LH Franz The Palace
Besides being much more pleasant and relaxing than before, on this second visit to château, we got to actually see what we missed the first time around. There’s lots of information available on all the incredible stuff at Versailles. Here are just a couple of things that caught my eye.
Firstly, without the crowds to hamper our progress, we were able to truly appreciate how expansive the place is. The palace has, of course, been remodeled, redecorated, and redesigned over the course of the three hundred years since it was built. Nevertheless, regardless of the interior decorations or the impressive artwork on the walls, the size of the rooms, hallways, and galleries is mind-boggling. 
Imagine what all that walking did to the feet of eighteenth century aristocrats walking around in those whimsical, fancy high-heeled shoes rather than in my Hokas. (Check out the foot-ware on Louis XIV in Hyacinth Rigaoud’s famous portrait.)
The king and queen lived very public lives. Many activities we would consider private affairs were done in front of audiences. To cite on example, besides state functions, there were “lever” (awakening) and “coucher” (retiring) ceremonies performed by the king every morning and evening in the presence of nobles and aristocrats who had the privilege of watching. Rituals of this sort were not new. Something like it was done at royal courts all over Europe. Louis XIV, however, increased the complexity and importance of these events, a “lever sous stéroïdes,” as it were. 
The king’s bedchamber on the left and the queen’s bedchamber on the right, set up with railings to accommodate an audience clearly reflect the public nature of these events.
A full description of a day in the life of the king is on the Versailles website.
In the Hall of Mirrors, we could actually see the wall of mirrors. The room was not completely empty, though. In this photo, I used the Google Magic Eraser tool to remove a small group of people in the background. If you look closely, you can see the smudging in that area. Without crowds of people there, the room glittered.
The Gardens
One of my frustrations during our last visit was the fact that I did not visit the gardens. After having stood in line on hard cobblestones for some hours to get in, and then spending over an hour pushing and shoving our way through the palace, by the time we approached the entry to the gardens, my plantar fasciitis made it too painful to walk. I gave my camera to Betsy, who ran ahead and took pictures while I sat on a bench and massaged my feet. Since that experience, I had visited a podiatrist, gotten diagnosed, gotten recommendations for walking shoes, and gotten insole inserts. Although the experience on this visit was not as grueling as on the first, there was nevertheless lots of walking. This time, I came prepared and ready to take on the gardens.
Ironically, for this visit, to minimize the walking, we rented a golf-cart to drive around instead of walk from place to place. Betsy was the chauffeur.
There were fountains, gardens, vistas, sculptures gardens, all of it strikingly beautiful.
The place was being prepared for the Olympic Games to be held during the summer. 
Fountains were getting uplifts by worker-bees, like this group tending to the Fountain of Dionysius.
The Fountain of Apollo had been cleaned up since our last 
visit and looked especially lovely, even with the pool around it drained and pipes showing.
There were water performances at some of the fountains, like this one at the Fountain of Neptune, The music in the background here is Mozart’s Ein Musikalischer Spass (A Musical Joke).
All in all, it was a pleasant and satisfying experience. On the train back to Paris, Betsy asked, “So, have you gotten your Versailles fix?” The answer, of course, was “Absolutely!”
