I think this is the first time I’ve ever been to a tourist attraction where they have mandated that people be on tours to see the site. At least, any tourist who speaks English, French, Italian and Portuguese must be on a tour. We really didn’t have the time (or the patience) to wait for the one in English — it was still hours away and we opted to join the soonest tour coming up instead. It happened to be in French. Neither of us speak French.
Hiding at the back of tour group, our plan was to smile and nod, go with whatever the others on the tour group were doing, hope that the tour guide didn’t ask us any questions and take a lot of photos so the guide didn’t see the confused looks on our faces when what she was saying didn’t register. Here’s what I learned from the actual tour of the Palace: our guide’s name was Katrine and she welcomed us to the palace. Here’s what I learned later googling the location: there’s a beautiful room called the “Arab Room” that took 18 years to finish. The complete decoration of the palace finished in 1909 and the building was designed by Joaquim da Costa Lima.
The tour was short, but honestly don’t know if it was worth it — I’d probably be saying the same thing if it had been in English. The architecture is beautiful but there’s not a ton to see inside. The rooms are mostly empty and thirty minutes —the full length of the tour — even feels long. The whole tour is a single floor and you only see five different rooms, three of which are empty of anything other than furniture (I assume we would’ve learned the history or at least some more context of meaning each room had we known French).
I’m sure we would’ve had a deeper appreciation had we understood what we were being informed of, at the same time, the palace feels like a place you could see without a tour guide.