Sunday, July 08, 2018

The throne room

My friend Sue and I followed the crowd (like we had a choice!) through the Grands Appartements du Roi. The rooms are arranged en enfilade, meaning that they are connected by doors, often and in this case along the exterior window-wall of a building, with no corridors to separate them. Hidden doors in the interior walls lead to passages and private rooms.

Portrait de Louis XIV en costume de sacre, Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701. This is a copy; the original is in the Louvre.

These big rooms were official and public, where the King could be seen doing kingly things in a kingly setting. Behind them were smaller rooms, where the king ate privately, bathed, slept, and bedded courtisanes. Oh! Pass the smelling salts!

Part of the ornate ceiling of the throne room, formally known as the Salon d'Apollon.

We saw no throne in the throne room, only a platform where it once was. However, two portraits faced each other from either wall. The one pictured here is of Louis XIV, king of France for over 72 years, the builder of Versailles. The other portrait (which I couldn't get a good shot of) is of Louis XVI, king of France for 15 1/2 years. His reign was cut short by the Revolution in 1789. His head was sliced off in 1793.

These are the only photos I took in the Grands Appartements du Roi. The pressure of the crowd made photography challenging, to say the least.

4 comments:

  1. All the gold in Versailles is amazing. These two photos turned out nicely.

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  2. The two photos you managed are great. I was expecting to see the royal toilet!

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  3. donald dump would LOVE living here! it has not changed since I first saw versailles in 1970. too gaudy for my taste.

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  4. evelyn, yes, lots of gold!

    mitch, that's on another tour, by appointment, and with an additional fee!

    anne marie, no kidding! Versailles is over the top, but it was intended to be! And we know what happened to Louis XVI...

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