I went to the Palace of Versailles. I had studied the place a bit and wanted to see it for myself so that I could better understand it, so I went Thursday 14 August in the morning. There was a line for a security check. It took some time for me to get through this check, but as I arrived early in the morning it was not too long. Later I looked again from inside the palace complex and saw that the line was very long, perhaps with a two hour wait just to buy tickets. I reflected on the intent of creating the palace and the ways in which it is used now. Whatever other infrastructure is here, the management has difficulty granting access to facility resources and explaining the significance of things.
The story with Versailles is that it is a palace which, when built, was perhaps the most extravagant expense ever paid. Luxury is everywhere here in the materials from which the palace is made, and beyond that, only an army of trained caretakers could maintain its use in the way that it was designed to be used. It was built for the purpose of showcasing the culture and luxury which was concentrated in the French government, and more specifically, in the reign of King Louis XIV. As the history goes, it was used for two kings beyond him, then in the French Revolution it became a public attraction and museum.
My initial impression of the place is that it is a marvel and it must have been more of a marvel during its time, but nowadays it is impossible to maintain because social classes are more equal and it would not in any way be possible to raise funds to hire staff to maintain the site. The design of Versailles depends on highly trained artisans who are willing to work for low wages, and now in this age when people with the necessary trade skills are likely to require pay and social status equal to or beyond anyone else, then for as long as labor is required to sustain the site it will never look nice as it did.
Some aspects of Versailles which break it as a fantasy are the wear and fading of everything inside, the intensive attention which is given to the gardens outside but which still comes up short just because even the huge number of gardeners currently employed here are only a fraction of what is required to keep everything perfect all the time, and the inherent design of the place to only accomodate a few people and not crowds. Massive though the place is, it is not a modern convention center and there is not enough of what meets modern needs – security, restrooms, passageways, opportunity for guided tours, signs, written explanations, snacks, places to sit, or the other resources which allow visitors to have a visit which does not seem structured or forced.
I wrote some time ago about Devyani Khobragade, the diplomat from India who came to New York and wished to pay her servant from India a low wage according to Indian custom rather than the minimum legal wage for workers in New York. I am sure that in India she is accustomed to living in luxury, but in New York City even a person who makes a lot of money by Manhattan standards is unlikely to be able to afford a single full time personal live-in servant. In India such a person could be hired by the month for a low-moderate day’s wage in New York City, USD $150. In New York City, of course, such a person would just want the regular day’s wage for a regular day’s pay, and even someone making $1000 daily would not be quick to hire someone for $150 a day just for general trifles. There really is not a path today for a person to engage in a career which is likely to result in them having multiple servants, and I think today any rich person would feel more empowered by having servants than by surrounding themselves with material luxuries like on display in Versailles.
I still recall how extravagant it seemed to live in India in that different economy, and when I wanted anything someone could be hired to manage it for me at a rate which seemed so much less expensive than me taking my own time to do things myself. Beyond trite things like sweeping and household management, in India it seemed to me that with just a bit of money anyone who did not understand something could have a tutor, and anyone who wanted to be fit could have a personal trainer watch them alone at the gym every time. Food could be prepared in one’s home on request any time, and shopping too comes to one’s home rather than one needing to go to a store. It just seemed as if there were a large class of people higher in society who had their needs attended whenever possible by an even larger class of people lower in society, and that always any support that one person could get from another was for sale at an affordable price. As shocking as this was to me, people in India hardly noticed it, but they did notice and seem to envy my cheap consumer electronics, clothing, daily use items, and symbols of my culture, all of which were available and just as good in their domestic markets but perhaps available without the branding of my country. My expression of desire for human labor was dismissed; I suppose the same thing happens with those Wikimedia grant reports which Western people request but are thought by Indian people as being too trivial to produce.