Paris - Palace Corridor - Versailles

Plate CVI – A Palace Corridor …

An idea of the scale of the palace and its contents can be gained by viewing the corridors alongside the entrance chamber. Lined with statuary, and lit with gilded lanterns they are a mere foretaste of what lies ahead. The perspective created by their length draws the visitor in, wondering just what mysteries lay behind these walls. Although many of the royal chambers and the chapel are only accessed by taking an additional cost tour, and a further number of the palace’s rooms are not open to the visitor at all, there is more than enough for a day guest to view with the price of a regular admission ticket. The casual visitor will undoubtedly get caught up with some of the commercial tour parties, and if you time your walk through the palace correctly you can effectively get the benefit of one of the guide’s commentaries. This is a tip I worked out on my very first (and decidedly low) budget tour of Europe back in the seventies. Many a savvy guide will spot you and some can get fairly abusive in their demands that you leave their party – but frankly I believe you have as much right as they do to be in public spaces and have found that a reply to the effect that their crowds and noise are spoiling YOUR enjoyment usually (though not always) shuts them up. What has amused me on occasions is how the stories vary from guide to guide. It was in the magnificent Queen’s Chamber at Versailles that I heard one tour party being told a highly improbable and embroidered tale of how the bedcover, stolen during the Revolution had been found in the possession of a country peasant woman and returned to its rightful place on the queen’s bed. A few short minutes later a second tour party was informed by their guide that none of the original furnishings were intact, but that the present display is an exact reproduction of those originals, made in Paris from illustrations of the period. Somewhere lies the truth!