Today was a very exciting day as we visited the Palace of Versailles, the extravagant Palace built by Louis XIV during the 17th century. We were amazed by the opulence of room after room. One room was made simply because Louis XIV received a lovely painting and it needed to go somewhere. There are also so many rooms due to royal etiquette which meant the King, Queen and Dauphin all needed a series of rooms that lead to their bedchamber, where different people could make it into depending of their social status at court and status with the royal in question. This did not include their expansive but more intimate private lodgings!

We had a lovely lunch in the Palace restaurant which has been there since the early 1900s. It was our best meal so far and the desserts were to die for - the waiter brought all of the options over to our table on a huge tray and it was so hard not to choose all of them!

We well and truly walked off our lunch with an afternoon walking the palace grounds which are huge. We found the King's garden which was lovely and simple, a peaceful place to wander. We made our way to the Trianon Palaces (yes there are another two properties in the grounds!) where Napoleon and Marie Antoinette lived at different times. It was first built as Louis XIV's private lodgings. There was a great fashion exhibit in Grand Trianon displaying famous designers' takes on the fashion of around Marie Antoinette's day in the 18th century. Names such as Vivian Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier and Dior were present. It gave even more life to each room to see these outfits dotted throughout. These palaces (Grand and Petit Trianon) are very interesting as they were used as private living quarters, away from the public eye, making their size and decoration smaller and more intimate. When Napoleon found out how much it would cost to fix up the main palace at Versailles he was so shocked at the expense that he made Grand Trianon his own lodgings also.

Petit Trianon was particularly interesting as this is where Marie Antoinette made her private home and her mark on Versailles. Though much smaller, the rooms are very pretty and give you an idea of what she enjoyed doing such as playing billiards. She also oversaw the establishment of a beautiful garden there.

Now we had to walk all the way back again but it was definitely worth getting the contrast between the public and private lodgings of French royalty. It has definitely been our favorite day so far.