anticipated by the French courtiers. Today's casual observer reflects on the extravagance in the plush surrounds and possibly wonders why it took so long for rebellions and uprisings to oust the so very privileged. The Bastille must have been a shock beyond their imagination having lived a life of excess for so long. Who changes the wall paper with the seasons when thousands of other French citizens seek morsels of food for themselves and family? I should have liked to spend more time at Versaille for I'm sure to do it justice as a tourist that one should plan to spend more than a day. Outdoors the sculptured and manicures gardens further persuade the visitor that rebellion was sadly the only way to resolve the burden that royalty had become for the less fortunate in France. Doors of gold! Once closed to the poor and hungry were flung open and sacked by angry mobs wielding pitchforks or less remarkable weaponry. Restoration later financed by distant relatives and trustees or benevolent citizens. The history, the excess. Amazing ...