Family A Journey to Forever!

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Petit and Grand Trianon

After exploring the Palace of Versailles and The Gardens we walked over to the Petit Trianon.
It was not busy at all. Where you had to fight to see anything in the Palace here it was just empty, and peaceful made it really nice to explore. On Aug 15, 1774 King Louis XVI gave his new bride Marie-Antoinette the keys to her very own Petit Trianon. She lived in this house from 1774- 1792. She loved the Petit Trianon as it was far from the Palace court. She loved the freedom to have her own friends and a small number of servants.

Today the Petit Trianon is a museum dedicated to the memory of Marie- Antoinette

This is Marie-Antoinette.
What is interesting with this pictures is the way Marie- Antoiette is dressed.
You would think she was going to party. When in all reality she was headed to the store.
Marie-Antoinette was always well dressed.

The Queen's Bed Chamber.

The beautiful staircase with richly decorated bannister of wrought iron and gilded bronze.

Lots of Chandeliers throughout the Petit Trianon

The Salon de Compagnie

Look at the detail sculpted in this wall.

Chandler was being silly and stood there posing in the corner.
A couple ladies came around the corner and thought he was a statue.
When he moved the lady screamed. Ha!

This is the Temple of Love in the English Gardens.

The Temple of Love and Love carving a Bow in Hercules's Bludgeon by Louis Philippe Mouchy (1734-1801)

Marie- Antoinette was into the latest fashions in the art of landscaping so she had the English Gardens designed.

My Sweetheart and I in the English Garden.

The Hamlet and the Farm
Marie-Antoinette created a small Normandy village. To include a group of twelve homes- landscaped with purposely cracked walls, and thatches rooftops. The Hamlet was designed to be a secluded area where one could enjoy the pleasures of a rustic country life.
We couldn't explore all of the Hamlet because a lot of it was under renovation. But there wa s a Queen's Cottage and a Billiard house to the left of her house.

This lake is in the middle of the Hamlet. This lake was excavated and sealed with clay in 1784.
You can see The Marlborough Tower

There was a lot of fish wishing we would feed them. Look at all their mouths opened wide.

There were all kinds of flowers. Jeremy got this beautiful picture of a bee on the flower.

This was the side view of the Petit Trianon

I loved these trees.

All throughout the property you would find random waterfalls.

The Farm,
not only did they have a vegetable and fruit garden they also had all kinds of animals.

Famous picture of Marie-Antoinette with a rose from her Garden.

There were grape vineyards all around as well.

The property for the Hamlet and Farm was ginormous.

I love this Man and his camera.

In the Garden

The gates to enter The Grand Trianon.

Look at the Gold detail on the gate. Wow!

The Grand Trianon was Erected in 1687 for King Louis XIV for the King to escape life in the court and to pursue his
affair with Mme de Montespan. It's nick name is " A Little Palace of Pink Marble and Porphyry."

Jer and the kids at The Grand Trianon.

The boys were just exhausted after 7 hours of exploring.
They decited to lay and wait for the train to take us back to the Palace.

On the Train back to our car.
What an amazing day of exploring The Palace of Versilles, The Gardens and Fountains, Petit Trianon and the Grand Trianon. We sure made a lot of memories and just one more thing to love about France.

Garden's of Versailles

I thought the Palace of Versailles was impressive and massive. Then we came to the gardens and holy cow I was blow away with how big and immaculate the gardens were. Everywhere you looked you saw beautiful huge Parterres, Groves, Statues and Fountains, Bosquets, and ponds everywhere. The Gardens were just amazing. They absolutely took my breath away.

A little history.
The Gardens were designed by Andre Le Nortre.
The Gardens were designed as a French Style Formal Gardens.
Creating the gardens was a monumental task. It took nearly 40 years to complete the gardens.
They started creating the gardens in 1661 and the gardens were completed in the 1700's.
Trees were brought in from different regions of France. Thousand of men, sometimes entire regiments took part in building this huge garden.

Walking down to the Grand Canal.

The fountains go off everyday from 11:00am until Noon, again at
3:30pm -5:00pm and the Neptune Fountain only goes off at 5:20pm.
We got there just in time to watch the fountains turn on. MAGICAL!

This is the Latona Fountain. You can see the Palace of Versailles in the background
The fountain is between the palace and the Grand Canal.
I love exploring with my kids. Brooklyn (14) Chandler (12) Kayden (17) at the Palace of Versailles Gardens.

Beautiful Groves and Fountains.

Move over Bellagio.
The Mirror Fountain was remarkable and one of our families favorite fountains.
The Water would "Dance" to an arrangement of Classical Music. It performed a new
song every 10 minutes. The Fountains perform 150 different water effects during the show.
I think I could have stayed here all day.

Colonnade Grove is a circular series of marble arches and fountains.

The back side of the Palace of Versailles.

Apollo Fountain
Apollo is rising from the sea at daybreak with his four-horse chariot
Apollo is the Greek Sun God.

This Fountain was pretty fascinating.

Walking along the Bosquets.

After a day of adventure we were exhausted.
We were waiting for the fountains to turn on again at 3:30pm.

The Grove of Apollo's Bath
comes alive one basin at a time as the waterfalls and fills the next basin until
all the basins are flowing together and the beautiful fountain is complete.