Sunday, July 5, 2020 – A Fool's Journey to France (4)

Whoever wants to go to France must go to Paris, and whoever wants to go to Paris must go to Versailles.

As a poor and daring man, I was not prepared to pay the travel agency 65 euros to get me from Paris to Versailles, of course, in order to save this small expense, I gave the price of a 12 euro train ticket, because getting lost went from three kilometers to thirty kilometers of walking and a pair of feet bloody from wearing new shoes that did not fit and walking long distances.

I was not wrong at first, because when I got off the train, I could see a large promenade hidden in the shade of greenery - the left and right sides of this promenade were inlaid with two pairs of palm-wide brass lines, which were originally four tracks, and Louis XIV ordered the engineers to build a railroad here, and it was a double carriageway, when people still needed to use horse-drawn carriages to get around.

But since the invention of the automobile, this track has been abandoned, but as you know, the French were so fanatical about everything Louis XIV that they kept everything related to the Sun King as much as possible, so they pried up the four tracks, poured cement into them, and then repressed the rails that had been turned upside down, and the original track was a U-shaped with an upward opening, which turned into a flat wide copper wire.

Now only walking is allowed on the road, and as far as I can see, all of them avoid the copper lines on the road as much as possible, of course, they are not all French, or to be clear, most of them are foreigners, but even the most rude Americans...... Hey, you know, they can do the stupidest thing for the sake of freedom, but here, they have to be honest — I guess it has something to do with some kind of anecdote.

I looked around, it is said that there are the most retired soldiers in Versailles, perhaps the Sun King first set up a standing army to select soldiers from Versailles, so most of the people in Versailles and nearby Limoges will choose to work in the military after high school or college, even the ladies.

Anyone who dares to do anything wrong in Versailles will be beaten immediately, immediately and immediately.

I gotta say it's very gratifying.

Walking a few minutes further along with the flow of people, you can see the branching paths, with white walls, dark blue canopies, cafes and restaurants, bookstores, souvenir shops, etc., but I didn't go inside, because from here we can see the Palace of Versailles.

The Palace of Versailles is famously known as "Gold, Silver, Ivory and Crystal." "Needless to say, gold and silver are the gold and silver leaf and ornaments that adorn the door and window frames, and ivory refers to the white marble that starts from the steps, extends to the ground, the pillars, and ends at the zenith, and over time, these marbles are slightly yellowed by the corrosion of air and water vapor, but they have more of a warm and elegant charm than the original pure white, and also make this huge palace like a small city seem to be made of ivory.

Crystal is the ubiquitous glass and mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, when the Sun King built the Palace of Versailles, the price of glass and mirrors was not low to this point, although in the legend, Louis XIV sold his soul to the devil, relying on the help of wizards to make great progress in the production of glass and mirrors, but we all know that it is just nonsense - I think this always tolerant and sensitive king must have been fortunate to meet some unknown but talented craftsmen or scholars.

It is not far from the railway station to the foot of the Palace of Versailles, that is, as I said, about three kilometers, and then, from here you can see the famous three hundred and thirty-nine steps, which is about equal to the height of a fifteen-story or sixteen-story building, this height is not very friendly to the elderly, children and the disabled, it has been proposed to install an elevator on the left or right side of the Palace of Versailles, but this proposal has been proposed once or twice a year, maybe more, but it has never been passed.

So there's another interesting sight to see here, which is the crowd of protesters who live here like Versailles.

Then it was time for me to be stupid, I could have walked the three hundred and thirty-nine steps like everyone else, to achieve my greatest wish in twelve years, but my curiosity did not allow me to do so—I saw a group of Americans in brightly colored translucent sun-protective suits, hats, sneakers showing a pair of hairy legs, walking in the other direction.

As we all know, Versailles was originally a swamp, after the purchase of Versailles, from Louis XIII the kings continued to burn the dense forest, fill the swamp, when Louis XIV was preparing to build a new palace, someone suggested that he expand the original hunting palace, but Louis XIV did not agree, he chose another vast place, that is.

