Versailles, or, How Many Giant Gorgeous Rooms Do You Need?

Today we drove our minute rental car out to Versailles. Despite the fact that we had purchased tickets online as recommended to avoid long lines, we still ended up winding our way through a line that snaked the entire length of the entrance of Versailles three times. The line did move faster than expected, so that was good. The line to purchase tickets there consisted of two people. So, I am not sure I would recommend buying in advance to avoid long lines.

What can I say about Versailles that hasn't been said? Impossibly gilded, filled with art in huge frames, beautiful and jaw-droppingly expensive, massive in a let-the-peasants-starve way...

They do let you photograph everything, which is rare in European castles. (Score one for the French!)

This is the Hall of Mirrors. The chandeliers were lower than expected. 

The ceiling of the private opera, which is two stories tall.

One of the staircases.

A bit of the gardens.

One of the bedrooms. It was really hard getting pictures without several hundred strangers in them.

Even the window locks are amazing.

View back at the palace from the gardens. The sky the past two days has been very dramatic, with rain one minute and blazing sunshine the next. If I were in Illinois I would wonder about tornados, but here they don't have them, so instead I just take pictures and enjoy it.

Louis XIV on a horse with Versailles in the background.

There was a car show near the old stables.

Then we went for crepes right near Versailles. The crepes were delicious, and seemed to be made with buckwheat flour.

And to answer the question, some people need a lot of giant gorgeous rooms.