Versailles, Grand Trianon

The Palace at Versailles, fourteen miles southwest of Paris, is the greatest Châteaux of them all. Two long narrow lakes, the north/south Petit Canal (two-thirds of a mile long), and the east/west Grand Canal (over one mile long), forms a cross in the park to the west of the Châteaux.

On one visit we discovered bicycles for rent near the Grand Canal. Now that’s the way to see the Versailles park, to visit the Grand and the Petit Trianons (the smaller Châteaux located at the north end of the Petit Canal), and the village Hamlet, beyond. The Grand Trianon (where this photo was taken) was erected in 1687-1688 by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart to provide Louis XIV with a retreat at the far and of the park at Versailles, far from the constraints of power and the crowd of courtiers.

The Petit Trianon (nearby) was built for Louis XV, and given to Marie–Antoinette (the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria) by his successor, Louis XVI. She was here on October 5, 1789, when a page approached and said the Revolutionaries were marching from Paris. She left immediately, never to return before her execution by guillotine in the Place de la Concorde in 1793.

We had better luck than Marie–Antoinette. After taking refuge from a rainstorm in the guard house in front of the Petit Trianon, we were “permitted” to continue our tour to “Hameau” (Hamlet), designed to imitate the countryside of Marie–Antoinette’s native Austria.

Since we can look in the mirror to see what we look like, while we travel we seldom take photos that include either of us, and a photo with the both of us, taken by some kind stranger, is almost unique. When this does happen, I always make sure the photographer is elderly or handicapped in some manner, so I can out-run him and retrieve our camera, in case we have trusted the wrong person. Some people collect many cameras by claiming to be a good photographer, when in fact they are a fast runner.

I mention elsewhere about our concern of the possibility of a friendly camerman running way with our camera. Well, here we were on a rented bike, and could have caught him if he ran!!