Wednesday was a dreary day, but full of such beauty. We were in St. Germaine with two destinations planned—Malmaison and Versailles. Malmaison was close by down a very narrow, leaf-covered street. The atmosphere was set before we reached the gated wall. Inside the wrought iron gates was a long path to the front of the house. Off to the left, workers using scaffolding were camouflaged behind a scrim that looked just like the building. What a great idea!
Napoleon had been to Egypt before building this house with Josephine (his first wife) and so there was an Egyptian influence in the entry way. Because of Napoleon and Champolian, France was taken by Egyptomania, just as Victorian and Edwardian England would be one hundred years later. Also, throughout the house are Romanesque influences because of the Renaissance.
Other fascinating facts about this house are that Napoleon was a workaholic and loved being in the field so his sitting room looks like a tent and his office had a secret staircase so he could come downstairs at midnight and work whenever he wanted.
Josephine loved having big parties (usually without her loving hubby), and even included her orangutang, all dressed up and using a knife and fork! The saddest painting on the wall was Napoleon presenting Josephine with divorce papers because she could not produce an heir for him.
Versailles…what can I say? It’s big and very gold after having been regilded during the Pandemic, so it is even golden than before. The paintings are very big. There is very little original furniture left because most of it was taken away, sold, repurposed, or burned after the Revolution. We learned lots of cool stuff, mostly summarized in the paragraph above. One of the cooler surprises was that the silver Olympic horse that ran on the Seine now runs through the final courtyard. And it isn’t gold!
We did begin the tour in the gardens and had a nice hour’s walk. Henri/Hank, our guide, told us that we did not have enough time to walk all he way to the Apollo Fountain and back again. There just wasn’t enough time. So, taking up the challenge, we walked (no running) all the way down the path to the fountain, around the fountain, and walked back with enough time for everyone to stop at the bathroom. And then it was inside for us, creeping through 50 rooms in one wing of the Palace, culminating with the Queen’s stairs to the exit.
But the day is not done. This is a 3-tour day!!
After dinner, we were all bundled up again and ready for more! Tonight was the boat tour of the Seine, amid the twinkling lights of winter with some Christmas sparkle starting to appear. Bus to Pont-Neuf, down down down to the water and aboard a river boat. Paris’s 38 bridges are so low that no tour boat can go as far east as Notre Dame— the real Notre Dame, at last! So we had to hire a local boat to take our party. They gave us the option of upstairs in the open air with a blanket or downstairs behind glass. Almost everyone sat upstairs and one of the Midwesterner’s even gave me his blanket with a wave, “Don’t need it!”
Absolutely gorgeous. Packed and asleep by midnight. More to do tomorrow!