A photo tour of the Palace of Versailles, and gardens

All the photos in this post can be seen at a larger size by clicking on them.

The very first time I saw the Palace of Versailles was in 1991, on a Saturday morning as I drove one of my sons to a swimming competition. I forget where the competition was held but I'll never forget that first glimpse of the sunlight sparkling on the golden railings. I had no idea where I was but it took my breath away. "Where on earth is that?" I asked, more or less talking to myself. And the reply from the teenager beside me was the statutory "Huh?"

On my visit last weekend, I tried to recreate that first glimpse but I would have had to take my life in my hands by braving the traffic of the Place d'Armes, and even then there were far too many people around. So the shot above is from inside the gates while everyone else was otherwise engaged.....

....standing in a queue waiting to buy tickets, which could take as long as two hours. You can bypass this wait by buying tickets in advance. We bought online.

In an effort to avoid the hottest part of the day sun we toured the palace interior first, along with an amazing number of people. There was no need for a sign showing the direction of the visit - just follow the crowd. To be fair, for the most part, the size of the place allows people to be absorbed quite easily, but I did find many of my photos had to be taken of out of the way corners, at odd angles, or hastily through a suddenly appearing gap.

I don't know how to describe these. To call them "lamps" seems a little inadequate.

This is a corner of the Hall of Mirrors, which is so much hyped, so often featured in various illustrations, that I was fully expecting to be disappointed. I wasn't. It is stunning.

In spite of the crowds.

I am an impatient photographer and rapidly tired of waiting my turn to catch a shot of a room, only to find someone stepping into the frame at the last moment, so I took myself off into the gardens.

The west side of the palace seen from across the water parterre.

The vista from the palace.

The ballroom is in one of the many groves and gardens hidden in the trees and shrubbery. This was taken before the fountains were turned on, before any people arrived.

I wonder did anyone really dance there. Look at the state of the "dance floor".

What the pictures can't show you is that baroque music was playing in the background all the time, making it very easy to conjure up images of Marie Antoinette and friends. However although the music plays all the time and they call it "Les Grandes Eaux Musicales", the fountains don't play continuously and are switched on at particular times, and not always all of them. If you don't know this, you don't know to look for the schedule in advance, and even then it's not easy to find specific variations in the schedule.

If I were to go another time, and I will, I would visit the interior in the winter time when there are fewer people about. The fountains can be seen only in the summer but I imagine during early or late season there would be fewer people about and easier to absorb the atmosphere.

So often these key tourist destinations are a let down and in the past I've wondered what people see, for instance, in Notre Dame. Versailles, though, is not one of them.

I'll leave you with a picture of a newly restored bronze of the Sun King on horseback which is outside the front gates looking down the Avenue de Paris. According to some who know more about these things than I do, it has little artistic merit, but I like the way the king is apparently overlooking his city of Versailles.

If you want to see more of my photos from this visit, there are more on my Flickr account. These are mostly a different selection, and I plan to add to them over the next few days.

PhotoHunt: flags

Two views of the flags in Winchester Cathedral.  Can't you see them?  On the ground - flagstones.  The retroquire, the area behind the altar, contains the largest surviving expanse of 13th century tiles in the UK.  I thought you would probably have seen enough flags waving in the wind.  Besides, I've never been able to photograph one successfully.

As you read this, I will be making my way back to that part of the world, so I will have to pay my visits to you a little late this weekend.

If you want to see how other people have treated the subject, visit  TNchick's site, where you can join in and find other players.

Another thank you

Sage, of Wise Herb's Random Jottings (and also of Wise Herb's Recipes) has very kindly awarded me a Best Follower award.  I really haven't been good recently about getting around to visiting people as I should, so I'm slightly embarrassed to be accepting.

The rules for this award are:
1. Put this award on your blog.
2. Invite 10 people to take this award.
3. Don't forget to link back to the person who gave you this award.
4. Let them know that they have received this award.
5. Share the love to those who get this award.

So I have to invite 10 people to take the award.  I invite anyone of you who is reading this to take it, because you are all such good followers.  Thank you all.

