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.