Versailles

One of the highlights of this entire trip was the time spent at the Versailles Chateau. While usually associated with Louis the umpteenth and Marie Antoinette, it had been expanded and modified by the previous monarchs over many years. Today it is pretty much as it was before the revolution and is being meticulously restored to get even closer than that. 
While the drawing rooms and chambers inside are simply breathtaking, the gardens outside defy belief. The estate covers several hundred hectares with a dozen individually designed wooded groves, dozens of manicured gardens, fountains and an enormous crusiform artificial lake for boating and entertaining the nobility. It is said that at one time there were 10,000 gardeners employed to maintain the estate.
There are other residences on the estate too. The Grand Trianon was built as a getaway for royal family to escape the bussle of palace life in the Chateau. The Petit Trianon was built for the Queen as a private residence and a small hamlet built nearby so she could experience peasant life whenever she wanted to. It includes farms, numerous cottages and even a mill to better create an air or rural tranquility.
It is easy to see how the royals became so out of touch with what was actually happening in the country at the time.

Click here for pictures of Versailles inside.

Click here for pictures of the gardens at Versailles.