Not far from the former hunting palace, it is also a depression, but it is connected to the hills, which is why the Grand Canal of Versailles can be diverted directly from the Seine without the need for an elevated aqueduct.

The intention of these Americans was not to climb the steps like the others, but to climb the gentler slope on the right, and then head north to the junction of the Grand Canal and the Seine, and from there to the Palace of Versailles, that is to say, contrary to other tourists.

I thought it was a great idea, folks, because I was deluded by the devil.

It looks like a small section on the map, but in the real world it doesn't work out at all, we start to find a different way at one o'clock in the afternoon, thinking that we will be at the end in an hour or two, but who knows that we have been until the sun goes down, and the surroundings have become dark and we can't see the Grand Canal, hell, the Palace of Versailles has nearly 10 million tourists every year, people? Why are we the only ones here?

We were tired, hungry and thirsty, and we didn't want to say anything, so I wondered if I should sleep out for the night and call the police depending on the situation, but just as I was looking left and right to find a flat place, I saw the light.

I was almost certain that it was God answering my prayer, and I raced away, and oh my God, it wasn't a hallucination, it was a small chapel.

I don't even know how there could be a chapel here, and there was a kind priest in it, who received us and gave us water and bread, and cheese, and some ready-to-eat ham, and I had time to look at it after devouring it—it was a chapel, no doubt, but not even less ornate than the Saint-Louis Chapel I had seen in Paris, and it was probably a Gothic building as well, for I saw the vaults and the curved ribs, the pedestal wall at least ten feet long, and the absence of windows, all of which had to be looked up.

Those huge stained glass windows - for a moment I couldn't tell which story the stained windows depicted, it was supposed to be a saint.

I looked at it from the first window, which showed a baby in swaddling clothes and his mother, surrounded by angels, holding a crown and a scepter, and a holy orb, which meant that the baby in the picture should be a king or an emperor, but I didn't know of a king who had been canonized except for Saint Louis...... I was about to wonder if this king was Saint-Louis when I saw a red and gold castle on the side of the window, which I had seen on the coat of arms of the Portuguese royal family.

Wait! It's strange that in Versailles, behind the most magnificent crown in France, there is a chapel related to the Portuguese royal family?

I regained a little strength, and stood up, and looked through window after window— The second window is a lonely little king, he sits alone on a throne, and there are countless ministers under him, but none of them look at him, they only look at the noble lady beside him, and now I can already guess that she is the king's mother, the queen mother, and it is not uncommon for the queen mother to regify her young son, but I also found that the queen mother, neither in the first nor in the second, did not look at the little king, in the first she looked at the ground, and in the second she looked at another baby.

The third picture of the Queen Mother disappears, and a minister stands beside the adult king, and the eyes of the ministers finally fall on the king.

I don't know why I felt a vague pang of unprovoked joy, but after a few minutes my heart became heavy, and the king fell, no longer surrounded by ministers and generals, but servants and doctors.

The fifth is confusing, because at the king's bedside, the bishop is performing the sacrament of the last life for him, and the servant is weeping and weeping, but the king's hand is reaching out from under the sheet and placing it on the head of a young girl, whose nurse is in the corner of the picture, stretching out her hand, as if praying, and as if ready to take the girl away.

In the sixth, I saw a king and his queen, dressed in royal robes with blue and gold lilies, crowns on their heads, holding hands, and behind them was a small chapel – could it be that the king and queen of France built this chapel?

"This is Louis XV and his wife, Princess Isabella of Portugal, who is also the queen of Louis XV. ”

I turned around and saw that the priest who had just received us, and the Americans were following him, and they must have been curious, and so was I.

"May I know," I asked, "for whom did they build this chapel?"

