Over the last two days I have visited some of France's most famous castles. For the most part, I like hanging out in the gardens, by the fountains and flowers, more than being in the dark and stuffy interiors. However, I do find their histories to be quite interesting and love listening to the specific stories that accompany the castles. Friday morning, we took a mini road trip to Vaux-le-Vicomte. This is a fascinating chateau. Fouquet, the superintendent of finances for Louis XIV, built it back in 1661. He spared no expense: he purchased and demolished three villages to get enough land to build the grand castle and expansive gardens.
Once finished, he invited King Louis XIV to dinner so he could show it off. How exciting! The plan backfired, though. The king was not too pleased to see the golden eating utensils, lavish furniture, gardens and trees for as far as the eye could see and a residence that was bigger and better than his smaller living area at the Louvre (The Louvre is the largest museum in the world, by the way. Still not grand enough for the Sun King). Louis arrested Fouquet on the spot. There was a trial that lasted for a few years and then he was eventually sentenced to life in prison. Served him right for trying to outdo his king! Louis XIV then hired those same architects and landscape architects to build him the Chateau of Versailles. Poor Fouquet. I actually feel bad for the guy. Why is it human nature to be so envious of another person's good fortune? Anyway, it was so peaceful to arrive at this castle early in the morning and have a few hours to walk around and mediate on the quiet grounds as the sun was rising. There wasn't much traffic when we were there at all. I wanted to stay longer.
Friday afternoon, after a three-cheese panini and lemon sorbet, we took off to the ancient castle of Fontainebleau. This castle has existed since the 12th century. It served mainly as a summer home for the kings of France. Louis XIV was actually staying there when he got invited to Vaux-le-Vicomte. It also had beautiful gardens and fun forests that you could go exploring in for hours. We took a walk up some rocks and hills into a forest that the kings used to use to go hunting and watched the sun set.
We spent all day Saturday at Versailles and I felt that I still didn't get to see everything. Again, inside the gold-plated castle were all the impatient tourists, speaking many different languages and pushing us from place-to-place. I swear that we must have been several thousand people over fire code. I just wanted to get out. I didn't even stay a minute in the hot and stuffy chamber rooms to hear the descriptions of all of the king's tapestries and statues. I can read about those on wikipedia on my own time. I loved being outside in the fresh air. Our professor rented a mini car for us to drive around the gardens in and hear the audio tour. I volunteered to be the navigator. For some reason, I was looking at the map backwards, though, and started leading us the wrong way. We went around a little lake, when, all of the sudden, the car immediately stopped working. It started buzzing loudly and shouting that we were out of area. Everyone stared at us with annoyed eyes as we tried to push the car back into the zone where we could make it go again. It took a bit of effort and we couldn't get the buzzing to stop. The keys were locked and the peddles wouldn't move. Finally some workers came up and helped us out, as we were annoying the public. So embarrassing! I didn't give up being the navigator, though, and we eventually had a great tour of the gardens and musical fountains.
My all-time favorite experience from France in 2009 was renting bikes and riding all over the gardens of Versailles. I wanted to do it again this year and I was not disappointed. You feel so free, riding a bike in the peaceful summer air. We visited Marie Antoinette's little village, where she would come to escape the stress of ruling France. I can see why she liked it there. There were dozens of cute houses, vegetable gardens of lettuce, rhubarb and onions as well as a small petting zoo. I would rather be in those little cottages than in that big castle, if I were the queen.
Suzie says- seriously. I had no idea that there was all of this to Versailles. I also hate the castle. Where does one rent bikes? That is the best idea ever because there are probably not a lot of cars (other than the crazy one you rented) to run you over. Interesting story about the guy in prison for life. Sucks to be him, for sure. Snapped out of the lap of luxury to be put in prison in the lap of poverty and heaven knows whom else's lap. LOL
ReplyDeleteYeah, when you go to Versailles next time, you will have to look at the map of the gardens. There are two spots where you can rent bikes. It really makes the trip so much more fun! I know--I really get into stories like that one. I feel so bad for Fouquet.
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