There is not doubt that the Palace of Versailles stands as an absolutely beautiful historical place with such immense history. The massive display of wealth was pleasing to look upon when we ended the tour out in front of the King’s balcony.
The chapel within the palace was as excessive as much of the other things inside the palace. I was astonished that it cost over 2 million to create and was only used for the King’s musical mass.
As we made our way further into the palace, my expectations of the Hall of Mirrors was already high. I wasn’t aware beforehand that the Hall of Mirrors used to be an outdoor balcony, which presented a lovely view of parts of the garden. The mirror glass was also extremely interesting because the only reason it was made was to demonstrate the wealth and power of the King. Mirror glass was originally imported from Italy; however, the king sent spies to watch how it was made so that he could have mirror glass made by French people. A lot of people died due to exposure to mercury but they were able to produce mirror glass. The King barred foreign import of it and only allowed the purchase of French-made luxury goods; not limited to mirror glass but tapestry and furniture as well.
I, however, was underwhelmed by the experience. I expected more grandeur and decoration; something more lively and screamed “this is a palace!”. The hall seemed cramped and didn’t live up to my expectation of what the “Hall of Mirrors” was suppose to be. Though the palace was beautiful, the whole experience seemed hollow to me. I felt like I was walking through an empty vessel – not the lively and grand Palace of Versailles that I always heard about in history and english classes. I believe the experience would have been better if the gardens were avaliable to the public during our visit since that was one of the main areas I wanted to walk through; however, that assertion doesn’t deter from the fact that the sun really did set in 1789 when the King left Versailles and everyone else gradually left as well. Such a beautiful and marvelous display of power and wealth, yet all that’s left is stale air and vacant rooms.