Angharad Dowse

Money arrived overnight into our NAB account so that’s a real plus.
Our free breakfast in the hotel was excellent.
Freshly squeezed orange juice, tea (pot of hot water, tea bag, jug of milk and sugar), a croissant, and half baguette with differnt jams, Nutella and butter, yogurt and apple purée. 👌🏻
Presentation was 10/10.
We pre loaded our 2 maps. Me getting to the station. Will getting to the Palace from the other station.
Excellent timing - there was a delayed train that was going where we needed to walked straight on.
Love their seats. Each seat is 2 colours - all fluro.
8 different colour options. A very bright train.
A beggar person walked down the train. It was the most unbelievably act. Fake limp. Fake voice tremble. Also had to pay to get on the train but ok.
Everyone ignored them lol.
It was a 40 minute journey.
Once we arrived Will went through the ticket barrier but my ticket wouldn’t work and I got stuck.
As did about 10 others who also had valid tickets.
No train workers in sight. We were all in quite a bright mood about it all I think cause we were all in the same boat.
Will went to try find help.
Occasionally on the 15th try someone’s ticket would work and they would get through.
One lady snuck behind another person and set of the alarm.
Eventually it was just me and another older lady left. She couldn’t speak a word of English and I French but we were just chatting to each other like we understood haha.
I pressed a button and the fist door on the wheelchair section opened but I didn’t enter in case I got stuck. She entered and got stuck.
Pressed more buttons and she got released and re joined me in the station hahah.

Finally help arrived and the guard opened the gates for us.
We were early so that was a good time killer. Lol
Walked to the palace. Signage is appalling.
Big sign that says “audio guides” ➡️➡️ so we went that way and lady was like no?? You get them in the palace?? Like I was the silly one for following the BIG ARROW.
Next needed toilet. Went where it says toilet.
3 door attempt later I found a disabled which is most definitely not where the sign was talking about but I was getting annoyed by now lol.

We were early so we went out the back to the gardens first.
A bit Eh To be honest. Will thought they were fab. My memories remembered hedges and less I suppose, nothingness. The space itself was HUGE which is what I think Will was taken aback by but it wasn’t as extravagant as I either remembered or expected.

Time to go In. Got my audio guide and once again had no idea which way to go.
Started in Du Dauphine suites (I think)
Like I even know what that means. Thought it was a lady but they kept talking about a man. Don’t know if king or different man. Not a clue.
I’m still so confused even with my audio guide.
Everyone has the same name, 20 children each, 13 different wives, names/titles change and people die. Can’t keep up.
Things I learnt though is that each apartment suit has 5 rooms and the further in you go the more private they get.
They weren’t WOOOOOOW but still lively. Intricate roof carvings and lovely painting + furniture.
Adelaide* is the owner of one of the apartments we saw.
Someone (🤷🏼‍♀️😆) had a lot of sisters and she was one of them. There were 8 or 9 girls what I found interesting is that only the eldest ever married because they were catholic and appropriate Catholics matches were hard to come across because everyone was Protestant. A lonely life but better than being made to marry some dirty man 40 years your senior for some BS trade agreement. Still surprising though. Pleased for them lol.
The somebody** visited the girls daily.
Maybe King Louis XIV?
A lot of the stuff is replicated, some real.

Came out somewhere and went into next door we found because why not. Again, the signage was terrific…
This was a sort of tribute to king Louise XV. The last king to die in Versailles.
Pronounced Vers - eye. Have read/said about 10 different ways - all wrong.
It was about him as a person and his story. It was interesting and had some cool stuff. Also kind of had a family tree but still not overly helpful cause not everyone included. The infant death rate is just heartbreaking.
He loved art and science so a lot of his collection was there. All art except painting which he didn’t collect - it was more like decorative furniture and Knick knacks.
He was a horn dog and his wife refused to sleep with him anymore which was accepted but she had to source the girls. Lol.
Somebody stabbed the king. The king forgave him but everyone else screamed for his blood so some lovely court documents and pictures showing his public torture and he was drawn and quartering. This was the last public torturing and it’s called the “Damien’s affairs”.
He loved to hunt. Some horrendous and yet fabulous art of animals being eaten to death by dogs.
A lovely little drawing at the end someone drew after his death when his body was exhumed and thrown into a mass grave. Yep. Definitely been dead a while in that little sketch.

