We recovered from our dinner at the Eiffel Tower by sleeping in late. By 11:30 am, we were up and out and on our way to meet up with the tour company at the train station. We walked about a half an hour to the meeting point. We took the train from Paris to the town of Versailles, and met up with a very knowledgeable tour guide who specialized in the history of the palace of Versailles, and the gardens. Fabulous, fantastic, outrageously ornate opulence and beauty only begin to describe the palace. Balance and symmetry are guiding design principles. The guide also spoke of the public and private lives of the royals. There were always people watching them...People observing their going to bed and rising, eating, praying and matters of state. No wonder they built secret passage ways to move throughout the palace without being seen!
Although Versailles started out as a hunting lodge, they then built the gardens, then the palace. It ties together beautifully! Most of the rooms have views of the gardens.
The only thing that detracted from the tour was the number of people touring the palace! It was literally a CRUSH of tourists! We were relieved to finish the tour and go outside to the gardens. The sun had come out, and the wind whipped us handily! By now it was 4:45, and we were still walking! All the gardens have music piped in. Louis XVI loved music, and always had musicians everywhere, including the garden! We toured four of the formal gardens. Water was a valued, and as such, it is the focus of most of the gardens, and provides opulence in nature. Not many flowers were planted, because, in the hey day of the palace, there was not much use of flowers. Unlike English gardens, each of the gardens is highly structured, to prove man (the King's) dominance over nature. Again, every element is balanced, and there is a great deal of symmetry in the gardens!
The grounds and gardens are immense. We need to go back and rent a golf cart to visit other parts of the grounds. We took the selfie below, and finally sat down in the gardens at about 6:15. A ten minute rest fortified us for the walk to the town for dinner.
We caught a small luscious dinner in the town of Versailles, walked about the town after we recovered and visited a small cathedral. Stunning! We took the train back to Paris on our own.
As we walked back to the Hotel over a fabulous, famous bridge, we were stunned by the golden light! Here are the pictures and a short video taken about 8:30 at night! Too gorgeous!
We got back to the hotel about 9:30 and nursed our sore feet in the lobby, with a glass of wine as fortification before heading back to our room! Please be sure to click on the video at the bottom! It is really neat!
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