Versailles: Opulence, Crowds and Japanimation

In the seventeenth century, King Louis XIV turned one of his hunting lodges in the town of Versailles into one of the grandest, if not the grandest, royal residences in the world.  He moved his capital here out of filthy Paris, and it stayed here until angry Parisians forced King Louis XVI and his family back into Paris during the French Revolution.  Following the fall of the French Monarchy, the palace's most notable uses have been related to international relations.  The country of Germany was born in its Hall of Mirrors following the Prussian's crushing of France in 1870-1871, and the Treaty of Versailles that intended to cripple Germany was signed in the same hall in 1919 following World War I.

We generally did a good job in scheduling our time to Paris' major sites around crowds, but we failed with Versailles.  Bad weather at the end of our time in Paris forced us to visit the palace on a Saturday, and it was packed.  I'm pretty sure that it was the busiest attraction we've seen on this whole trip.  We couldn't even walk through the palace at our own pace; we had to walk lockstep with the crowds at the risk of being trampled if we misstepped.  Shoulder-to-shoulder tourism isn't really my thing and it was a big part of my not liking the Palace of Versailles that much.  Also, crowds aside, I just wasn't blown away as much as I thought I would be.  Yes, it was incredibly opulent, but it didn't seem to be heads and shoulders above other palaces and castles I've seen.  In fact, I prefer the Bavarian castles Magge and I saw (Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau and Nymphenburg) during our trip to Germany a few years ago.

Hall of Mirrors (the least crowded room in the palace)

Adding an odd touch to the experience was the placement of sculptures that looked to be inspired by Pokemon in many of the rooms.  I have no idea what these weird Japanese cartoons were doing in this palace.  Maybe there was a sign posted somewhere explaining that they symbolize the absurdity of the French Crown's excess of luxury or some other stretch of justification , but I didn't see it.

Let's play "spot the weird modern Japanese art in a baroque palace":

While I didn't enjoy the palace itself that much, the gardens are awesome.  Stretching over nearly 2,000 acres, the gardens consist of manicured lawns, formal flower beds, sculptures and man-made bodies of water.  There are almost 300 fountains, which sounds impressive until you find out that's only one fifth of the number in the gardens while the kings still lived here.  The fountains only run at specified intervals during the summer, but our visit was nicely timed and we were able to walk around while they were all turned on.  One of our favorite parts of the entire visit was a hamlet Marie Antoinette had constructed on the grounds.  Apparently she sometimes yearned for the peasant's life (the romanticized peasant's life, not the working, starving, and diseased one), and recreated a picture perfect collection of thatched roof houses, ponds, vegetable gardens and meadows where she could supervise peasant activities.  Magge decided that she wants her own hamlet when she grows up.