Super what?

I understand that they use multi-lingual wrappers to save costs, but you'd think they'd just check the possible meanings?

La cave à vins

A small town snapshot.

Appearances can be deceptive.   Inside is very much less shabby and the owner socks a good selection of wines.  Most of the shops around here are shabby outside, but one or two are much the same inside and one in particular looks as though it hasn't been changed for a hundred years or more.

Father's Day, or the first day of summer?

I noticed that today Google had one of its illustrated logos on dispay showing a boy and a girl making sandcastles, so I ran my mouse over it and to my surprise it was captioned Fathers' Day.  (I will discuss the position of the apostrophe at another time.  Surely the day is for all fathers?)

In a moment of idleness, I thought to have a look to see whether google.com would have the same illustration.  One of my irritations with Google is that they insist they know better than I do about what I want and I was immediately redirected to google.fr where I found a different illustration and a different caption.

In France they are celebrating the first day of summer, and I have to say I think the UK illustration may have been intended for that originally. 

I eventually was allowed look at google.com but there was no illustration, no caption.  How odd!  I thought Fathers' Day originated in the USA.  And they surely notice summer time.

Of course, Mrs Inquisitive couldn't leave it at that and had to do a survey of a representative sample of countries and their Google pages.

Fathers' Day is illustrated in:

• UK, 
• Canada, 
• Puerto Rico,
• South Africa,
  
• Philippines.

The first day of summer is marked in:

• France
• Spain
• Sweden
• Hungary
• Romania
  

Nothing at all in:

• The Netherlands
• India
• Sri Lanka
  
• Belarus
• Malaysia

And of course, I didn't think, but some countries in the southern hemisphere are marking the first day of winter:

• New Zealand
• Brazil
• Australia.

I'm not entirely convinced that this is an entirely appropriate illustration either, especially for Brazil or parts of Australia.

PhotoHunt: creamy

Creamy food and drinks do me no good at all, so I looked elsewhere for inspiration, and I found it in nature.

In the sea.

Sit in reverie and watch the changing colour of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882)

And in flowers.

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul.  ~ Prophet Muhammad, (570- 632)

If you want to see how other people have treated the subject, visit  TNchick's site, where you can join in and find other players.

Avignon, city of popes

I arrived in Avignon knowing that it is famous for the Palais des Papes and its bridge, but that was very nearly all I knew about the city.  I'd been there years ago, but sightseeing with young sons is always a little limited. 

In the 14th century the popes made Avignon their base, partly because Rome had become too dangerous, and partly because the French king wanted the power they brought.  The return to Rome came some 70 years later, though for a while afterwards an anti-pope was elected and based in Avignon, first Clement VII then Benedict XIII.  The presence of the papal entourage of course brought great wealth to the city.

Palais des Papes - The Palace of the Popes

The building of Palais des Papes was started on the instructions of Benedict XII, the third of the popes to be at Avignon, and continued until 1364 by the following popes.  It was intended mainly as a fortress, and it does give that impression, really quite forbidding.

La Place de Palais - the Palace square

L'Hotel des Monnaies, once the Pope's Treasury, now the Conservatoire of Music.

But there is so much more to Avignon.  Walking around the city, which has a pleasant air of prosperity, there are interesting sights and a bustling atmosphere everywhere.

 

Statues leaning over a balcony - I don't know the significance, if any.

Courtyard restaurants

The vertical garden on Les Halles - the indoor market

Trompe d'oeuil, on several buildings

L'horloge - the clock tower

Place de l'Horloge

Le pont d'Avignon - Pont Saint Bénezet

But no visit to Avignon would be complete without mentioning the bridge.  It no longer spans the Rhône because only four of the original arches remain, but it really is there.  Does anyone not know the song "Sur le pont d'Avignon"? 

Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond
Les beaux messieurs font comm' çà
Et puis encore comm' çà.....

....and so on.

