Versailles and the Louvre

We spent a long time at Versailles, a very long time. But it is so enormous that it was very easy to pass hours quickly. The main draws, the Hall of Mirrors and the apartments of the king and queen, were very crowded and it was a little difficult to not feel as though we were moving through it on a people mover. It was beautiful, but difficult to really enjoy. Once you get down to the apartments of the dauphin and out to the Grand and Petite Trianons (which cost extra) things opened up quite a bit and we were able to peer into nooks and notice many more details. One of my favorite things were two large round tables in a sitting room of the Grand Trianon. They had tiny numbers on the top and below each number a drawer that slid out; these were used by women to store their sewing projects. These tables make so much sense in the tiny apartments of Paris, but it is funny to think of a table maker designing clever storage in such an enormous house or that princesses had to clean up after themselves and put their things away.

My favorite part, though, was the Queen's Hamlet. This was part of Louis XVI's gift to Marie Antoinette when she was fed up with court life and moved off to another corner of the property. She had the Petite Trianon, but also this little farm with incredibly enchanting country buildings, garden plots, cows and a dairy. Marie and her friends went here to enjoy "country life" and play at working the farm. It is well known that Marie wasn't very aware of the poverty and desperation of her subjects before the Revolution, but seeing her little farm, I wonder if it could even have made sense to her. Country life seems so romantic and wonderful in this perfect little setting, the place she came to get away from how tedious it was to be queen. Based on her perspective, it is easy to see how if she had heard she might have just thought the people were whining.

France had terrible weather leading up to the Revolution, which had caused huge shortages of food and I wonder if Marie noticed any difference in the production of her gardens. More likely she relied so little on the gardens that they always seemed overly abundant. The gardens were full of berries, lettuces, squashes, etc when we were there and I would imagine they were equally productive then, only no one had to live off that produce.

Yesterday we went to the Louvre. We arrived in late afternoon on a day that the museum stays open late so, like Versailles, it got less and less crowded the longer we were there. Once again, I took lots of pictures to use in my lectures. Hammurabi's Code was definitely a highlight. We also, of course, saw the biggies - Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa. The crowd around the Mona Lisa lived up to the reputation. It was huge and pushy and full of flash photography. Lots of flash photography. There were four or five museum employees standing around and not trying to stop the use of flash, which brought me to the conclusion that we were not looking at the original painting. If they swapped the real thing for a poster reproduction, who would know?

The Louvre is obviously filled with amazing things, but I was just as impressed by the palace itself. The ceiling paintings, carved wooden doors and stone staircases were pretty spectacular and rivaled those of Versailles. We saw the mock up of the new Arab art wing. It is supposed to look like a blowing veil, which is interesting since the country passed legislation to limit religious articles like the hijab from public schools. But I thought it looked more like a flattened jelly fish. I guess I will have to come back to Paris to see the finished product.