The Palace of Versailles and its gardens are immense - featuring over 2,000 rooms and spanning 8,000 ha of gardens.
Building it cost billions and maintaining it consumed around 25% of the French national budget per year!
It was built as a massive extension to Louis XIV's father's hunting lodge.
You can still see the outline of the original lodge as you walk up to the Palace from the courtyard.
Fun fact : the marble floor initially belonged to Louis XIV's Finance Minister, Fouquet.
Fouquet's extravagant wealth and lifestyle threatened the king's position.
In response, Louis XIV imprisoned Fouquet, seized his chateau, and enlisted his top artists and architects to work on Versailles.
Anyone could wander around Versailles, provided they wore a hat and carried a sword.
The palace was bustling with people.
So much so that a man once attacked Louis XV in this very courtyard.
His punishment was swift and brutal: he was burned with hot oil and a poker, then dismembered by four horses pulling in different directions.
