Today we visited one of the most amazing disappointing places that we’ve been. We woke up early to try to get to the Estate of Versailles before the long lines. We actually specifically selected Thursday as our day to visit because it was supposed to be one of the lower traffic days to visit the estate. When we arrived it was clear that we had not succeeded. The lines were already ridiculously long and the sheer number of people visiting the gigantic estate was unreal. Ok, now for the history lesson and the pics. In 1661 Louis XIV began the transformation and greatly enlarged Louis XIII’s brick and stone palace into what is now known as the Palace of Versailles. In 1682 he installed the French Court and the Seat of Government at Versailles. The royal family stayed in the palace until the early days of the French Revolution in 1789 when the Women’s March on Versailles forced them to flee to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. The Estate of Versailles was re-opened as a museum in 1837 by King Louis-Phillippe and is now protected as a world heritage site.