Gardens of Versailles

Good morning!

Today's post is to show you my photos from the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles, I have honestly never been anywhere more beautiful and the weather was so out of this world it's not hard to see why so many people go there.

I will be writing a separate post on the Palace itself as I took so many photos I couldn't put them all in one!
The gardens start behind the palace, and begin with a a huge courtyard with fountains, statues and hedgerows as far as the eye can see. It's impressive enough to stand here and take in all of the surroundings and no picture would be able to do it justice.

The first main fountain that you come across is the one below, it's absolutely huge!

Unfortunately I had missed the main season and so none of the fountains were on at the time, I can imagine this one is hugely impressive as there were so many spouts and statues to look at.

The amount of gold in the entire gardens and Palace was almost sickening, it's not hard to see why so many people rebelled against them and dragged Marie Antoinette and the King out and beheaded them when they were so poor!

They often have a number of extra exhibitions on at various times of the year, Anish Kapoor is the current artist with a number on show. Sadly this one has been vandalised with graffiti and whilst I was there it was a very big deal on the news.

I've no idea what it says but the Palace is clearly horrified, I don't know if it can be cleaned up so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I wandered for literally hours in the sun to take in the sights and the fountains, gardens and small niches were just so pretty I could have lost days!

I think my favourite area would have to be the gardens inside Marie Antoinette's estate, not only were they generally beautiful but the addition of so many little extra structures and hideaway places were gorgeous. My favourite part was the Queen's Hamlet, and on my way to discovering it I came across so many of these and this one in particular is called the Temple of Love.

The Queen's Hamlet is an area that Marie Antoinette had created to experience the charms of country life. There are many little buildings all surrounding a lake filled to the brim with fish - I can't imagine how they live there as there were so many!

The building below was my absolute favourite, I have no idea what it's purpose is but the spiral staircase up to the tower where you would have some beautiful views would be just like something out of a fairytale.
I could spend days up there reading or painting, in fact I could just move straight in and not ever leave!

Each of the buildings were totally different and unique so I couldn't take my eyes or my camera off them.
Even coming across little hideaways like this one at the end still surprised me, the rocks arranged perfectly over a little river to another tiny building hidden away from view. I could spend such a long time getting lost in these gardens and enjoying the simple pleasures in life.

I can't imagine the amount of work that the gardeners perform on a daily basis, the colours and smells were amazing let alone the overall maintenance of gardens this size.

The absolute best part of the Gardens? They are totally free!

You have to pay to get into any of the buildings, but the gardens themselves are free, Not only can you wander around and enjoy looking at how the Kings and Queens lived back in the day, but you can also enjoy some rowing and other water sports on the lakes as well as cycling, walking your dog....even sunbathing!
I can't imagine how it would be having this on your door step, I would absolutely love it.

Have you ever been to the Palace of Versailles? Have you got lost in the Gardens like I have?

Aren't they beautiful!

L xxx