Day Two

After a tasty welcome dinner on board the River Baroness, we cruised a short distance up the River Seine to the 700 room Palace of Versailles and it’s jaw-dropping opulence. We inspected one of the enormous “apartments” used by royalty of the period, and toured room after room filled with gilded walls and furniture custom-built to become part of the rooms.

The Palace and its gardens are certainly dazzling, but it’s impossible not to feel the injustice of having lived this way while the rest of the country wallowed in extreme poverty.

Even in December, the crowds were huge. The spectacular Hall of Mirrors was pretty much impossible to photograph without getting 200 tourists in the frame. If you’d like to get a much better, fully unobstructed view of the place, click here.