February 2, 2023

Towns Named Versailles

By roads-rus

Versailles was the ultimate royal palace. It’s about 12 miles from Paris and close to a city of 85,000 people called Versailles. Known for its Hall of Mirrors, its gardens, and its fountains, Versailles is visited by about 15 million people each year. It is a free attraction every day and a World Heritage Site. Napoleon used it as a summer residence, but it was build by Louis XIV. I was surprised by the number of towns in the United States that it has supplied with a name. There are said to be 10 Versailles in America, but only 5 of them are still very active communities.

The 5 inactive Versailles are in Tennessee, New York, Louisiana, Illinois, and Connecticut. I find the Versailles in western New York the most interesting of these because it abuts to a Seneca Native Reservation. The Versailles in Tennessee is a virtual ghost town that had a post office between 1840 and 1906 but is now a country store but not much more. Versailles is south of Nashville. The Versailles in Louisiana was once an important residence but is now just a hamlet near the town of Aribi.

The 5 Versailles of importance in the USA are in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, and Kentucky. The largest Versailles is in Kentucky and not too far from Lexington. These towns are home to more than 17,000 people. The Versailles in Missouri is near Jefferson City, this state’s capital. I wonder if any of these towns have Versailles-like attractions.

I doubt if the Illinois Versailles in Brown County has much to see. It had only 446 residents in 2020. It is not too far from Quincy.

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2023 at 8:46 pm and posted in Great City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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