We then went to the grand apartments and that’s when the extravagance came to alive. It became much more exciting very quickly. I love nothing more that a decorated roof.
Started with a big room with the best fire place. A whole wall.
#goals.
It had a big roof painting which apparently was the biggest worldwide when painted.
I don’t know how to describe other than room after room of cool ceilings with beautiful paintings. I always think the beds are tiny. For the lavish lifestyles why are your beds so small. Can you even lie flat?
I particularly enjoyed learning that they had daily getting up and going to bed ceremonies which I can only imagine were unbelievably tedious. The kings suit didn’t get used for his actual sleep - all the audio said was he preferred his other chambers - didn’t specify Louis XIV or XV.

The kings rooms were themed of the 7 planets they knew. Like the legends of Venus and shit like that. Kings chambers in center of whole palace facing north.

Saw another kings chamber later on. Presumably the sleeping room.

The queens chamber was the best room on the house or rather the most exciting to learn about. The only room I passed the audio guide over for Will to listen. 2 queens dies in in the bed. A queen had NINETEEN children in the bed - King Louis XV was one of them.
Births were public viewing - lovely.
Marie Antoinette did not die in the room but whas in the bed when the castle got stormed and escaped to the kings chambers through a little door which was cool to see.

As I mentioned. Love the roofs.
The gardens from the side were cooler cause they had mini hedges.

It all ended in an art gallery vibe hall thing. First place in 2 hours to have seats. Pointless. Your 20m from the end.
Well not pointless, we still sat. 😆
We need to buy Will new shoes. His shoes have died and we are doing 10km+ everyday. His poor little feetsies are sore.
We had tickets to another part of the grounds but it was the other end and we weren’t walking. The building was just a spec in the horizon and we also didn’t want to hire the golf buggies they had available. It was only 2€ extra for entrance to that part.
Again. No signage to say what it was either so 🤷🏼‍♀️
Finally finished. Gave my audioguide back - and headed to find food then the train station.
No ticket drama this time and all trains go to the station we needed so couldn’t go wrong.
Walked to Starbucks to steal Wi-Fi to reload map home.
The front desk has printed out tickets for tonight so we are ready to go.
Resting our feet.

Wise has cancelled our card and will refund us for the fraud purchases. Have emailed asking them the plausibility of sending our new card to our hotel in Switzerland.
NAB will do for now.

Walked to a Resturant near the moulin rouge. Very cheap cocktails so we got one each.
I got another goats cheese salad because the one in Strasbourg was amazing but this one wasn’t as good. We also got a lava cake to share but it was over cooked so just cake. lol.
Should have got the cheese fondue that every other table ordered.

Went to moulin rouge and I have a lot of thoughts.
1. The opening act was so bad. Will nearly walked out. I would have been mad but understood.
It was an under 15’s eisteddfod Jazz piece and had lots of men which we weren’t expecting.
2. Not a single male dancer could dance. Not one.
3. Most of the woman couldn’t dance or weren’t trying.
4. Requirement seems to be must have nice boobs. Nothing else mattered. Smashed crab faces, can’t do a double turn, 90° high kicks. What am I watching?
5. Some of the costumes were AMAZING.
6. The interval, individual performances were spectacular except one. There were strong gymnastic men who lifted each other, a contortionist and roller bladers who spin.

But also a girl who jumps into a pool of water (like a proper pool size) and pretends to wrestle snakes.
The snakes were so SO distressed and trying to escape. And she would grab one, pull it under the water and pretend to be wrapped by it under the water.
Surely some animal rights violations…
7. The lip syncing was terrible 😆😆
8. Old guy on other side of the theatre HAVING THE BEST NIGHT IF HIS LIFE. I had a blast watching his facial expressions.
Dude near us was drunk having a good time too.
9. Our seats weren’t good. Glad we didn’t pay the proper package cause it’s a lucky dip where you sit as no assigned seating.
Got offered a glass of champagne for 20€ out of a bottle that is $15 in Dan Murphys. Nope.
10. All round unprofessional but still a novelty watching so many naked people. Haha
11. The only thing I’ve come away actually angry and pissed off about were the snakes. It was terrible. (I’ve since read reviews online from people sitting closer and apparently their mouths are taped shut while they get drowned 🙃)
Lose that and despite the crapness I would still tell people to go. My trained eye makes it harder to not find fault.
Also. They should update some of their costumes and not put black people in white person stocking/bras. It reeeeeeally draws the eye cause it doesn’t blend (obvs) but also just overall shit for them.
Walked home and weren’t mugged. Yay.Lue lisää