Palace of Versailles

As you stand here at the Place d’Armes, you are facing one of the most famous and extravagant landmarks in the world. Look at the massive golden gates and the sweeping facade before you. It is hard to believe that this world-renowned symbol of royal power actually started out as nothing more than a modest brick and stone hunting lodge built by King Louis the thirteenth in sixteen twenty-three. In those days, this was a marshy, remote area where the king simply wanted to escape the crowded streets of Paris and hunt stags in the surrounding forests. Take a moment to breathe in the scale of what you see. You are standing at the very center of what was once the political heart of the French Empire. When Louis the fourteenth, known as the Sun King, took over in sixteen sixty-one, he decided that a simple hunting lodge wasn’t enough. He wanted a stage grand enough to reflect his absolute authority. Over the next several decades, he transformed this site into a masterpiece of Baroque architecture, employing thousands of workers to create a palace of over seven hundred rooms. As we begin our walk, imagine the courtiers and diplomats who once crowded this very square, all hoping for just a glimpse of the most powerful man in Europe.