We have had a busy few weeks and it will take a few blog entries to tell it all....so here goes part 1! Our good friends, Eric and Diana (Eric and Lyle grew up on farms across the road from each other) came for a visit.....and then we all went to London and spent more time together there. We had a blast showing them some of the sights, which included the Champ, lunch at the Louvre, looking at Monet's mural at the Orangerie museum, and even did a walking tour on Bastille Day, learning about the French Revolution. Lyle and Eric were able to spend some time together and took one of those open bus tours and a boat ride down the Seine. The weather cooperated (mostly), with temps in the 70s and a few sprinkles here and there. But it was still felt more like spring than summer!
We all wanted to see Versailles, but didn't want to stand in long lines visiting the chateau. A good alternative was to visit the gardens on Sunday. These gardens took nearly 20 years to build for King Louis the XIV, with more than 300 statues, 1400 fountains (only around 600 exist now), gardens, labyrinths of plantings, and a canal a mile long for boating. You can imagine how much it costs to run these fountains! Back in Louis' time, it took over 6 million liters of water to be pumped every hour to run these fountains, so he ordered only those that he passed on his daily strolls to be activated! Now, some of them are only turned on during special "Water Spectacles" that are held on week-ends during the summer. We decided that was a good way to spend a Sunday, so took the short train ride to the town, by-passed all the people standing in line and walked right in with our tickets we had ordered online. (I WILL figure this out for more tours, I hope!)
The gardens were beautiful with flowers and accompanied with classical music playing throughout the day. Fountains were turned on at certain times, and so we tried to follow the schedule and see as many as we could. It was a spectacle to see and hear! These fountains are still awesome, even after 300 years! The weather was not summery, but we escaped the few sprinkles while having lunch under some umbrellas. It was still a lot warmer than when we went last February! I took dozens of pictures of the fountains and grounds, but here are just a few that we enjoyed....
The gardens were beautiful with flowers and accompanied with classical music playing throughout the day. Fountains were turned on at certain times, and so we tried to follow the schedule and see as many as we could. It was a spectacle to see and hear! These fountains are still awesome, even after 300 years! The weather was not summery, but we escaped the few sprinkles while having lunch under some umbrellas. It was still a lot warmer than when we went last February! I took dozens of pictures of the fountains and grounds, but here are just a few that we enjoyed....
Pictures just hardly show a glimpse at the grandeur of this place. We headed home in time to get to take a walk near the Eiffel to get a glimpse of the big Bastille Day celebration that was already beginning......We had no idea of how big it was going to be until the next day! But more on that on the next post....
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