Let's Go to Paris - Part 5: The Gardens of Versailles

2012.01 Let's go to Paris - Part 5: The Gardens of Versailles

Looking at Google satellite view, the whole area of the Palace of Versailles plus the gardens is the area inside the red frame.

According to the brochure, the current area is about 800 hectares. At its peak, the total area reached 7,800 hectares... P.S. one hectare is roughly the size of a football field @.@'"

Because it was winter,

when we first entered the garden and saw the bare view ahead, I thought the garden probably would not have much to see ~.~'"

View from the palace terrace toward the Gardens of Versailles in winter.

The statues on the exterior wall of the Palace of Versailles were actually very impressive...

Statues and architectural details on the Palace of Versailles exterior wall.

Palace of Versaillesexterior wall statues...

The building in front is the main palace. The second floor is where the Hall of Mirrors is...

Facade of the main palace building, with the Hall of Mirrors on the second floor.

main building, second floor Hall of Mirrors...

After passing the Neptune Fountain, we saw a garden tram parked ahead. No matter where it was going, we paid and got on without a second thought ^.^

Chinese audio guides could also be rented here. It turned out that besides the part of the Versailles gardens we had just seen, there was still a huge area around the other side.

Water and palace reflections in the Gardens of Versailles.

Chinese audio guides were available here, and the gardens extended much farther than the area in front of us.

This big garden looked like it should be a good everyday leisure spot for nearby residents...

This large garden looked like a good everyday leisure spot for nearby residents...

The main sights here are the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon.

In 1668, Louis XIV bought a village called Trianon,

then demolished the old houses and built a pavilion decorated with blue-and-white glazed tiles.

The Grand Trianon was used by the court for concerts, festivals, celebrations, and pastries, and was also where Louis XIV met his court ladies ~.~'"

The Petit Trianon was built in 1762 by Louis XV for his favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour.

In 1774, Louis XVI gave the Petit Trianon to Marie Antoinette and changed its garden into the English style.

She also built a group of village-style buildings north of the palace called Le Hameau.

When Queen Marie was in a bad mood, she would hide here and dress up as a peasant woman to get away from court life, so this became Marie Antoinette's favorite place.

But all of this was information I found online later while writing the travelogue.

Before departure, I still had not done enough homework... I did not realize there were two such interesting side palaces inside the gardens.

At that time, because we had rented an audio guide, our passports were left at the ticket booth. The person there said "strictly" three times: we had to come back before five...

I was afraid we would spend too long walking around and miss the time, and that if the person closed the booth, getting the passports back would become troublesome.

Plus, we had just been so impressed by the Palace of Versailles itself that I thought, "after seeing the great mountain, the rest are just clouds"...

So we did not go inside the Trianons (stamping feet) T.T

Bicycles and paths in the Gardens of Versailles.

So we did not go in after all, stamping our feet in frustration. T.T

Ahead was a small remaining section of the old "Grand Canal."

At its peak, four-masted sailing ships could travel along the canal all the way to the front of the Palace of Versailles @.@'"

After circling around the big garden, we returned to the garden in front of the main palace...

Looking back from the gardens toward the main Palace of Versailles building.

After circling the large garden, we returned to the garden in front of the main palace...

And because we did not visit the Trianons, we happened to have time to walk around here.

Gardens of Versailles Grand Canal central-axis view.

Let's go to Paris, Part 5 - the Gardens of Versailles

Because we did not visit the Trianon, we had time to wander around here.

In European winter, once the sun is gone it starts to feel cold... and the sun was almost setting at around 4:30 @.@'"

We had done about enough for the day... time to head back~~

We had seen enough for the day, so it was time to head back~~

Whew~

We followed the crowd back to the train station. There were many people on the way back, but many of the trains here were double-decker. The capacity was quite large, and we were lucky to still find seats ^.^

On the return trip, we transferred to the metro at Invalides again.

The murals on both sides of the underground passage made the long tunnel feel less empty and cold. They were pretty interesting~

For two days in a row, we had been eating cold food such as sandwiches (French bread with ham, cheese, and vegetables), muffins, doughnuts, and so on.

Although they were tasty, by evening we finally could not take it anymore, so we ate some hot rice and dishes at a Chinese restaurant near the hotel ~.~'"