Versailles

Time for more Paris pics. This time it's our day at Versailles. Here is a view of the gigantic mansion from waaaay down in the gardens. I'd hate to be the one that has to clean those windows...


This is a very interesting sculpture that is outside the back of the shack. If you look closely you may be able to see the horns/sirens in the animals' mouths. Dad figured it must have been to signal setting out for a hunt. Or perhaps it was to signal danger. You know, like if an entire city is in search of someone in the building and is looking to ransack the place and behead someone.

This is a side garden (to the right as looking at the first pic above). Notice the palm trees and extremely manicured and decorative grassy areas? What a dump, huh?

I thought this was an interesting planter (which was on the giant patio area outside the back, near the fountain). Is that a naked elf pooping on a goat's head? I think the elf may be crowning. I'm not sure. What I am sure of is I NEED one of these.

This is just a cool shot of one of the walkways leading to the gardens. The trees are actually trimmed into rectangular shapes, like a hedge.

This would be the doorway to the hall of mirrors.

One of the many ceiling frescos.

A view of more ceiling frescos, ornate columns, many architectural details in the chapel. That's right, they had their very own chapel!

More of the chapel.

Some of the stained glass as well as more architectural details. Could you imaging living in a place like this? It was completely massive. They also had their own opera house, but unfortunately that was not part of the tour.

Close-up of the building. It looked like the entire building was lined with the statues visible on the upper level, which all appeared to be of different people.

Here is one of the beds (and some annoying person who was in my way). All the beds had the high canopy with the gold leaf detailing and the feathers. Again, what a dump!

I have some more b&w pics too that I'll have to post but this is all I have time for at the moment. If you want to see more pictures of our trip, check out this site my dad made - http://www.ce-h.us/paris/paris.html. Be sure to go into Paris life > art everywhere. Look at the second pic of the sculpture that was in a shop around the corner from out hotel. Dad was fascinated with this piece. He kept talking about it and pointing it out when we walked by it. He was also fascinated with the scooters that were all over the place and the dogs that were also all over the place, and pooping on the sidewalks. He took pictures of both. Yeah, he's a goofy guy. I guess that's where I get it from...