The Kingsmen were probably not singing about King Loius XIV, the Sun King, when they rocked the house in 1955 but they could have been.  This guy knew how to live.  On May 4 we awoke early and took the train from Paris to Versailles – an easy 35 minute ride – to see Louis’ country house.

The train – very similar to the commuter rail in Boston is a double-decker affair and quite nice – it even comes with entertainment.

Versailles is a nice little town with an ostentatious mansion.  After a quick walk from the train station, we arrived at the palace.  Apparently a few (thousand) other folks had the same idea on this beautiful Saturday morning.  The lines were long… but the place is amazing.

We won’t use this blog to give a history of the mansion or a description of the rooms, but below are some of the better photos we took on our tour.  Erin thought all the rooms looked the same anyway!

The original part of the palace was built earlier as a hunting lodge in the country. These arched windows were the bedroom of Louis XIV both as a child and as king.

After seeing the residences of both the king and queen we headed out to the gardens….  WOW!!!  The Sun King thought pretty highly of himself. He felt that he controlled the whole world, both physical and natural. He loved to be outside, but he managed the outside like he managed everything else. The exterior of Versailles was just an extension of the inside – lavish and massive.  But, since we were getting a bit hungry, and since there are some nice restaurants hidden in the trees, we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we toured the gardens near the palace as well as the vacation homes for the vacation home – The Trianon Palaces.  These were a bit more simple and relaxed versions of Versailles and the place where Marie-Antionette (the wife of King Louis XVI) decided to make her home. We also decide that our outfits matched this house better!

After seeing the Trianon village area, we headed back to see the gardens and fountains with the water working! The gardens were designed to be like outdoor parlor rooms where people could meet and chat… all with different gravity fed fountains.  The water only comes on for a couple of hours, three days a week… so our time was limited as to which ones we could see and photograph.. we did our best to see a bunch of them…

The fountains were terrific, and we were exhausted.  Caitlin’s and Bob’s allergies wrere beginning to get the best of them so a bit of ice cream and a train ride home seemed to be in order.  All in all, a bon jour in the “countryside.”