France Day 3 – 4/1/2026 – Versailles
Judy and I are big on preplanning our trips. We devoted several hours to selecting shore excursions for this voyage and had decided against Versailles. It’s extra cost and, hey, we’ve got that t-shirt from our visit there with Reagan. But I woke up this morning and got the urge to go back anyway. A swipe of the credit card and we were booked. And a good decision it turned out to be.
We of course reminisced about our time there with Reagan, even finding the hotel in which we stayed in the town of Versailles. Unlike that tour, we had access to the private residences of the kings and queens – just the 14 of us and our guide. No crowds. A genuine experience.
Versailles dates back to the 1600s and King Louis XIII and his son, Louis XIV, the Sun King. Dad started the palace as a way to go hunting and get away from it all in Paris, but it was Junior who built it up and turned it into a real entertainment venue. Louis XIV would have upwards of 2,000 guests at Versailles plus the staff to run the place and serve the guests.
Our guide told us that Versailles’ influence on worldwide culture had two phases. The first 50 years showed the world, and its leaders, what the good life is all about. “I want one just like Louis,” was the motivation for many monarchs across Europe and beyond .
But then Versailles and Louis XIV became symbols of the excess that royalty represented. “Why should we suffer when Kings live in the lap of luxury? Why are taxes so high and our food so scarce.” The Age of Enlightenment began.
Next in line when Louis XIV died was his great grandson (XIV and his legitimate wife the queen had six kids, but no male heir outlived XIV). The 10-year-old boy had to sit next to his slowly dying great grandfather so that he would catch the God-given kingship spirit. Louis XV grew up and came into power on his own right, but he was no Louis XIV. He disliked public displays, preferred hunting and avoided entertaining except for his hunting buddies. Unlike XIV, he had no trouble siring offspring: his poor suffering queen gave birth to 10 in 10 years.
Louis XIV exercised an elaborate ceremony of going to bed and arising in the morning, facing east (“The sun always rises first on the Sun King “).
XV would have nothing of it. He spurned XIV’s bedchamber in favor of a smaller, cozier room nearby. He allowed the ceremony but snuck into and out of the royal bed chamber to keep up appearances but slept where he felt comfortable.
His son, Louis XVI, was much the same. He liked doing woodworking and hunting; kinging not so much. He married Marie Antoinette from Austria of the “Let them eat cake,” fame.
The two king’s disregard for their subjects and failure to promote themselves with the public like XIV did contributed to the downfall of the royal line and touched off the French Revolution of 1789. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette both lost their heads by guillotine as a result.
Interestingly to us, the lives of Louis XIII and Louis XIV span the same interval – 1601 to 1715 – during which many of our ancestors left England for New England. It’s the same interval as when Oliver Cromwell overthrew and beheaded King Charles I. Not a good time for being a king.
Yes, we saw the Hall of Mirrors along with about 10,000 of our new best friends, packed cheek-to-jowl as we competed with everyone else’s phones to snap a picture. That was why we declined this excursion in the first place.
Judy and I split up for the morning. I did the walking tour, starting at the Louvre courtyard and the iconic E M. Pei pyramid and proceeding to our familiar stomping grounds of Notre Dame and the Spanish Quarter and the Sorbonne.
Here’s Judy’s report:
I, Judy, took the bus tour of Paris. We were able to get out for pictures at the Eiffel Tower. We drove by the Arc de Triomphe, Notra Dame, the Louvre and Pantheon. We went by Dôme de Invalided where Napoleon is interred and had a photo opportunity there. There are several museums housed in this large structure originally built as a home for Napoleon’s disabled soldiers. We had a walk about the Jardín du Luxembourg. In the garden is The Luxembough Museum The garden is run by the Senate since 2000.
As we were driving around town I took several pictures of the Eiffel Tower, whose top is visible from almost every vantage point.
We were back on board by six, dined at 7 (sitting with a couple from Glasgow) and the Can-Can dance show. Thankfully I wasn’t selected as a participant in the “Let’s Make a Fool of the Guests” segment. I know, I’m a real wet blanket, socially. And I’m proud of it.
Tomorrow we sail all morning to the town of Conflans, Van Gogh’s final home. I’ve decided to join Judy for the Van Gogh Expedition, bypassing a tour of Chateau de Malmaison. That’s the place Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife Josephine fixed up at huge expense while Napoleon was off doing Bonaparte things like winning wars and taking over France as First Consul.
