Paris Day 2: Versailles and Temple

 We woke up early Sunday morning to catch a train to Versailles. We were some of the first people in line and enjoyed eating the croissants and pain au chocolat that Mathieu had left for us. It was cool to see the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed as well as the room where the Treaty of Paris was signed at the end of the Revolutionary War. Louis XIV really was a powerful king who reigned for a long time. So much was carefully planned to showcase his power. Dinner was a formal affair. Giving birth was a public affair (think that was true for royalty in general--no thanks!). U's step count for the day was 25,867 (11.79 miles)--our biggest day yet.

Me, Megan and Matthew in front of the palace

Megan

Fancy fence. It is very glittery. The gold looked to have been recently redone.

U with the gate

This not-quite-albino pigeon was wandering around us while we waited for the palace to open.

Athena

Me, Megan, Matthew and U in the inner courtyard. We rented audio guides for our visit.

Pampered man! Apollo being served by the nymphs.

View of chapel from lower level

View of chapel from upper level

Ceiling of chapel

Old painting of Versailles

Zéphyr, Flore and l'amour

Flying Dragon sleigh. It has the head of dragon, body of a lion and wings of an eagle.

I like the upholstery on this chair.

The ceilings are amazing to look at.

Different knights and their horses dressed in their armor

Some furniture from the time including Louis XIV's desk

Statue of Louis XIV

Crowded (!) Hall of Mirrors. This is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of WWI.

Fancy candle holder with a view into the gardens

Matthew, Me and Megan in the Hall of Mirrors

Megan, U and Me

Louis XIV's bedchamber. He had so many daily rituals including a waking up ceremony and a going to bed ceremony with attendants helping him (and the queen who had her own ceremonies). Sure glad I don't live that life!

Me and U. I think this may be the room in which the Treaty of Paris was signed.

Me, Megan and U

Megan, Matthew and Me

We saw a couple depictions of Lady Godiva who, according to legend, rode naked through the town of Coventry in exchange for her husband's agreement to reduce the oppressive taxes on his people.

Me in the Queen's chambers

Me, Matthew and Megan

From the Grand Dauphin's apartments.

Megan really liked the color scheme in this room.

Pictures of two of the Grand Dauphin's sisters

Long hall with many statues

Megan posing like the statue representing the element of Air.

Notice the little chameleon nestled into an arm.

Joan of Arc

There was an equestrian exhibit that had lots of pictures and models of horses. It explained their importance in culture and in war.

Horse barding

Column from the German Campaign which Napoleon commissioned to commemorate his first imperial victories. 

We bought lunch from a café onsite. Megan said that French ham and cheese sandwiches were delicious! We visited the Palace on a day when the musical fountain show was scheduled in the gardens. It was a favorite memory U and Me had from their trip in 2003 and it did not disappoint. The fountains had set watering schedules which we looked at to try to maximize what we could see. Alas, we still did not see it all. 4500 cubic meters of water are used each day and it goes through 35 km of pipe, much of it original. Megan collected a lot of small rocks at the gardens. She would be very excited as she showed them to us. Also of note: we found a bathroom in the gardens that had no line for women (the European bathrooms have the same problem of under-capacity for women's bathrooms) and that had a place to fill water bottles. Double win!

There was a break in the musical fountains when we first entered so we wandered some areas that did not have musical fountains. 

Looking into the orangerie. 

Megan, Me and Matthew in the orangerie. It's incredible to see all the citrus growing in this climate.

Megan, U and Matthew with the pool in the orangerie. Matthew is pointing to his phone as they were playing Pokémon Go.

Megan and Me with Matthew behind us

Matthew at Daybreak fountain as it "warms up" before the full show.  The animals are a tiger on a bear and a bloodhound on a stag.

Water Parterre as it warms up.

Megan and Matthew at Diana or Evening Fountain which features a lion bringing down a wolf and a lion bringing down a wild boar.

A few photos of Latona's fountain. The statues illustrate the legend of Diana and Apollo's mother protecting her children against the insults of the peasants of Lycia and demanding vengeance from Jupiter who changed them into frogs. Latona's fountain was built under Louis XIII.

View towards the Palace from Apollo's Fountain

Matthew, Me, Megan and U with Apollo's Fountain

Apollo's Fountain

Colonnade Grove with its 32 pillars and 31 fountains. Quite impressive!

The Abduction of Persephone is in the middle of the grove.

The Saturn fountain representing winter

The mirror pool had a fountain show every 10 minutes. We enjoyed watching it. It reminded us of the Bellagio. Except it may be that the Bellagio should remind us of the Mirror Pool since Louis XIV commissioned it in 1702.

The Bacchus fountain representing autumn

The Ballroom was designed and built between 1680 and 1685. It is decorated with millstones and seashells brought back from the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea by the Royal Navy. It is the only grove to have survived in its original condition until today. U remembers it from our 2003 visit.

Megan and Matthew

U and Me

Walking down the water walk (not currently running).

The Neptune Fountain with the Water Walk behind (running). The Neptune Fountain had a show every 15 minutes.

Dragon fountain

We went into the Three Fountains Grove which was quite delightful (and had more than three fountains although three were primary).

Lower fountain

Megan and U

Me

Middle fountain

One of the additional fountains with the top fountain seen at the back of the photo.

Around the base of the top fountain

Apollo's Bath Grove

Me

Ceres Fountain representing summer

Golden Children Fountain

Flora Fountain representing spring

Enceladus Grove. The Titan Enceladus spouts water up quite high here. We got there just as the fountain was turning off so imagine it higher than it is here.

The Titan Enceladus

One of the many statues in the gardens. Megan noted that both Greek and Roman names were used for the characters.

One last look at Apollo's Fountain.

The paparazzi

We walked to the Paris temple, which is actually located in the town of Versailles. I love how the pictures turned out!

Matthew and Me

U and Me

Christus Statue in the garden

The walk from Versailles to the temple was a bit long (about 1.5 miles) after an already long day of walking and Megan was done and had a meltdown (her words). Here, dad is trying to offer support....

And get her to laugh.

Beautiful gardens!
There are a lot of regulations that affect the temple including that there has to be a public garden in the back and missionaries can say "hi" to people who are there but can't ask if they want to know more. Other regulations include how tall the temple could be and the style of building. Some of why there is no angel Moroni is that the Versailles Palace is the only building that is allowed to have gold plating in Versailles.

Megan, Me, U and Matthew with a beautiful stained glass picture of Christ.

Our family with a couple sisters (Sister Crowe and Sister Jorgenson) who served with Annalena Knauer, a sister from our ward who just returned home from the Paris temple visitor's center in August.

Sampling of some of the stained glass in the temple. Apparently each room in the temple has a different flower theme and each flower has a different meaning.

This flower starts as a bud at the bottom and opens up as it goes up.

This senior couple serving at the temple served their missions in the Belgium Brussels mission when they were younger. He served in Strasbourg and Liège and she served in Brussels. They met in Dunkirk, married after their missions and lived most of their lives in Michigan.

Some of the stained glass in the temple. (I got the pictures from my friend who was able to attend the dedication although I think the pictures are stock photos she got somehow. Her mission president was Elder Andersen who is in the Quorum of the 12 so maybe that is how?!?)

Looking up from the entryway. There is similar stained glass in the baptistry.

More flower stained glass

Christ stained glass in Visitor's Center

Painting of Mary and Jesus

We really had a nice visit at the Paris Temple Visitor's Center. From there, we walked back to the train station, picking up McDonalds for dinner, and returned to our rental. It was a long, nice day!