Versailles

I didn’t have much in mind when I told A that I wanted to visit Versailles. I just thought it was important to see, so I should make an effort to visit. After a metro ride and a Parisien, we stood outside the massive gold gates in front of the palace, and I was never more aware of my own Americanness.

Royalty as a concept I felt that I had a grasp on, but I had never considered it in practice. In America you read about monarchies, but there are no vestiges of it; neither social nor archeological. Palaces and princes live in the realm of fantasy and in the history books of other countries. Being confronted with this very tangible, very elaborate exhibition of wealth and power felt odd. Royalty was apparently not a practice at Versailles, but an art form that had reached its zenith.

That being said, the initial shock at the grandeur of the place soon changed to appreciation. Versailles, for all its infamy, is a masterpiece.