versaille
Home of the sun king
Versaille just out side of Paris is a beauty. The old parts of the city are layed out as parts of the castle - but in summer its HOT and overcrowded. To enjoy it in your own speed, come in winter. The gardens are free in winter so you can have a great walk enjoying the life of one king. It was also here where the king was taken frome under the french revolution
Grand Trianon
In 1668, Louis XIV purchased Trianon, a hamlet on the outskirts of Versailles, and commissioned the architect Louis Le Vau to design a porcelain pavilion (Trianon de porcelaine) to be built there.
The façade was made of white and blue Delft-style "porcelain" (ceramic) tiles from the French manufactures of Rouen, Lisieux, Nevers and Saint-Cloud. Construction began in 1670 and was finished in 1672. By 1687, the fragile ceramic tiles had deteriorated to such a point that Louis XIV ordered the demolition of the pavilion and its replacement with one made of stronger material. Commission of the work was entrusted to the architect Jules Hardouin Mansart. Hardouin-Mansart's new structure was twice the size of the porcelain pavilion and the material used was red marble of Languedoc. Begun in June 1687, the new construction was finished in January 1688 and inaugurated by Louis XIV and his secret wife, the marquise de Maintenon, during the summer of 1688. |
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.
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