April 10, 2026

As we awoke this morning, we were reminded of how, during yesterday’s ceremony, we were thanked as Americans, for the help we provided France, and how grateful they are. They again thanked us for coming back. Our guide also thanked us today and said if it wasn’t for us, they would be speaking German. Each year 300 veterans still visit and Normandy beaches have 4 million visitors a year from all over the world.

Our trip today is to Versailles. We have visited previously but today, our visit will include the secret apartments of the palace. The trip took about 30 minutes. Our guide was Aurelie and she was wonderful, as all of the guides have been.

Versailles is an elegant town just southwest of Paris, known worldwide for its palace but beloved by locals for its culture and quality of life. It grew up as a town in the 17th century alongside Louis XIV’s court. Wide geometric avenues radiate from the palace and the same configuration exists in Washington DC and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Versailles was the official residence of the country’s kings and queens from 1682 until the revolution. The Louvre was the palace before that. There are 2300 rooms in the palace of Versailles – of course not all are available for touring! This was originally a modest hunting lodge with large stables across the street and was turned into the palace. All of the buildings with the gold on top were part of the original hunting lodge. The gold is gold leaf and must be carefully applied by hand. Can you imagine that? The extravagance helped fuel the rage that led to the revolution.

We went in through the group entrance, which meant no waiting, and the group could not be more than 25. One couple had to leave our group so we were 24 which made the visit really wonderful as the private apartments are not open to individual visitors.

Aurelie had many stories about the royalty of the time. Louis XIV married Marie Antoinette at age 16. He had many mistresses over his lifetime and the mistresses lived in a separate set of rooms near the king’s rooms. Marie Antoinette was a modern thinking woman for her time. For example, she refused to wear the corsets that were so tight that women fainted because they couldn’t breathe! Also, it was the custom for children to be raised separately from their parents until age 7 and she refused to do that and kept them with her. She had 4 children.

Louis XIV was responsible for some of the known ballet moves – he was a skilled dancer and was proud of his dancer’s legs!

Louis XVI became an orphan at 5 years old and suffered all his life from depression. He was married and reportedly never had mistresses!

I will share photos from the secret apartments and then from the state apartments. There is much too much to post so I will have to choose.

Candles were expensive too. There were about 6000 candles in the palace and ONE candle cost the equivalent of the salary of a worker’s week. Most of the furnishings were sold off during and after the French Revolution.

Once we got to the state apartments, it was much more crowded. The art, tapestries, etc, are amazing but a highlight is always the Hall of Mirrors.

Aurelie told us that she had a surprise for us and led us down to the chapel which was empty except for another tour group. This is a private area that we were allowed into after a guard opened it with a key!

We had a really enjoyable day. Aurelie really brought the palace and the period of history to life and I am sure I didn’t remember it all.

This is Uniworld’s 50th anniversary so there was a Captain’s Farewell and Golden Cocktail reception and a Golden dinner, followed by entertainment by a wonderful singer, Celine.

Tomorrow we go back to Paris and will do a walking tour of the Latin Quarter. Then it will be time to pack for our trip to Lyon to board the SS Catherine for the next segment of our trip.