"King Alfonso VI of Portugal. The priest said, this name makes me feel unfamiliar, the priest smiled, obviously very sympathetic to my feelings, the Sun King single-handedly suppressed his contemporaries as dim as the stars and the moon in the daytime, most people may only remember the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, because he did his best to be a lifelong enemy of Louis XIV, and perhaps King Ludwig I of Poland, because this guy is also legendary enough, he is a relative of the Sun King, but he usurped the throne, and later became a traitorous traitor, and he also fought with France as a Spanish general...... In the end, it was Louis XIV who did not hesitate to put him on the throne of Poland.

Although now everyone understands that this is just a Habsburg operation...... In any case, it is true that the Polish royal family is still surnamed Bourbon in 2020. But everyone has to sigh, the Sun King's heart and courage are indeed unmatched.

"Alfonso VI was the uncle of Queen Isabella, the mother of the princess, and the daughter of the Duke of Savoy, who was once the wife of Alfonso VI, but later Alfonso VI was infertile and the marriage was annulled, and later she married Alfonso VI's younger brother, Pedro II. An American girl suddenly added, shrugging her shoulders as everyone was looking at her, "I like the Sun King, so I read a little bit about his history." ”

"I also like the Sun King. Another girl said, "But I really don't know who Alfonso VI is." ”

"A poor man. Said the previous girl.

"But why would Queen Isabella build a chapel here for her uncle?" an American boy asked me.

The girl hesitated, and she glanced at her father carefully: "I'm not sure if that's true, maybe it's just a rumor." The priest did not speak, and the girl looked at the stained window, the penultimate one, the man who was almost completely covered by the sheets.

"It is said that at that time, the Sun King was choosing a wife for the crown prince Louis Jr. - Princess Isabella was also in the range of choices at that time, and it was very likely, and Portugal urgently needed a French queen at that time, but the problem was that Alfonso VI was sick at that time, but he was alive, he was alive, Pedro II was the regent, no one knew that Alfonso VI, or someone used his name to pull Pedro II off the throne, and at that time, Princess Isabella was just a prisoner's daughter......"

I, and the others, immediately understood what she meant, and I suddenly felt that the chapel was more gloomy than ever—"Many people went to 'visit' Alfonso VI under house arrest, including the Queen Mother and the Archbishop of Lisbon, but Alfonso VI never voluntarily went to hell......" The girl's gaze stayed on the stained window, the young girl, with her back to the people, but you could see how frightened she was, she was almost curled up.

Later, Alfonso VI died from drinking too much spirits, but he is said to have blessed Princess Isabella before he died. ”

After the girl finished speaking, there was a sudden silence in the chapel, and after a while, someone sighed: "In other words, without his sacrifice, Princess Isabella would not have been able to become the queen of France......" He paused, Queen Isabella also has a place in the history books - the medical system and public school system founded by the Sun King were inherited and even further popularized by the queen who was questioned everywhere, so her portrait is more common than her husband Louis XV.

Someone else whispered: "No wonder Queen Isabella and Louis XV built him a chapel, he really deserved it, this is simply the act of a saint."

"His Majesty Louis XV and Her Majesty the Queen did intend to seek the opportunity to be canonized by Alfonso VI, but unfortunately the matter was delayed at that time when the Church was in the midst of a great upheaval. "But Queen Isabella's descendants have never given up—perhaps this year you will see another new saint enshrined." ”

There was a slight commotion in the crowd, and I was surprised that I had witnessed the birth of a new saint here by mistake.

"Is that true?" asked one of them.

To this impudent question, the priest only smiled and did not answer: "You can rest here tonight," and he said, "Tomorrow I will take you to the Grand Canal." ”

The next day the priest took us to the Grand Canal, which turned out to be located in a grove of trees at the junction of the Grand Canal and the Seine, and we were very lucky.

The priest did not ask me to keep it a secret, and I felt that I should write it down, although it had little to do with the Sun King and Versailles...... I felt that among the dim stars under the light of the Sun King, although this star fell quickly, it was a flash of light in the last moment......

It's beautiful.