Christmas Fit for a King
Maybe Louis XIV stole all of the architects and designers from the Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte back in the 1600s, but he sure didn't steal its Christmas cheer.
Just south of Paris, this chateau dazzles, sparkles, and shimmers at Christmas time with its halls quite literally decked. And they know their way around a Christmas tree at this chateau. Maybe its more popular and bigger, but could the Chateau of Versailles pull off such a festive feat?
No, and here's the proof.
First off, it's a 17th century chateau, and people still live in it, so of course it needed to be decorated...
But they go all out, like way out there. They make the decorations within Paris look like a toddler who hated Christmas made them.The chateau embarrasses the city to no end. Just look at this winter wonderland on a tree.
And then there was this one, with that owl who just knows he's better than any decoration at my house. He knows that I know, which makes it worse.
And they don't even have to trim their trees like pros to prove anything because the owners own a chateau. Like, a real one. But they do it anyway, because they can. And despite having to worry about an entire chateau, they still know how to work a holiday bow.
And they know how to keep Christmas fun and childlike. I mean, come on, they feature giraffes in one room. How much fun is this?
And then they hit you with this one in the grand foyer and Christmas just wins, it just totally wins. It's all over the place and you can't even help but smile. And that's not even a real tree underneath those decorations, but you don't care. Christmas, 1000 points. Every other day, 0.
And because you own a chateau, you do whatever you want. "I want a deer in the library, next to that tree, because I own a chateau and I call the shots." The deer was all like, "Whatever," but we were impressed.
And this delightful mess of Christmas tomfoolery. Playful, elegant, and totally Louis XIV-approved.
And then they set the table and invited us all over for Christmas dinner, but we had to decline. We have plans already.
But dinner was being prepared as we visited, so we felt rude and promised we'd come back for another occasion (but we're Parisian, so that was a flaky commitment at best). I do, however, like duck...
Well, then we saw this dead boar, which raised eyebrows. Some things are best kept hidden from your guests. I feel like that's a Miss Manners faux pas right there...
But we took a walk around and thought, "Yeah, I could live here." Maybe one day, or maybe I'll just steal the Christmas tree decorator for my apartment not unlike Louis XIV. We'll see next year...
