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That's the point of the comparison. What would Buckingham Palace be like if it could be exploited for tourism and preservation.
by lozenge 4y ago
That's the point of the comparison. What would Buckingham Palace be like if it could be exploited for tourism and preservation.
- blitzar 4y agoFrance with their roughly equal population & GDP as the UK also gets about 5x the number of tourists per year, so that helps boost their numbers a fair bit.
- jfengel 4y agoProbably not all that much much. It's a big building, for sure, with some rooms and furnishings of historical interest. But it's not nearly as lavish as Versailles is, and its place in history is much less important. It wasn't completed until after the monarchy had become subordinate to the Parliament. Its residents have always been figureheads. Versailles, by contrast, is the ultimate in conspicuous consumption. The building is insanely gaudy, inside and out. The grounds are jaw-dropping. It can take you a day just to walk them. Compared to it, Buckingham Palace is a cottage. It's also redolent in French history. It was the court at the absolute height of French monarchical power, and played crucial roles in the fall of that power. Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon, where she dressed up as a peasant girl and played at being a milkmaid, is a potent symbol of how out of touch the monarchy had become. People would surely come to see Buckingham Palace, home to Queens Victoria and Elizabeth, and be informed about some of the important events that happened there. More would come if it were more open. But it would never be the draw that Versailles is, and people would not come out raving about what extravagant lives its residents led.