Coming into this trip, Versailles was at the very top of my bucket list! I knew the castle would be cool, but I was so thrilled to finally see the garden. Let me tell you, it was… okay. The gardens were greatly expansive which I think factors into my critique because there is simply so much greenery to care for. My first impression was less than stellar though. The first part we saw was impressive due to the shapes the grass, trees, and flowers had been made into. Although you could tell that the grass had either been walked on extensively in some parts or was just not well taken care of there. Moving forward, I didn’t see many other flower garden’s until we had been walking around for four hours and were returning to the castle from a different side. The majority of the garden was trees, statues, fountains, and dusty gravel.
Another aspect to my underwhelming feeling is I felt so exhausted by the end of our four hour walk that I wasn’t as impressed by each shaped tree as I had been when we first arrived. In a perfect world I wish I could’ve seen the garden a couple quarters at a time and come back over multiple days, I was just burnt out by 3pm and our tour of the castle had yet to start.
The fountains were very dirty and even had signs saying not to touch the water because of pollutants, but they had live fish in them. Did anyone else feel bad for the fish, or just me? The water dancing to music was delightful and impressive engineering but after a couple, you got the gist.
What ended up being my saving grace was the castle. Almost every ceiling was painted to look like you were peering into the heavens but also had themes so you could see different scenes of different gods. The artwork and decoration inside the castle was stunning and I think my favorite part. Our tour guide had a lot to say but I appreciated how she gave us an idea of what activities happened in each room, you could picture it so clearly.
I hope this doesn’t come off as shitting (excuse my language grandma) on Versailles, I think I had my hopes set really high for the garden. After the millionth shaped tree that didn’t provide much shade, you got the point. Like I said before, I think if I had spread out my time in the garden it could’ve changed my perspective.
Adding pictures later because I still haven’t fixed the Flickr problem and I need to spend time with my family <3