Versailles: Vanity knows no Bounds

If I walked around proclaiming myself to be awesome, as I so often do, then it would be sweet to build a palace to go along with that.  Since I have not built said palace, then perhaps I am not quite as awesome as I typically announce.  Yet, anyhow.  Apparently King Louis XIV was pretty awesome, because he went and had Versailles built over a couple of decades.  This isn't going to be a history lesson, so you can find out more here: Versailles: A pretty cool place

What this is going to be is a few things I thought were pretty cool during my day there.  But first, let's start with the not-so-cool.  My 50 minutes worth of train rides (only two of them) turned into almost 3 hours due to delays and incidents while waiting in the stations for both.  "Incident" was the only word I understood besides the station name I was heading to.  For all I knew, the incident was a cow crossing the tracks and got hit shutting things down for a while.  Or some sheep got lose and roamed all over the place.  There were plenty of those in the middle of the Palace grounds, too.  Like cow fields scattered around Orlando.  Eventually, the trains got me there and it was so easy to get around.

I think I'll use the bullet point summation again.  That worked well yesterday.  Here is what I learned:

• The first thing you see when you leave the station in Versailles is a McDonalds.  I love McDonalds, but even I thought this was pretty sad.  Maybe the reigning monarchs during that time really loved their Big Macs.
• I forgot to mention this in my not-so-cool things.  I got there and the place was closed.  Seriously--it had been open and then they briefly closed it.  They were only explaining why in French and I didn't care too much whatever the reason was.  Bottom line, as I have walked up the outer courtyard to get to the place and find this out, I felt like Clark pulling up to Wally World only to see that "Closed" sign around the moose's neck.  I was ready to punch someone in the face.
• I've just unintentionally referenced the Griswolds two times since I've been in Paris.  Weird.
• They have a really cool free audio soundtrack for the whole Palace.  You can play stuff on demand and there is also auto-starting features when you walk into some rooms.  I was pretty impressed with it and wondered where else it could be put to good use in tourist areas.
• The Palace of Versailles is ridiculously huge and extravagant.  I understand that is the whole point of the place, but it is staggering once you are in and walking around.
• Then you go out to the Gardens.  That just makes the Palace seem small in comparison.  The Gardens were amazing, and this is in the winter.  I can't imagine the sites and smells of the greenery and water in the spring and summer.
• The Trianon and Marie Antoinette's cottage were also remarkable.  You can learn about them through the same link above for Versailles.

Alright.  Time to run grab a drink.  I leave you with the photo of the day.  This is the Queen's toilet.  I am still not entirely sure how it works, but I do like the fireplace in the bathroom.


Royal bathroom: I don't know how you flush, but the fireplace in there is pretty sweet.