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| This is my favorite spot in the gardens of Versailles. We stood in the pouring rain without an umbrella for 90 minutes during the garden tour, keeping our camera in a plastic bag to stay dry. By the time we entered the interior of the palace, our clothes were soaked through. It was worth every moment. |
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| Statue of Louis XIV at the entrance to the Palace of Versailles. |
It’s hard to believe it was six years ago that we spent an entire day at the Palace of Versailles exploring as much of the stunning setting and property as we could in the pouring rain.
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| In the pouring rain, we walked all the way forward toward the palace only to discover we had to go to a side street to meet up with the tour group, another 10-minute walk. Also, the walk from the train station to the entrance was another 10-minute walk in the pouring rain. |
We boarded the train across the road from our boutique hotel on a sunny morning with little concern with the weather. The reports looked good for a mostly sunny day.
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| The ornate gold embellished gates to the entrance to Versailles. |
No sooner than we began the walk from the train station to the palace, it started raining. In no time at all, it was pouring and continued to rain for the remainder of the day, including the walk back to the train station and our hotel later in the day.
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| Louis XIV had installed numerous fountains throughout the gardens when water was not readily available to turn them on. An intricate system was installed to facilitate the running of the fountains at a huge sum of money. Then again, all of Versailles depicts vanity spending in excesses beyond one’s belief. |
Although we were wearing lightweight rain jackets with short hoods, we hadn’t brought along umbrellas, which proved to be useless when they soaked through to our clothes.
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| The gardens went on and on for miles. On a nice day, it would have been marvelous to walk further into the garden independently. |
We’d booked a small group tour through Viator, which would ensure we’d avoid long lines to enter the palace. No doubt, this was achieved when we didn’t have to wait in long queues.
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| The flowers were the most exciting part of the garden for me and the sculpted gardens shown here. |
However, with thousands of visitors at the palace, even on the rainy day, once we entered the exquisite property, it was shoulder-to-shoulder tourists slowing the pace to a near crawl.
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| The flower gardens were interspersed with neatly trimmed evergreens. |
We toured the gardens first, per our tour guide’s instructions for our small group, but sloshed in our clothes and shoes for the several hours it took to see everything indoors and eventually get back to our hotel.
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| Astounding view! The crane in the photo is in an area where the palace is under renovation. |
We put aside the discomfort of our heavy wet clothing with water dripping down our faces from our damp hair and relished every single moment.
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| The colors in the garden were a treat to behold. |
In essence, in looking back now, the rain added an element that, now as we look back, made the experience all the more memorable. A sunny day indeed would have been more beneficial for the garden photos.
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| Various pools adorned areas of the gardens. |
We did the best we could under the circumstances, thrilled for the experience which ultimately proved to be one of our three favorite touring events while in Paris in this order: Palace of Versailles; gourmet cruise on the River Seine; and tour of Le Louvre, the most famous museum in the world.
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| It took 45,000 workers many years to develop these gardens. |
Photos of our other favorites, as mentioned above, will appear in future posts in the next several days. No doubt, Paris was an exceptional experience. Often, our readers assume we’re only enthralled with wildlife and nature. But, over the past almost eight years, we’ve often been in awe of many places we’ve visited without a single animal in sight.
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| There were more areas to experience than the rain allowed us. One could easily spend hours in the gardens weather providing. |
Now, on day #137 in lockdown in this hotel in Mumbai, we’d enjoy seeing a tree, a market, or a flower, when in isolation, we only see these four walls and the walls in the corridors.
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| The tour guide explained that all of these plants in pots are brought inside the palace into one of the largest greenhouses in the world during the winter months. |
A special thank you to many of our readers who sent us photos and stories of their visits to Paris. We love hearing about your experiences. If we haven’t responded to you yet, please bear with us. We will soon as we work our way through the countless numbers of email messages.
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| Can you imagine the kings and queens walking this path while chatting? |
Today, it’s raining again. The ceiling at the end of one of the corridors is falling due to constant rain during the monsoon season. They keep repairing it to no avail. Surely, they’ll have to wait until the lockdown ends and construction workers can come to the property to make the necessary repairs. This doesn’t impact us one way or another.
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| Our tour guide explained that the design of this statue was poorly designed when the marble and bronze didn’t age well, resulting in constant maintenance. |
It’s time to get back out in the corridor for my next walk when I’m sticking to my 5-mile, 8-kilometer goal most days.
Have a pleasant day!
Photo from one year ago today, August 7, 2019:
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| In Connemara, Ireland, as we wound down our 89-day stay, we spotted this pretty cow and her horns. For more final photos and tally of total expenses, please click here. |