Thursday, October 19, 2006
Wed 11/10 Versailles
I now understand completely why there was a French revolution. Excess, excess, excess!!! I thought the royalty of Britain was pretty out there, but they've got nothing on Louis and Marie! Queen Bessie II has 80 staff in her household (found that out in Scotland). Louis and Marie had 6000! I'm surprised there is any gold left for modern times. There are tonnes of it in gold leaf throughout Versailles. The other thing that struck me was that so much of it has had to be restored to present to modern audiences (me) and it must have cost a bomb for the French government to do. Much of the furniture and paintings, drapes, floor coverings were distroyed and they have done an amazing job restoring it but when I know how much they spend in Britain on heritage restoration I hate to think what the French have spent. And even the ongoing maintenance must be horendously expensive. They were working on the grand hall while I was there and the explantion of the process was amazing. It's years of work for a huge team.
Big, big, day. Got back from walking miles around the palace and the two play palaces Marie had built for her entertainment - one has only just opened to the public and is used to house the staff that run Versailles. So you can wander around the 'Village' but not go in the actual buildings. Iwent out to Versailles wit hmy two new dorm friends. It is so big we got separated and I only found one girl before coming back to Paris. Clemins and I stopped at a restaurant specialising in tradional french fare for dinner as a treat and reward for walking so far today. We worked out the menu and shared our meals for the tastes. Really lovely. We got talking to the man dining alone on the other end of our table (tressles) and he ended up sharing with us too. So we got to try 9 different dishes instead of your usual 3 - entree, plat, and dessert. I HAD a SNAIL! Actually quite nice but so heavily garnished I couldn't really taste the snail itself. Texture of oyster. Must try again some time - au naturale- so I can get the flavour. And it didn't fly across the room...like in 'Pretty Woman'.
I now understand completely why there was a French revolution. Excess, excess, excess!!! I thought the royalty of Britain was pretty out there, but they've got nothing on Louis and Marie! Queen Bessie II has 80 staff in her household (found that out in Scotland). Louis and Marie had 6000! I'm surprised there is any gold left for modern times. There are tonnes of it in gold leaf throughout Versailles. The other thing that struck me was that so much of it has had to be restored to present to modern audiences (me) and it must have cost a bomb for the French government to do. Much of the furniture and paintings, drapes, floor coverings were distroyed and they have done an amazing job restoring it but when I know how much they spend in Britain on heritage restoration I hate to think what the French have spent. And even the ongoing maintenance must be horendously expensive. They were working on the grand hall while I was there and the explantion of the process was amazing. It's years of work for a huge team.
Big, big, day. Got back from walking miles around the palace and the two play palaces Marie had built for her entertainment - one has only just opened to the public and is used to house the staff that run Versailles. So you can wander around the 'Village' but not go in the actual buildings. Iwent out to Versailles wit hmy two new dorm friends. It is so big we got separated and I only found one girl before coming back to Paris. Clemins and I stopped at a restaurant specialising in tradional french fare for dinner as a treat and reward for walking so far today. We worked out the menu and shared our meals for the tastes. Really lovely. We got talking to the man dining alone on the other end of our table (tressles) and he ended up sharing with us too. So we got to try 9 different dishes instead of your usual 3 - entree, plat, and dessert. I HAD a SNAIL! Actually quite nice but so heavily garnished I couldn't really taste the snail itself. Texture of oyster. Must try again some time - au naturale- so I can get the flavour. And it didn't fly across the room...like in 'Pretty Woman'.
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 5:08 AM 
