If there is anything that will get a group of students out of bed for a 7.45am meet, it would have to be excessive drilling! It was absolutely mind-splitting drilling which was so loud we were all convinced something was going to come crashing through the ceiling!
After demolishing the carbohydrate-fuelled breakfast on offer, our entire tour group congregated in the reception to board the coach to Versailles. The sensible ones had bought their pillows and blankets with them for the journey. Expecting only an hours journey, three and a half later we saw the Palace of Versailles.
It had begun snowing whilst we made our way there and the sight was quite spectacular. It was another twenty minutes later when our coach driver worked out where he could drop us off. The silver lining was that we were given a mini-tour of the area around the palace and got to see a bit more of Versailles.
Getting in free was a not only a saving grace for saving the euros but also for quickly getting us out of the snow! We found ourselves walking through a long row of rooms beautifully decorated with rich fabrics such as velvet and bright reds, blues and greens. Each room displayed family portraits from French royal family and the Hughes generations.
The views out of each window were simply stunning. The beautifully manicured gardens had a sprinkling of snow of the ground making it look like it had had a sprinkling of icing sugar. As we worked our way through the palace, the room sizes increased and the decoration became more elaborate. The Corridor of Light was the most ostentatious room of them all with gold cherub ornaments placed before every mirror, statues facing opposite and crystal chandeliers hung in a long row. This room would have been used for banquets and the vast space with minimal furniture displayed extreme opulence.
On reflection there were many things I learnt from my visit to the Palace of Versailles. The Palace of Versailles was built in an era when wealth was expressed through space and the royal family would have been keen to show this. To further increase the space of the rooms, furniture was hidden behind secret panels and pulled out when needed.The King’s bedroom which we were able to witness was not his sleeping place but where he would take his closest visitors. The closer you got to his “bedroom”, the most important you were in society. If you were the King’s council, you would go to his “show bedroom” where you would see him wearing his “show nightgown”. Royalty had a separate staircase to “behave badly” in away from prying eyes of the King’s council.
The Guard’s Room displayed weaponry and would have been shown to visitors to show how threatening France could be. The Dining Rooms showed money and cultural dignity. Food was a signifier; meet and dessert came in dish which is a recurring trend apparent today. Our ideas of fine dining today originated from the Court of Versailles. Women were not allowed to eat in front of the men as its was considered seductive, especially women eating meat which was considered ‘extremely titilating’. Women had an anti-table which would be separated from the men, although they were still not allowed to eat to eat here, but instead could gamble, play cards and drink coffee. Great Britain was the biggest drinking nation of the 18th century. Servants would dry out used tea leaves and re-sell them even though this was illegal as tea leaves were extremely expensive.The grounds to the Palace of Versailles are all about beauty and fantasy. Other aspects of beauty at the time was the female beauty spot which indicated beauty, availability and sexuality. Jugglers and jesters were people of the court as they didn’t like bringing strangers into the palace because of gossip.
The fashions that the Palace of Versailles witnessed was another opportunity to express their wealth but also carried their restricitions. Big, long sleeves meant that you could never put glasses down on a table as you would knock them over when trying to pick them up. But holding the glass displayed innovation and wealth. Even whilst sat at a table, there would be a servant to each person who would hold the wine glass by their shoulder whilst they ate instead of putting them down. At the same time, the wine glass would never become remotely empty! Each time the person put the wine glass to their shoulder, the servant would empty, wash and refill the glass and hold it until their hand returned to their hsoulder indicating they wanted to take a sip. This has got to be a recurring trend…how amazing would that be at a dinner party??
Having had the snow fall down, we were unable to visit Marie Antoinette’s private residence and we had a reduced amount of time at the Palace than initially planned. We managed to have a much faster journey home and were back at the hotel by 3pm.
The six of us girls took the Metro to Galleries Lafayette, admiring the many shops on the way. In particular there was a beautiful chocolatier which had its visual merchandising geered up for the impending Valentines Day. Now that has to be Paris in a nutshell: chocolate + Valentines Day = romance. Galleries Lafayette was simply stunning. The ceiling was incredible and made the whole shopping environment feel very luxurious and up-market. Printemps, another department store which was near enough next door, was not as mind-blowing although the shoe department certainly made me feel like I was in heaven! On reflection, visiting department stores in Paris was not dissimilar from those in the uk, although the stunning layout of Galleries Lafayette takes some beating! There was a clear distinction between luxury brands such as Dior and Chanel however, other more mainstream menswear brands were displayed in a similar way to the visual merchandising you would find in House of Fraser.
For the first time, on our official first full day in Paris, the whole tour group planned to meet at De La Ville Café at 7.30pm. By this time we had all massively worked up an appetite and had the most AMAZING dinner! It was steaks and gourmet burgers all round. Just thinking about it now is making me hungry! It was great fun to meet up with others from the group and trade information about which places were good to go etc.
The evening was nicely rounded of with a slumber party in our room…ten girls and ten bottles of wine!
Having had the snow fall down, we were unable to visit Marie Antoinette’s private residence and we had a reduced amount of time at the Palace than initially planned. We managed to have a much faster journey home and were back at the hotel by 3pm.
The six of us girls took the Metro to Galleries Lafayette, admiring the many shops on the way. In particular there was a beautiful chocolatier which had its visual merchandising geered up for the impending Valentines Day. Now that has to be Paris in a nutshell: chocolate + Valentines Day = romance. Galleries Lafayette was simply stunning. The ceiling was incredible and made the whole shopping environment feel very luxurious and up-market. Printemps, another department store which was near enough next door, was not as mind-blowing although the shoe department certainly made me feel like I was in heaven! On reflection, visiting department stores in Paris was not dissimilar from those in the uk, although the stunning layout of Galleries Lafayette takes some beating! There was a clear distinction between luxury brands such as Dior and Chanel however, other more mainstream menswear brands were displayed in a similar way to the visual merchandising you would find in House of Fraser.
For the first time, on our official first full day in Paris, the whole tour group planned to meet at De La Ville Café at 7.30pm. By this time we had all massively worked up an appetite and had the most AMAZING dinner! It was steaks and gourmet burgers all round. Just thinking about it now is making me hungry! It was great fun to meet up with others from the group and trade information about which places were good to go etc.The evening was nicely rounded of with a slumber party in our room…ten girls and ten bottles of wine!
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