FRANCE // You can try to imagine Versailles simply as a place where people ate, drank, worked and slept. But seriously, how many houses in the world have 700 rooms, 2153 windows, 67 staircases, 800 hectares of garden, 2100 statues and sculptures, and enough paintings to pave an 11km (7-mile) road? Château de Versailles is one almighty crash pad. Even more striking than its size is the ostentatious opulence. French 'Sun King' Louis XIV transformed his father's hunting lodge southwest of Paris into a monumental palace to house his 6000 sycophantic courtiers in the 17th century. It was the kingdom's political capital and seat of the royal court from 1682 until the French Revolution in 1789. Today it's a glittering evocation of French royal history and the conspiring, romancing and backstabbing drama that went on behind its doors. Gaze at your reflection in the shimmering Hall of Mirrors, see horses prance in the stables, and watch fountains dance to baroque music in summer in the immaculately landscaped formal gardens.