Versailles (Chateau de Versailles) ★★★ Palace of the Sun King Versailles, King Louis XIV, they are famous, symbolizing greatness and also symbolizing depravity... Understanding the Palace of Versailles greatly helps to understand the French.

The French character, French aesthetics, and French living habits can all gain a lot of inspiration from visiting this palace.

For example, France has a tradition of gourmet food: every ordinary French person around us is very particular about eating and drinking. Some people jokingly say that French fools will become smarter when they talk about eating.

The tableware on the French dining table is exquisite and elegant, both adults and children strive to speak elegantly and politely, add a romantic touch, the meal time is long, etc. Then, if you search through history, you will find that the French have not always been like this.

Our ancestors used their hands to tear meat, and used napkins to wipe their hands and wipe their noses... The person who pioneered the transition from coarse and coarse food to elegant food, and even glitz and ostentation, wasting time, was the Palace of Versailles and the King of the Palace, Louis XIV.

"Eat at Versailles".

There are 50 chefs in the Palace of Versailles, and the state banquet at the Palace of Versailles is said to have served 200 dishes: 20 large soups, 64 small soups, 21 main dishes, 63 kinds of side dishes, 36 kinds of lettuce salads and 12 condiments.

Taste... The king's dinner is like a large-scale performance, with layers of three-dimensional delicacies on the table, renovated and unconventional.

Louis XIV loved to eat and had a surprisingly good appetite. He especially liked desserts.

The amount of food on the table can be called a huge amount. After Louis XIV finished eating, there was still enough left for the palace to enjoy. After the people in the palace finished eating, there was still enough left for the market in the entire city of Versailles.

Louis XIV used luxurious banquets to show his national prestige, and France's banquet diplomacy was born.

I have been to Versailles three times, but I have not been able to see it all.

The most recent one was during the 2003 Easter holidays.

The crowd was so busy that day that we had to queue for an hour to enter the palace.

From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., we toured the Palace of Versailles - I estimate there were at least tens of thousands of visitors that day.

The tens of thousands of people today are just a fraction of the Palace of Versailles. It is said that in 1682, when Louis XIV led the royal family, government ministers, princes and nobles to settle here, the Palace of Versailles had not yet been completely completed, and there were still 36,000 craftsmen.

and soldiers working day and night.

At that time, there were tens of thousands of prominent nobles who were eligible to live in the palace.

There were people in every room and every corridor, almost to the point of overcrowding.

Moreover, the doors of the palace are almost wide open, and anyone who is well-dressed can enter and exit.

Thousands of people flow into the Palace of Versailles every day, and the bustling scene is no longer what it used to be.

However, the sanitary conditions in Versailles at that time were not very good, and there were no modern ventilation equipment and water pipes.

When summer arrived, the air was so polluted that it was so stinky that it was difficult to breathe. Sometimes the king had to temporarily leave the Palace of Versailles and go to other palaces to avoid the stench.

The Palace of Versailles is different from the castles owned by the French royal family. For example, Chambord is where the royal family members stay for hunting and vacation.

From 1682 to the French Revolution, the Palace of Versailles had three palaces and an iron fence on one side. It was not only the residence of the French royal family, but also the seat of power.

The entire dynastic government lived in the palace with the king, and the rhythm of the entire regime followed the rhythm of Louis XIV's daily life. Some people say that Versailles is a state machine, a king's machine. Louis XIV is the center of everything in the Palace of Versailles, and everything he does is important.

major.

This is very similar to the Chinese emperors in the Forbidden City in the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Louis XIV Louis XIV, with a great emblem, also called himself the Sun King.

In the Palace of Versailles, you can see statues of Apollo symbolizing the sun god everywhere.

From the birth of Louis XIV to his death, the regime lasted 72 years.

He is the longest-lived king of France, and his life is like a historical drama, with countless legends... Young Louis XIV not only wants to take power independently, he also wants to leave Paris, where ministers gather and chatter, and he wants to build a city unprecedented in Europe.

of the royal palace.

There he will be the head of the family and the country, giving orders and directing the country, celebrating as much as he wants, and falling in love freely.

Louis XIV took a fancy to Versailles.

At that time, the Palace of Versailles was only a small castle built by his father, but Louis XIV was optimistic about the large garden planned by his father.

In 1661, Louis XIV ordered the expansion of the Versailles Castle. In 1682, Louis XIV and his family moved into the Palace of Versailles. By the time the Royal Chapel of Versailles was completed in 1710, the Palace of Versailles had been under construction for more than 50 years.