As of this morning my concrete pussy cat seems to have a new chapeau. She looks amused, sort of. St. Louis received more snow last night to add to the snow we already had. Considering the problems those poor souls in the east are having with snow I will be quite content with ours. Watching the snow fall from my window has got me thinking of warmer weather and travel, specifically last summer’s buying trip to Europe and our visit to Versailles. Click on images to enlarge.
Versailles for me is a time capsule of exceptional beauty and grandeur that exists just beyond those massive gold gilt iron gates.
This photo shows the palace viewed from the Apollo Fountain. There are over 700 rooms in the palace at Versailles. Visiting the palace is more than an overwhelming experience it is also tiring and so huge that the space lacks a comfortable coziness. It was designed more for political show than for human scale. Go to the Palace website here. Click on images to enlarge.
Marie Antoinette had her architect Richard Mique build a 12 building Le Hameau (the hamlet) in the manner of a true 16th century Norman village. Rousseau’s theories on the nobleness of a simple rural life lived close to the natural world were very much in vogue at the end of the 18th century. Marie Antoinette was trying to escape the confines of her courtly life into what she assumed was the “idyllic” world of a working Norman village.
The hamlet was built on the banks of the Grand Trianon Lake from 1783 to 1787. This photo shows the Marlborough Tower that was often used as a point of departure for boat rides or fishing outings.
The restored Hamlet grounds and buildings have just recently been reopened to the public.
Several of the buildings including this mill were reserved for use only by the Queen and her guests. The peasants that tended to the gardens and the livestock lived in four of the structures. The exterior staircases and balconies of the buildings were adorned with blue and white earthenware pots full of blooming flowers.
Flowers everywhere! I can’t wait to plant the flower pots on my deck, however I will refrain from planting in the roof-line of my house. The flowers here seem quite happy growing in this thatched roof.
White lilies line the path to the entrance of this charming cottage. Click on images to enlarge.
Every house has its own little garden. Hornbeams were used as hedges and chestnut trees as fences.
The hamlet had a working farm with assorted livestock, including cows, goats, sheep, and pigeons. The Queen would dress as a shepherdess and visit her farm to watch its tranquil life unfold. Marie Antoinette commissioned the royal porcelain works at Sevres to create beautifully hand-decorated porcelain china to be used in her hamlet, including porcelain milk buckets to use when “milking” the cows.
I’m wearing shorts in this photo, it was warm, it will be warm again, I’m just sure of it. A litany I have to say over and over again this time of year. So this concludes our brief visit to Versailles in July. When you visit France and go to Versailles I would highly recommend a quick tour of the palace and then spend the rest of the day on the estate. The gardens, the fountains, and the Hamlet are enough to fill many a cold wintery day with fond memories of warmer times and beautiful places. Click on images to enlarge.
Tags: Apollo Fountain, France, Le Hameau, Louis VII, Marie Antoinette, Paris, Porcelain, Richard Mique, Sevres, Versailles
Nice one for showing this post. I believe that it is extremely insightful and definately forward it to associates, as well. If you carry on posting about this I will certainly continue browsing your upcoming articles.
I was looking through some of your posts on this site and I believe this website is real instructive! Retain posting .
I regularly sweat many late nights trying to find the answers I need – thanks to your mean blog post, I am one step closer to culture! As Kanye West would say, how would one man feel with that Power? : )
I am really impressed along with your writing talents as smartly with the format on your weblog. Is that this a paid topic or did you modify it your self? Either way stay up the nice quality writing, it is rare to peer a great blog like this one these days..
You made a few fine points there. I did a search on the subject and found a good number of people will go along with with your blog.
I like this website very much, Its a real nice situation to read and get information.
My coder is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on various websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform. I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress posts into it? Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!
I precisely had to thank you so much yet again. I do not know what I could possibly have done without the type of solutions discussed by you on that situation. It became the depressing dilemma for me personally, however , observing the specialized mode you dealt with it took me to leap for delight. Now i am grateful for your work and pray you find out what an amazing job you’re carrying out instructing people all through a web site. Most probably you’ve never met any of us.
I want to protect some of the original writing on my website & was wondering how to do this…. a)Can I put the Copyright notation on it without revealing my real name? . b)How do I have proof that it is my original work? How about saving the writing in MS Word?. c)Is there any point in copyrighting the articles/website?.
YouTube was began in 2005 by 3 PayPal workers and since then YouTube has grown to among the biggest webpages in the world. Youtube Currently has over 1 billion page views a month And Over 1 Billion Unique Page Views A Month.