A half hour outside of Paris, the Palace of Versailles is one of the world's grandest historical museums.
The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles, the Île-de-France region of France. In French, it is known as the Château de Versailles.
See the awesome architecture... this is JUST the gate.
Here's the grand hallway.
The great paintings on the ceilings...
The Palace of Versailles began as a modest hunting lodge. Well, as modest a lodge as one could expect from a French King. Then Louis XIV enlarged and enrobed the old lodge, turning it into the great Chateau we know today. In 1837, Louis-Philippe converted the whole deal to a museum of French History in what may have been the historic starting point for the development of mass tourism.
And the World War 1 was ended here with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
Pictures of the Kings?
Its open to public on everyday except Mondays.
In 1660, Louis XIV, who was approaching majority and the assumption of full royal powers from the advisors who had governed France during his minority, was casting about for a site near Paris but away from the tumults and diseases of the crowded city. He had grown up in the disorders of the civil war between rival factions of aristocrats called the Fronde and wanted a site where he could organize and completely control a government of France by absolute personal rule. He settled on the royal hunting lodge at Versailles, and over the following decades had it expanded into the largest palace in the world. Versailles is famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy which Louis XIV espoused.
More paintings on the ceiling.
Here's the super huge garden...
Can you see me?
Here's a closer picture LOL.
The Chateau is open from Tuesday to Sunday, except on certain French public holidays:
May-September 9 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.October-April 9a.m. to 5.30p.m
The park and the gardens are open every day except in bad weather from 7 a.m. in summer, 8 a.m. in winter, until sunset.
