Louis XIV of France called himself the Sun King. Center of the Universe thing. Seriously.
During his long reign, he built Versailles, put one of his grandsons on the Spanish throne, and had more illegitimate children than legitimate ones.
The Palace of Versailles is everything you have read or heard about, plus much more.
Opulent, decadent, gold-plated, and dripping with excess, it reeks of privilege, riches, and exultation.
The crowds of people line up to see the wonders. All ages, races, and religions jam in to marvel what the House of Bourbon manifested here.
Life-size statutes, paintings of the Royal family as Greek gods (Louie was Apollo, of course), marble walls, solid gold fixtures, and priceless tapestries abound.
There was an entire staff dedicated to just replacing all of the candles in a room if the King walked through, so they were always a uniform height if he came back that way.
Don’t even get me started about the formal gardens that go on. . . forever.
As I stood in the Hall of Mirrors, which was specifically designed to allow the King and his guests to watch the sun set over his gardens, I thought:
“The Sun King is actually a pretty accurate description.”
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