In the Grace of the Sun King

To Whom it may Concern,

This post is late, and for that I apologize.  Paris is a wonderfully huge city, but just as in any place, walking is tiring.  I didn’t really have time or energy to complete my posts on time, but I will do them in retrospect and here’s day 4, Wednesday, June 11th, 2014. 

We had a bike ride planned, one that would tour the greatest palace the modern world will likely ever see.  Versailles, built by Louis XIV to isolate him from the Paris he cared little for, and to house the nobility, so that he might keep them in check. 

A word comes to mind when you’re at Versailles: grandiose.  It was certainly true for us, when, with our bike tour, we came across the first of the buildings associated with the chateau.  These were Enlightenment style buildings, two or three stories high, covering an amazing number of square feet, with gilded window sills and gates.  These were the stables.  And there were two of them.  Why do horses need two stories? Who knows?  But that question, in essence, encapsulates the whole of Versailles.

Why the extravagance? Why the size, the grandeur? Why are there 80 million euro worth of gold leaf in the palace?  Why a room for everything?  Why a farm and a separate small chateau for Marie-Antoinette?  Why a grand canal spanning over a mile and a half of space?  And why are there statues to every single god of antiquity surrounding a massive fountain to Apollo?

The answer: Louis XIV.  The egotistical “Sun King” wanted everything, but he was also a brilliant statesman for his time, and in order to keep his nobility in check so they may not plot against him or terrorize the citizens of his beloved France, he had to occupy them, and he did so with lavishness, clever tricks, and force.

This didn’t work for too long, as his descendant Louis XVI lost all of this due to that very same lavishness.  Note to all the politicians in reading: if you spend all your money on the rich, the poor will revolt.

Nevertheless, tourists and the Citizens of France may visit this monument to the achievement of the 18th century French wallet today and stand themselves in the Hall of Mirrors, as if in the grace of the Sun King himself!  But, it makes one reflect on the choices that we make regarding such material, and indeed the excess shown here. 

Jeff, being a modest stoic didn’t agree with the extravagance.  My mother, being the student of France her whole life, loved the architecture, the artwork, and most importantly the history.  Colin and Sarah loved the magnificence of it all, and while on the grounds, plotted mischievously as to what they might do with such a place to themselves.  

As for me, I just loved the bike ride.  To ride along the roads of this palace as the kings might have done, and to eat along the grand canal as the nobles were ought to do gave me a thrill of experience.  But, that’s all it was for me, a short thrill, not long overcome by feelings of tiredness and aches.  I could see how it would be fun for a while, but I do think there are better ways to spend ones money, and I do feel as though there are better ways of managing your state. 

In the end I held the same convictions I had coming into it; that wealth in excess is ripe for corruption and eventual misery.  It buys short term happiness and indeed, when isolated as Louis XIV was from Paris, surrounded by your enemies, and constantly needing to make political maneuvers in your own home, I could see how one could find it lonely.  It actually makes me empathize with Louis XVI, who never wanted to be king.  He just wanted to be a farmer, but expectation and a heavy burden got the better of him — they even got his head. 

Sincerely,

G.D.S. O’Toole

P.S. I’ll post the other days soon, as I can, and then move onto another blog.