Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Next you'll visit the magnificent
Hall of Mirrors
—250 feet long, with 17 arched
mirrorsmatching17windowslookingoutuponroyalgardenviews.Themirrors—aluxury
at the time—reflect an age when beautiful people loved to look at themselves. In anoth-
er age altogether, this was the room in which the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending
World War I.
Kings and Queens and Guillotines
• You could read this on the train ride to Versailles. Relax...the palace is the last
stop.
Come the Revolution, when they line us up and make us stick out our hands, will
you have enough calluses to keep them from shooting you? A grim thought, but
Versailles raises these kinds of questions. It's the architectural embodiment of the
ancien régime
, a time when society was divided into rulers and the ruled, when you
were born to be rich or to be poor. To some it's the pinnacle of civilization; to oth-
ers, the sign of a civilization in decay. Either way, it remains one of Europe's most
impressive sights.
Versailles wastheresidence ofthekingandtheseatofFrance'sgovernmentfor
a hundred years. Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) moved out of the Louvre in Paris, the
previous royal residence, and built an elaborate palace in the forests and swamps
of Versailles, 10 miles west. The reasons for the move were partly personal—Louis
XIVlovedtheoutdoorsanddislikedthesnipingenvironsofstuffyParis—andpartly
political.
LouisXIVwascreatingthefirstmodern,centralizedstate.AtVersailleshecon-
solidated his government's scattered ministries so that he could personally control
policy. More importantly, he invited France's nobles to Versailles in order to con-
trol them. Living a life of almost enforced idleness, the “domesticated” aristocracy
couldn't interfere with the way Louis ran things. With 18 million people united un-
der one king (England had only 5.5 million), a booming economy, and a powerful
military, France was Europe's number-one power.
Around 1700, Versailles was the cultural heartbeat of Europe, and French cul-
ture was at its zenith. Throughout Europe, when you said “the king,” you were re-
ferring to the French king—Louis XIV. Every king wanted a palace like Versailles.
Everyone learned French. French taste in clothes, hairstyles, table manners, theater,
music,art,andkissingspreadacrosstheContinent.Thatculturaldominancecontin-
ued, to some extent, right up to the 20th century.
