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Château de Versailles, by night
By Ann | October 27, 2009
Last week, I felt honored to be included in a special, private tour of Versailles by night. I’ve been interested in the 17th-century palace since I read this biography of Marie Antoinette, and saw Sophia Coppola’s film, but seeing its grandeur bathed in nocturnal shadows was both spooky and poignant. What did I see?
At 6.30pm, la grille royale, or Royal Gate, was opened especially for our group…
…allowing us access to the château, which was built between 1661 and 1710, by the Sun King himself, Louis XIV.
The sky had darkened considerably by the time we reached the Hall of Mirrors.
In French, it’s called la Galerie des Glaces and it was so vast, so amazingly empty, so startlingly imposing that I couldn’t stop taking photos.
The Hall of Mirrors was lovingly restored in 2007. The decorated ceiling is not covered with frescoes, but with a series of painted canvases, which were attached by a process called mauroflage. For the restoration, each canvas was detached, cleaned, and re-glued. The chandeliers feature special bulbs, which were designed to produce light of the same color and intensity as burning candles.
We were like modern ghosts intruding upon the quiet splendor of the Hall of Mirrors.
Imagine the parchment scrolls that were unfurled, the wars discussed, the quills that scratched over this Louis XIV-era desk.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette stood on this balcony (left) and watched angry mobs gather below.
They attended daily mass in this chapel.
Above the Gabriel staircase hangs a mobile by the contemporary French artist, Xavier Veilhan.
At the end of our tour, the Royal Gate closed behind us, and we left the royal ghosts behind.
Topics: Totally unrelated to food, Uncategorized |
8 Responses to “Château de Versailles, by night”
Comments
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October 27th, 2009 at 3:33 am
Wow! In summer of 1986, my friends and I visited Versailles but we were too cheap/impoverished to buy entry tickets! So we had a picnic on the grounds and rented a boat on the enormous pool in the surrounding parkland. So I still haven’t been inside the palace! Now that I’ve seen your pictures, I really want to go.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Beautiful, Ann! I studied in Versailles the first time I went abroad in 1993. I have a lot of great memories of visiting the chateau and gardens and some very humorous memories of a visit to the outdoor sculptures sous la pluie with our fearless art history professor.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Really, really cool Ann. Chris, don’t worry about not buying tickets. If it makes you feel any better, when Brian and I were there in Summer 2007, we *did* buy tickets, and still thought the grounds, park and boats were the best part. The palace was SO crowded with summer tourists that we rushed through, but the gardens were wonderful. I’ll never forget our afternoon lounging in the grass with a bottle of wine and baguette sandwiches on the bank of the water, just looking up at the sky, with no place to be. Ann, I’d love to go on a nice little tour like you did when it wasn’t crowded . . . and the nighttime seems so special.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Thank you Ann. This was a real enchantment…We fall asleep with twinckling stars in our eyes..
Chris, we definitively will take you there
October 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Chris — Goodness, is Versailles the one spot in Paris that I know better than you do? I’ve now been there twice!
Heather — I love the idea of visiting the château with an art history professor. Looking at statues in the rain, not so much.
Sherry — Versailles is spectacular any time of the day, but the nighttime was good prep for Halloween. Did you see the bed where 19 kings of France were born? The queen had to deliver in front of the whole court to verify the child was a true prince of the blood — can you IMAGINE?
Marie-Claude — Merci de m’avoir invitée. C’était vraiment inoubliable!
October 31st, 2009 at 4:48 pm
What spectacular photos of Versailles at night! Well done! Wish I had been there with you.
Adeline
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:43 am
Wonderful photos and writing — what an opportunity! Thanks for taking us along.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Mom — Thank you! It was very lovely, very ghostly and beautiful. I think the French people I was with were truly moved. I heard one of them saying something like, “Imagine the history that took place in this very room!”
Kim B. — Thank YOU for reading! It was a very special evening, truly unforgettable.