The World Could Use a Little More Louis XIV

I saw some stuff today that made me understand why Donald Trump is obsessed with all that fancy gold stuff you see in his NY apartments. Louis XIV made a palace with a garden that, after spending a full day touring it, makes you think "you're kidding right? This is for real, real?". I want to say I loved it and I want to say it is WAY over the top. And it is.


My true love and I just got back from a day at Versailles. Waking up early, getting ready for the day and strolling to the metro seemed whimsical. By the time we left Versailles, it was like a mission to get back to the hotel, take off our shoes and get some wine in our glasses. I have a million tales to share, but because I'm tired (and have to go do laundry), I'm going to present the day in speed play. Here you go:

Wake up, get dressed, get on the metro.





Grab a couple café allongés and croissants and get on the RER.


Get to Versailles and take an awesome photo.


Listen to an audio guide and realize that Louis XIV was awesome and makes me feel super rad about being a renaissance man.


I Try and take lots of good photos, but learn that this place is a major tourist magnet and people don't care about your photo taking. I get many urges to want to beat people. Knowing the French are superior hand to hand combat fighters, I resist any temptations.


The palace was pretty amazing. The garden tour begins.


A popular hobby (born in Paris, I think) is parcours. I've been practicing this physically demanding, jaw dropping past time in my mind for some time. Why not give it a try in Louis XIV's garden? Here is my true love on a balcony looking beautiful.


The perfect spot to test my mental parcours training.


Success.


Feeling hungry, it's time to refuel. A little café in the garden served some amazing food!


After lunch, we walked through the gardens and checked out some statues.


Here's an interesting one. Why The Face?


When you're Louis XIV and you want a canal, you make a canal. When you want to be spontaneously romantic, you take your true love for a boat ride on it.





Then you get her to paddle.


After our boat ride, we checked out Marie Antoinette's place. She was married to Louis XIV's great great grandson (who did not inherit the awesome gene and got his head chopped off). This is her abode.


Apparently, she thought living like a commoner was appealing, so she had a hamlet developed. My true love convinced me that we should buy one of the available houses. Now proud hamlet home owners.


Moving on to the Grand Trianon part of the property, we got lost.


Major lost.


Not quite realizing we were where we were not supposed to be, we took this nice picture.


Then we finally got to where we were going and the gate we passed through had this sign.


There was some cool fashion stuff at Grand Trianon, so no cameras were allowed (so no pictures, sorry). After we left, we stopped by another café for coffee and a sundae!


Then we made our way back towards the palace. Then there was this cat. This cat looked just like a cat that lives at our house back home, so I chased it. It tried to escape by going into little fence holes, but I (being human) am smarter than a cat and had so many opportunities to pounce on it, but didn't. It turned out it was a different cat.


Still on our way, we stopped to take in a water fountain show.





I think most people were expecting some kind of dancing water show like you would see in Vegas at the Mirage. It was just fountains shooting up and some classical music playing. I put the Foo Fighters on my iPod. My true love enjoyed the gardens.


When we got back to Hotel Royal Bastille, I watched some epic break dancers from the hotel window. There is always something awesome going on in Paris!


But it's not all fun, time to do laundry...