| Kristi and I went on an excursion to the Palace
of Versailles. This 17th century chateau was built
by Louis XIV (14th). Only three kings lived here; most
French kings lived in the Louvre before it was turned
into a museum. Louis XIV wanted his own palace and not
a used one, so he had the Chateau de Versailles built
for him. It took 19 years to build the extensive baroque
palace, which is really fast considering Notre Dame took
200 years to build. King Louis XIV called himself the
Sun King and Versailles is decorated with a lot of sun
symbols in honor of that self-title. There are also a
lot of statues and paintings of him displayed around the
palace. We were able to see the King’s public rooms,
the Hall of Mirrors, and the Queen’s public rooms.
Only three kings lived here: Louis XIV, Louis XV, and
Louis XVI. Louis XVI (16th) and his wife Marie Antoinette
were taken from this palace and later beheaded in Paris.
This was the end of the kings in France.
During the revolution, the people ransacked the palace.
They removed most of the furniture, artwork, and royal
treasures. Some stuff was returned when this building
became a museum, but the throne was never found. Today,
a lowly chair sits in place of the throne.
Two interesting points of trivia regarding the kings
and queens of France:
1) The king had parties Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
A lucky few people were chosen to watch the king go
to bed after the parties. They would go to the King’s
public bedroom and the king would eat a night snack,
undress himself to his undergarments, take his wig off
(it was a real honor to touch the wig of the king),
and get into bed to “go to sleep”. After
the people left the room, the king would get out of
the public bed, go through a hidden door to his private
chamber and sleep the rest of the night there. In the
morning, he would get up to go back to the public bedroom,
and “wake up” in front of his public.
2) The queen was really only used to make babies. She
really did not have any authority in the government.
The queen’s public bedroom has two doors; one
to the king’s private room and one to her own
private room. They had a similar ceremony for the queen’s
“going to bed” and sometimes the king went
to bed with her until the people left the room. After
that she/they retired to her private room. The queen
was never allowed in the king's private bedroom. The
public bedroom was also used as the place where the
queen gave birth. The people had to be sure the baby
was actually the queen’s so they had to witness
the birth.
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