5/9/2014
VERSAILLES AND THE MEANING OF ARCHITECTURE IN HUMAN HISTORY
We have two more days left in Paris: We plan to go to Versailles first, not that I care much about imperial palaces, but as a first timer in Paris, one needs to see Versailles I hear. We get up early, Greg has our breakfast figured out already, I have my first macaron (I prefer the pistachio one) along with some other light baked good. We finally get on the train and travel southwest for 35 minutes. As soon as we get off, there is almost a line of ushers leading us toward Versailles situated every 30-40 yards or so. I am so impressed with how organized the palace foundation must be: I am innocently thinking they are all the staff working for the palace. It turns out that they are a private enterprise! They are leading us to a ticketing agency, which provides multiple services including VIP entrance service! Never had been designated VIP before, but my friend Greg is a veteran VIP: He proposes we choose this option so that we may avoid the lines at the entrance. Paris is full of new for me, why not one more? We are provided with a map which will be interactive with an audio device as we get into the palace: Cool and it works, too. One end of the audio device has a laser eye, which recognizes the pictures on the map and starts lecturing to us on that particular feature as soon as we touch the map, makes learning easy, I like it. It feels like what we paid is going to pay off.
Versailles Gardens and the Pool
After visiting the gardens we will meet our guide, who will walk us through the gate with no waiting time. It really turns out to be a best choice. We tour the gardens in a quick hour after which our Spanish chaperone meets us exactly where she is supposed to at the time she is supposed to and lets us into the palace with no waiting in line. Both at the gardens and in the palace, I feel exactly the way I had felt at Topkapi palace in Istanbul. We are were in an imperial space where the imperial power allowed a small minority (nobles) to come and enjoy what the king/sultan was willing to give them for their unquestioned loyalty and contribution to making the royal few appear even bigger and stronger, perhaps bigger and stronger than they actually were. And all this was displayed to the view of the masses and the world. At what expense?
Versailles Gardens
The king and the queen and any member of the royal family had no privacy: the king had servants sleeping with him in the same room; separating him from them was a mere velvet/silk curtain hanging down from the ceiling. The queen had her own space. How did the king and the queen spend private time together? Did any king and queen fall in love with one another, or was it all arranged according to political alliances and the power needs of the time? If they did fall in love, how could they tolerate not to have their own space, their own time just to dedicate to their love? I wonder if anybody made a movie or wrote a novel about these intricacies of the French royalty as in Turkey a soap opera titled "Magnificent Century" revealed all the details, political games and killings in the royal palace of the Suleyman the Magnificent's era.
Gold and silver and marble and semiprecious and precious stones are abound at Versailles. Hall of mirrors; paintings by masters of the Renaissance era scattered on wall after wall, ceiling after ceiling through the too numerous to count rooms and sections of the palace; the furniture sets in every room with a color coordination among the upholstery, the walls, the curtains, and the fireplace screens; vases, candle sticks, lamps made of semiprecious stones among other things (in one room all adjunct ornaments in the room are made of malachite with many kilograms of malachite on display!!) are good testimony to what the rulers of the French Empire enjoyed once upon a time when its peoples suffered under plague, hunger, homelessness, and crime. The only person, whose death under guillotine I don't feel sorry for is Marie Antoinette, who shamelessly stated "if they don't have bread, let them eat cake!" for the starving masses during the uprisings of the 18th century. After we are done with the main palace, we head toward Marie Antoinette's estate. How arrogant she was that she couldn't find enough space for herself in the enormous main palace and needed a palace all to herself at the northwest corner of the estate. Not only her though, King Louis the XIVth also built an additional palace for himself. In fact two: The initial secondary (private) palace was made of porcelain, which, after a while bored the poor king! He ordered it to be demolished for the current mini-palace to be built in its place for him to meet with close friends, listen to music, and read. After all, he was a human being, too, and needed to be in his comfort zone and claim some privacy at times. I will learn from Victor Hugo when I listen to Hunchback of Notre Dame on an audiobook upon my return from the trip that a general had told the starving masses to eat grass instead of bread, who was killed in the end with a bunch of grass stuffed up into his throat.
Doorframe from Versailles
It will be interesting to learn from the Genius Victor Hugo, who describes architecture as humankind's historical register until printing was invented. Although, most architecture represents what the ruling class was doing at its time, due to colossal sizes of historical monuments such as Notre Dame, Parthenon, Colosseum, Taj Mahal, etc were built over centuries and perhaps a nation was devoted to the building of such structures, the people, the masons inserted their own "signatures" into these buildings. He describes, how some such structures that were built in the name of religion in fact had elements that were blasphemy that were inserted by the masons, that is the people. He will give many examples of such structures, which will be an eye opener for me not to judge all architectural monuments as representing the power of the ruling class. What will be very interesting to learn is the fact that with printing being invented and books becoming readily available, architecture plunging into its demise over the following century. I had never looked at it that way. Books and literature became the new documentation system or with Hugo's terminology humankind's new register and stone stopped being the tool to document history!
Color and texture coordination at Trianon
We are glad we are done relatively early with our Versailles trip. This may now give us the chance to visit Rue Cler, which apparently has been made famous by Rick Steve, an American travel writer, Greg tells me. That's where I read about this place anyway. It is indeed couple of blocks long a street lined with small pleasant shops and cafes. We visit all of the interesting places Rick Steve mentions in his pocket book on Paris, buy honey for the girls and my friend Nukhet as well as shopping for cheese, bread and tomatoes for breakfast for tomorrow. I can't resist the cherries at a corner fruit market, which are abundant in Paris by the way. In the end, we settle down at a cafe for a bit more people watching. The neighborhood indeed is real with young and old, with kids of various ages, with Parisians going about their own business with their baguettes sticking out of their backpacks, with their cloth and paper bags carrying goods to their homes, some sitting next to us to sip a glass of wine before they head home, as they tolerate us tourists appreciating their neighborhood.
Barbershop at Rue Cler
Time to go to the hotel to take a quick shower, we will go to a restaurant tonight that one of my French friends recommended in the Italian section of the let bank, where we will have an early birthday dinner for Greg. La Petite Marguery is the name of the place. I am a bit apprehensive about the place since I don't know much about it. But it turns out to be an exquisite experience for both of us. The food is grand, we have escargot and frog legs as starters followed with sea bass and vegetables to share and finally share a soufflé as our dessert. No music tonight, but being surrounded with only French is yet another brand new experience for me. The punch line of the evening is the three ladies in their 60s, who each has a small dog along with them, one sitting on the bench next to its owner (spoon-fed by its owner with her own spoon, off the table! I know my daughter, who is a very good dog trainer will not approve of this), the other two on chairs next to their owners like family members! Another highlight surprises us: ALl I had heard about French dining was "Be ready for waiting and waiting before each dish is served" and I was, I am all relaxed, but I must say, Parisian waiting staff must have learned American way of serving! They are the ones pushing us to order as quick as possible after each dish. We finally tell them with a smile that it is OK if we wait a bit after our order and they get the message: we are learning the French way of enjoying the food!
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| Somebody is happy with his day |
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