Today is our first day out after a long day of travel yesterday.  On the agenda for today is what started of as a little village in the 11th century then became a hunting lodge with a bit of forest to what today is simply know as the Palace of Versailles.  When you are the most powerful king of France, you built a place to show off not only your wealth but also your power.  Then you guild everything in gold.  Not only inside of the palace with the usual, furniture, ceilings, walls, doors, picture frames and dishes but whatever else needs it. Each subsequent king renovated and expanded the palace and eventually  gold  plating was added to the roof of the Palace and the fence and the fountain for a good measure as well.  I think this much gold in one place would not only make the Pope and the Vatican blush but the god himself.  There is so much gold in the palace and the garden are so immense , 800 hectares, the king almost bankrupt himself building it.  Not only did the king built a massive palace for himself but then he built a smaller secluded palace for himself in one of the corners of the garden to, get away from the hustle and bustle of the palace life, and for  Marie-Antoinette, a small English village with cottages was built, where she could play farm with her peasants, complete with her own small place to retire in.  Absolutely splendid and most definitely the most obscene demonstration of wealth we have seen to date.