FRANCE – VERSAILLES

MAY 7, 2925

We took a day trip to Versailles. The efficient metro brought us the 18 km (11 mi.) west of Paris. It is one of the most popular tourist spots in the world. Every year about 15 million people visit the palace, park or gardens. The palace was super crowded. I felt more like a cow being shoved through a squeeze chute.

It was hard to get a decent picture of anything, other than the ceilings, which were opulent as well.

The opulence was beyond extreme. It was a bit too much, in my humble opinion.

Louis XIII built a hunting lodge at Versailles in 1623. Louis XIV (the Sun King) expanded the chateau into a palace (1661). He also moved his court and government to Versailles, making Versailles the de facto capital of France.

It remained this way with Kings Louis XV and XVI, as well. In 1789 the royal family and court returned to Paris for the remainder of the French Revolution. The Palace was pretty much abandoned and ultimately looted.

Following Napoleons coronation as Emperor, he used a side palace as his summer residence, but not the main palace. When the King returned to the throne, he stayed in Paris. It was not until the 1830s that repairs were made to the palace. The palace gained centre stage again in June of 1919 when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the HALL of MIRRORS.

In the 1920s John D. Rockefeller, Jr gave about 38 million dollars (in todays money) to restore and refurbish the palace to a state as close as possible to when the royal family left.

THE GARDENS

The gardens cover about 800 hectares (2000 acres) of land. That’s 12.5 sections for us farmer kids. I love gardens, flowers, trees and woodsy paths. I was in heaven!

The gardens construction began at the same time as the palace. It took 40 years to fully complete them.

As it was early in the season, flowers were not yet in bloom or were past their spring bloom. The hedges provided a delightful setting by themselves.

There were two huge ponds surrounded by scrulptures.

At the back edge of this garden was the STAIRCASE OF 100 STEPS, leading down to the ORANGERY PARTERRE. We could see it through the windows as we walked through the galleries. It covers three hectares (7.4 acres) and is laid out in symmetrical patterns of flowers and hedges. There are 1055 containers of orange trees, palms, oleander, pomegranate and other exotic bushes. The bushes are kept indoors in the winter.

LATONA FOUNTAIN, in the centre, is surrounded by sculptures. You can see the steps in the background.

Further back from this garden were a series of treed mazes set off from a tree-lined avenue,

that was set off from the main avenue.

It was very pleasant to get lost in the labyrinths.

Each maze was different.

Even when we knew where we were, we still got lost.

Each grotto was uniquely different from one other.

Each one had us going WOW!

Most had a fountain at the centre. However, it was early in the season so the actual fountains were not working. There were workers cleaning the fountain works, making sure they were in good running order.

We did come to a large pond (MIRROR POND) that had fountains going off in time to classical music. I took videos, so no still photos to show. There was a large bird standing on a post near the fountain. It was obviously getting a free bath from the spray of the water, but it was flapping its outstretched wings as if to say, “Applause, applause.” It was cute.

We had lunch in one of the small outdoor cafes along the route. Even these outdoor cafes had style.

At the end of the main avenue was the GRAND CANAL. It took 11 years to complete, from 1668 to 1679. It is 1670 metres (5479 ft) long.

Just in front of the Grand Canal was the APOLLO CHARIOT BASIN.  Apollo’s chariot emerges from the water, pulled by four horses. He is surrounded by tritons blowing their conch shells while riding dolphins.

We did not see the entire place. It was getting late, and we were getting tired.

As we walked through Versailles to get back to the train station, we came upon an outdoor market, selling mostly clothing. I spotted a pull over sweater that I liked. I called to Pierre to wait. Even though I said his name with, what I thought was, a French twing to it, the sales lady immediately said, “Oh, you are English”. I said, “How did you know.” She replied, “The way you said his name.” LOL

I ended up buying one of her homemade creations.

We headed back to Paris on a Bombardier metro train, built in Canada. How come the ones in Canada are not this nice?

OTHER THINGS OF NOTE:

The water bottles throughout Europe have the cap attached to the bottle. There are no bottle caps laying about.

One thing I remember from my first trip to France was all the carousels set up in parks and along the street. I thought they were creepy then, and still think they are creepy. They seem like a place Pennywise would hang out.