Our tour of Versailles was a peek into the actual grandiose nature of the spending of the French kings at the time of the revolution. Nearly everything that looked gold in Versailles was gold, but this wasn’t the only show of wealth — the red of carpeting, the most expensive of dyes, the tapestries all throughout Versailles, tapestries done on the furniture gilded with gold leaf and on the walls, the expensive French made mirror glass with a recipe filched from Italy. The money Louis spent on his chapel alone would be enough to enrage a populous. 

All throughout Versailles there are gorgeous artworks or sculptures of sunflowers, representing Louis’ status as an Apollo equivalent, god of the sun, fitting in with the image he wanted to present of himself. The ideology, the heritage, the legitimacy of a dynasty that Versailles represented, but also that decadence of golden sunflowers everywhere. 

I learned there that in his quest for Versailles and court there — for his image — King Louis enacted economic protectionism within the country of France. He learned the secrets of things like the Italian mirror glass, where the recipe is fiercely protected, brought in French marble, and other luxury goods from areas of French in order to furnish and decorate Versailles.

After ensuring he owned the factories producing these French luxury goods, Louis had a strangle hold on goods that made it harder and more expensive to be a poor person in France. We walked through the Versailles rooms and saw just how lavish and ornate the rooms and the building were — the gardens themselves were enormous — how much good could then king have done putting those funds into his people.