I must have learnt the words at a later stage of my childhood, because I had a slightly better understanding the words of this one.  When I first saw them written, I wasn't as taken aback as I was with Frère Jacques which went like this in my mind:

Frair a Jacka
Frair a Jacka
Door may voo
Door may voo
Sonny le mateena
Sonny le mateena
Ding ding dong.

The meaning was a complete mystery to me, for years and years.

PhotoHunt: lock

Around about this time last year I visited Redon, in Brittany.  In the Middle Ages Redon was an important port, when ships could navigate up the river Vilaine at high tide.  Then in 1836, the Nantes to Brest canal which crosses the river Vilaine at Redon was completed (to avoid the British fleets off the coast), resulting in a set of locks in the town which is criss-crossed with waterways.

This is the point where the canal crosses the Vilaine.

Another lock, just ahead of the river.

Nowadays the water traffic in Redon is mainly made up of pleasure crafts.  This is one leaving the Port de Plaisance, the marina, through one of the locks.

Just beside the lock gates was this interesting vessel, with the plaque US Navy ST 732 6 June 1944.  The date of the Normandy landings 65 years ago.  On further investigation I have discovered it was the tug Attis, first launched on 10 January 1944, transferred to French ownership on 19 June 1950.  There are more pictures and documentation from the National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors.

I had to restrain myself this week.  I have all sorts of other locks I could show you from Amsterdam and elsewhere, not to mention locks in doors, locks of hair.  If you want to see how other people have treated the subject, visit  TNchick's site., where you can join in and find other players.

La Fête des Mères - Mother's Day in France

To my surprise, I received a beautiful bunch of roses and a telephone call for the Fête des Mères.  Surprised because my sons had already remembered the UK Mothering Sunday on 22 March this year. If I play my cards right, I could have several celebrations a year.

The French celebrate Mother's Day on the last Sunday in May, except when it falls on Pentecost when it becomes the first Sunday in June -  which is what happened this year.

The dates for the coming years are
30 May 2010
29 May 2011
03 June 2012.

PhotoHunt: advertisement

On the way back from the market yesterday, I paused for a coffee at our local café, to sit in the sun and watch the world go by. Voting in the elections for the European Parliament will take place tomorrow. I noticed that, as usual in the run up to elections, there are panels around the trees in the church square for advertisements for the different political parties standing. They are not only in the church square, but also in the market place, car parks, and any other suitable free space.

What caught my eye was the furthest panel on the left.

A very tiny notice, alongside one of the usual professionally produced advertisements.

A protest, it would seem, though I'm not entirely sure why.

You are scared stiff of the world
Stubborn in your tower, you want some pennies
As for Europe, you don't give a damn...

In fact I'd go so far as to say, I've no idea at all what this advertisement is trying to say. It seems to be protesting at the apathy of voters, but as it's so very small, will anyone notice?

Join in and find other other players at TNchick's site.

Buttercups and damselflies

Seen down by the river yesterday, a water weed called Ranunculus aquatilis or Water Crowfoot.  The first time I saw the river at this time of year, from a distance I thought it was pollution, but I'm told it is a vital part of the environment for the river fish.

While I was looking at it, I suddenly noticed little bright blue biplanes darting here and there.  They are Calopteryx splendens or, more easily, Banded Demoiselles. 

One very kindly agreed to pose!

Harvesting fog

Photo WaterAid/Brent Stirton

People can harvest fog.  With the help of simple but innovative technology, tiny water droplets are trapped as the mountain fog passes through a plastic mesh, which is stretched between two poles. The water trickles down and is collected in a trough below and stored in tanks, providing enough clean and safe water for a whole village.

The advantages are:

· It doesn't cost a great deal to set up, operate or maintain.
· It is constructed in modules, so allowing it to be enlarged at a later stage.
· It has no significant impact on the environment.

There are some disadvantes too:

· It isn't suitable for everywhere.
· It's not very pretty.

There are high-tech versions connected to the internet, intended for people exploring wilderness, but the same idea can be used to help people in the poorest parts of the world, people who aren't just playing at survival, who live in real wildernesses.